Pooh on Yuba

[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Not a good way to start the day. I was awake a lot from midnite on with a nasty headache. Still, fisherman that I am I loaded up TubeBabe and the gear and headed for Yuba, as planned.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Calm and 36 degrees at the state park, at 7 AM launch time. We launched behind the bridge and the water temp was 45 degrees. Still cool.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe agreed to let me have a couple of casts at my favorite pike penthouse before she got in the water. My fire tiger crankbait hit the water, dove a few feet and started back toward me in the still dark morning. THUMP...SURGE...CHUG CHUG. Pike? Nope. Just a nasty male rainbow with milt dripping from its vent and anchor worms on it's sides. Still, it made me forget my headache for a minute.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Second cast. Repeat. Same thing. Only this fish was a half n half. The front part was a dark color and the back half looked like it had been bleached. Wierd fish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I tried a few more casts with the crankbait, to see if there were any pike that wanted to play. Nopeski. Did get a skinny perch on the crankbait while it was still almost dark though.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We moved out to the rocks on each side of the bridge. TubeBabe went east and I headed along the dam. Neither of us were seeing anything on sonar and there were no fish cruising the rocks. We guessed that the storm had scattered them or turned them off. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I worked spinners, swimbaits and crankbaits clear along the dam and around the exposed rock structure along the south side. I had a few light bumps and did hook a female rainbow on the fire tiger crankbait. Poor baby was spilling ripe eggs and was also infested with anchor worms. Skinny too, compared to the bigguns of a couple of years ago. The trout in Yuba do not look good. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Talked to a couple of guys in a boat who said that the lake was full of fish before the storm but they couldn't see anything on their sonar this morning. Just as I told them to be patient, that the fish were scattered but they would get one...they got one. another funky little rainbow.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Talked to TubeBabe on the radio and we decided to work our way back and maybe try around Painted Rocks. She had kept one small female bow and had released one perch. At least no skunk. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As I moved back out in front of the dam, I looked at my sonar screen and saw a large mass of fish from the bottom to about five feet up, in 14 feet of water. I guessed perch and dropped a double jig rig straight down. I quickly brought it straight back up with with two porky perch on it. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I hung around to play with the perchies for about a half hour. I caught perch on just about every drop and caught many doubles. I actually experimented with several kinds of jigs. Made no difference. If it showed up in their living room, it was food. The smallest I got was maybe 8 inches. I got several around 13 inches and many 11-12 inchers. I am sure I caught close to 50 in that short time. Can't wait for dinner tonight (but it won't be perch. GOTCHA!)[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As we took our tubes out, inside the bridge, we observed that the water is only about 4 feet from spilling. Hope it stays up a while. We also observed groups of dark colored spawning male rainbows cruising around in the shallow water inside the basin. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got to Painted Rocks a little before 11 AM. The standard afternoon breeze was already tuning up. By the time we had fought it for an hour, with nothing to show for it, we decided to go home early so the old man (me) could try to get some sleep and finally get rid of the headache. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I think I'll try a tourniquet around the neck.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I also think that Yuba has seen the last of me until DWR quits being silly and lets us keep some perch. Too far to drive for nonexistent walleye, occasional pike and skinny and diseased rainbows. Plenty of better options.[/#0000ff]
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[signalfool]

ive never seen a rainbow look like that weird, whats the deal with it? hope you got rid of the headache without the tourniquet[]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I have caught a bajillion fish and seen bajillions more caught by others...but I have never seen one colored like that one. I hae no idea what caused it. Maybe he was trying a new form of camoflage to avoid pike.[/#0000ff]
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[8incher]

Missed you at Painted Rocks today. Fishing was very good for bows using a silver Rapala. We saw you briefly, I believe, at about 11:00 or so as the wind was becoming a nuisance.

We caught some of the ugly bows like the ones you caught while we were fishing near the PR launch. We moved west and on the south shore where we got into some very nice but slightly smaller bows. They looked like a different breed of fish when compared to the ugly ones we caught near the launch. These bows looked like silver salmon. They were fat and sassy and fun to catch. They probably averaged about 15 to 18 inches and they sure looked a lot better than the bigger ones we caught near the launch.

Wondered if these could be some of the more recently planted bows? Are they destined to become ugly as they get older and bigger? Hmmmmm... in retrospect, I got a lot uglier as I got older...

Any thoughts on this? -- the fish, not me.
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[new_fish]

I always love your pictures... I hope your headache goes away!
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[ocean]

That was one weird looking bow! [] I was hoping you would get some pike action today. The bows i caught last week didint have any anchor worms guess i was lucky. Cant wait for the perch ban to be lifted.At least we will have one or two good years of perch fishing.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Yeah, not all the fish are spawning and ugly. The younger fish are not yet sexually mature so they keep eating on the abundant zooplankton and copepods and grow fat and sleek. The older ones slack off on eating during the spawn and much of the red nutrients in their flesh goes into production of eggs and milt. Thus weakened they are more subject to parasites and disease. The warmer waters of summer can cause this in many fish too. Several of the rainbows I caught last fall had the anchor worms.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One common example of stress related ailments are the browns in the lower Provo River. In low water years many of them develop large patches of white fungus on their bodies during or just after the fall spawn.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It is true that many of us are not quite so appealing with age.[/#0000ff]
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Thanks and thanks. I appreciate your appreciation.[/#0000ff]
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[mactuna]

Looks like you two had a decent day. We went to Deer Creek fish all over nansea caught eight decent bows on lures and bait. I got skunked , oh well.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Were you guys heading down I-15 just after 5 this morning, with two toons on a flatbed trailer...behind a truck? We played freeway tag with you all the way from SLC.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Glad you got some fish. I am also glad to see that you have learned that a guy's gotta shake off all the fish once in awhile to keep things cozy at home. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That's my excuse, and I'm stickin' to it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You guys up for a trip to Starvation soon? I got a hunch where there might be some perch and wallies.[/#0000ff]
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[mactuna]

Sure thing on Starvation. That was us at 5. Little chilly when we got there. Fish all over. Tell us when you want to go.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I have several other waters on my "dance card" before going to Starvation. I had not planned to "assault" it until around the end of April or in early May. By that time the fish should be moving into some of the traditional warm weather patterns...in shallower bays.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Right now, like yourselves, I am launching a quest for walleyes. Look for me off the rock shelves of Lincoln Beach for the next couple of weeks. I will also be probing some spots over on the west side of Utah Lake, near the Knolls.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By the end of April I will probably also be floating Deer Creek. The wallies will have completed their annual migration pattern back to the spawning zones by then. Should be some good fish available in a couple of spots.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You guys up for some hook and cook? Let me know what your schedules are and I can probably work mine to match up.[/#0000ff]
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[Flycasting]

Wierd bow!

Those are some really chunky perch there.... They WOULD make some great fillets. [mad]
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[Theekillerbee]

Another great report Pat. I think that even with the little snow pack this year, most places will fill. I hope next winter isn't a bust though, then it could get ugly again.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]You are right. We have had a couple of good water years and the water tables are up good. Yuba Lake is close to full but if it is not replenished after the water users have their way with it this summer, and if there is another light snow pack next winter, it will be on a downward cycle before we even get to fish the perch.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It is the same for most other reservoirs. They have good levels so far this year. As long as those who control them do not waste any water, we are good for awhile. But, if they dump too much before a light runoff, we could have problems.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That's just the way it is in Utah. We don't have to like it but we do have to live with it.[/#0000ff]
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[mactuna]

Next weekend if thats good. Where ever you want you know the waters better than we do, for sure.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]We will watch the weather together.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]PM me with your schedule and we can work out the logistics. I'll be flying solo since TubeBabe is headed to Arizona AGAIN.[/#0000ff]
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[Carp_Punisher]

[#505000]I went Saturday Pat and I caught the twin to Mr. Half and Half. None of the fish we caught had anchor worms though. All the bows we hooked into were big and healthy.[/#505000]
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[PrinceFisher]

Two things:

First, mighty fine report and pics, as always.

Second, did you fashion that firetiger crank in Skinny Perch's mouth? If so, that's some impressive work.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000bf]Thanks and thanks.[/#0000bf]
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[#0000bf]Not my creative work. I have a source to buy the painted blanks for about $2 and then I add the split rings and hooks. The have good action and rattles. Can't beat 'em for the price and the fish like 'em too.[/#0000bf]
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