Luke Judge

Hello everyone!… sorry, I am behind on posting reports over the past few weeks… life has been quite busy juggling guiding, travel business, and caring for baby Ella! All good things happening, but definitely fallen behind on keeping up with the blog. Anyhow, I have been on the water guiding a few days a week and fishing has been fairly consistent while nymphing in the daytime hours and emerger/dry fly fishing with caddis in the evenings. There has been a good mix of small fish and larger fish. Believe it or not, the larger fish have been fooled while fishing the caddis hatch!… not nymphing. While nymphing, we have been landing a number of smolts (6-10 inches)… this is NOT a bad thing. These small fish are the future population of highly desirable jumbo Yuba Trout and Steelhead! I am seeing more of this size compared to previous years and that is promising for our future fishing on the Y. Amidst all this, I am also pleased to say that we are seeing more and more salmon entering the river lately. I love this time of the season… a lot of variety in the river showing that the fishery is heading into the exciting Steelhead season this fall!

I guided Jed and his friend Steve earlier in the month. They had not fly fished in a few years and were looking to get a day of fishing in on the Yuba before heading up to the Truckee to fish. We nymphed during the earlier part of the day and landed a few on PMD nymphs and caddis pupas. Steve scored when he landed a jumbo Bow on a tan caddis pupa fished in deep water. We then had a decent session of wade fishing caddis dries in a shallow riffle. We landed a few feisty Bows and HPs on E/C Caddis and Jed lost a trophy fish right at the bank… UGH! As the evening wound down, we nymphed and hooked a few more fish. However, the most memorable was a “mystery fish” that Jed hooked… it was definitely a large fish with pumping head shakes. Then, it surged and went on a strong run, only to be broken off. Yeah, typical Yuba story… big fish eating small flies on 5X tippet! It was an exciting day with some really nice fished hooked.

On the next trip, I fished with long-time friend and customer, Bob G. from Sac. We decided to make it half day trip and just throw dry all afternoon / evening. Bob fished a hopper through the afternoon and only had a few “lookers”. The prime hopper window has passed and the fish are on to other food sources in general. We then pulled to the bank and wade fished. Bob hooked a number of feisty Trout on a caddis emerger imitation. Ahhh, there is nothing like fishing “in-the-film”… very technical, but super effective if you get it done right! Bob is very accomplished angler and I always learn when I fish with him. Thanks Bob!

The next day, I guided past clients Joe and his son Matt from Portland, OR. These two are Steelhead addicts from the PNW. They brought their light switch rods with the intent to swing streamers this day. It has been a few years since I last guided them, but we had some epic streamer days in years past and they wanted to try to repeat the memories. Well,… I will start by saying that this river never ceases to amaze me. We had an epic day swinging sculpin / streamer patterns. Joe and Matt hooked a number of fish that day, with the most memorable being three very large Trout to almost 21 inches and one Steelhead about 4 pounds! The big surprise for the day was when Matt hooked a super powerful fish… it ran off about 20 yards of backing before rolling on the surface and showing its big shoulders. I thought… OMG! a jumbo Steelie! By the looks of it from afar, I thought it had to be at least 8 pounds. Well, when Matt finally worked the fish back to us, we got a closer look at it and saw it was a jack salmon that was mint bright! We popped the fly out and sent it on its way. It sure was nice to fish the Yuba on the swing! Thanks Joe and Matt for an awesome day on the river…

Later that week, I guided Jed again. This time, he brought his father along, Warren. This was half day program where we wanted target the caddis hatch. We fished nymphs in the afternoon and landed a few small Trout. The best nymphs continue to be PMD and caddis pupa. Then, we fished a riffle and targeted the caddis emergence. Jed rose a few very large fish, but none stayed pinned. Warren ended up landing two very nice Trout on a caddis soft-hackle. His best fish pushed 19 inches and gave a great fight. As we finished the day, we deep nymphed a run and, once again, Jed hooked a very large fish. This was the same run that he hooked the “mystery fish” last week. This fish surged away and then turned about and ran right at the boat… unfortunately, it was just enough slack to cause the nymph to fall out… UGH… again! We were all bummed about losing that fish. In the end, this day would have a grand finale. The next run we fished caddis dries and Jed hooked a nice HP that screamed across the river. We actually had to chase the fish down river before finally landing it. It was a gorgeous fish that would mark a great ending to a day of fishing.

The next trip, I had the pleasure of guiding beginning fly anglers Terry and Carie from Rancho Cordova. I truly enjoy teaching and guiding first timers in fly fishing. We started out the day learning the drift boat nymphing game and Terry quickly broke the ice with his first fish on the fly rod. It was a very small Trout, but Terry says that it made his day. Truth be told… as fly anglers, we never forget our first fish on a fly rod. Terry continued to have the hot hand through the morning hours… he hooked a number of Trout on PMD nymphs. Then, Carie hooked her first fish ever on a fly rod… it was a robust 15 incher. She masterfully fought this Trout and was ecstatic that her fish was bigger than all of Terry’s! As the day progressed, the fishing was consistent while nymphing. It was a great introduction to our sport and I look forward to our next outing this coming October.

The latest trip was with father-son combo, Will and Jared from Colorado. They are avid Trout anglers and had heard about the famed Yuba. We fished a long day… and fished almost every technique in fly fishing. Lucky for them, we landed fish on all the methods. Nymphing, swinging-stripping streamers, Czech nymphing, dry fly, soft-hackles, and even skating/waking. These guys are good… really good. They are used to fishing super technical waters in CO and it showed during this day of fishing the Y. They had the new Hardy Czech nymphing rods – the Marksman Drifter 11′ 5 wt. WOW, what an incredible high stick nymphing rod. We fished many of the riffles while nymphing without an indicator. Most of the fish would hit on the “lift” at the end of the drift. We fished a variety of Czech nymphs in tan and tan with a hot spot. The HPs really liked the hot spot (pink) on these flies. Toward the end of the day, we would trail a caddis soft-hackle and hook fish on the lift once again. It was a lot of fun to see these long single hand rods in action by Will and Jared. To change it up midday, we swung streamers in my favorite runs and hooked a couple of jumbo Trout and one nice sized HP. Olive, olive, etc… was the best color for a streamer (Matuka, Zonker, and Woolhead Sculpin all worked). At the end of the day, we fished a run that had Trout busting caddis at dusk. Just for fun, we skated Elk Hair Caddis dries and hooked a few more Trout for the day. The highlight was the last fish of the day… Jared laid out a cast and as soon as the fly hit the surface it received a boil around the fly. He continued to let it swing around and this Trout kept slashing and missing the fly. Finally, after the fly skated halfway across the current, the Trout finally connected with the fly and Fish On! It was not a huge fish (15 inches or so), but the whole sequence was amazing. The Yuba always amazes me…

Well, that is all the reports in a looooong post. I will try to do better at posting more frequent reports. Fish On!

fly Fishing jed, nymphing, nymphs