Yuba Northerns

[prov17]

Dragging the boat down to Yuba this weekend. I've never gone after Pike before. Do you guys fish for them on the dam end of the lake or the painted rocks side. Or everwhere in between?
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[utahgolf]

everywhere in between! find some flooded brush and target those areas and you can move out into the bays in 10-25 feet of water and slow retrieve big swim baits and deeper diving cranks and heavier spoons. They're all over, if ya hook a pig try and throw it back, but plenty of small good size eating ones to keep, if that's your thing. Good luck!
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[SBennett]

Utahgolf,

I am also headed down this friday for my first ever attempt at them and you just made my day!

Thank you for that post ( but now if I get skunked I will really be bummed).
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[utahgolf]

not my fault if ya get skunked, that's fishing, but it's not very hard to catch a few, I went down two weeks ago and caught 8 myself, it helps if you can move around in a boat but if you're constricted to shore fishing just keep moving around the shoreline and chucking perch imitations. I know people throw small stuff and catch them and even decent sized ones but in my opinion the smallest lure you wanna be throwing is 3 inches. 4-5 inches is about right for all sizes and if ya wanna weed out the real small ones and try for bigger stuff than 6-9 inch stuff is what I throw. I still have the little ones batting at those bigger swimbaits but harder for them to hook up. For people just wanting to "catch" stick with the 3-5 inch profile and you'll catch all sizes.
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[utahgolf]

make sure you guys pick up some steel leader also! 6 inch 20lb is fine and only a couple bucks at walmart. Here's a little guy that took my five inch bait no problem, but without steel leader, even those little ones can cut my 15 lb fluoro pretty easily.

[url "http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/utahgolf/20130414_124144_zps9f1d57af.jpg"]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/utahgolf/20130414_124144_zps9f1d57af.jpg[/url]
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[prov17]

Thanks for the reply. I remeber your screen name from years ago when I used to frequent this site. Always a delima fish/golf, golf/fish.
I have good tackle for the toothy buggers, I've chased tigers around the ponds plenty of times but not northerns.
Looks like we have a good weather forecast heading into the weekend.
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[utahgolf]

yeah it's definitely gonna be good golf weather! if you've chased tiger muskie than you're good to go! Probably a little smaller profile of baits than you're use to with muskie, and those northerns are a lot more committed than those finicky tigers can be, so expect lots of bites within that first 5-10 feet of the retrieve, the pike will still however come up to the boat and follow it like a tiger, so a suspending bait doesn't hurt so you can kill that bait and keep it right in front of them. Usually a boring steady retrive tho does it. Good luck!
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[prov17]

Thanks man,
have fun on the links.
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[Brooktroutboy]

If your going to target the flooded willows, try some Gold Johnson's Silver Minnow's, there pretty weedless, and the Pike like them!
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[Brooktroutboy]

I reposted the link with a Pike caught with a Johnson's in the willows, this was on Sunday! I got into around a dozen nice Pikes...some on the Fly/ and some on spoons, and inline spinners..
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[prov17]

Nice work Brooktroutboy.
I cant open the link, might be blocked by the firewall here at work?
That sounds like a fantastic outing.
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[MR.PIKE]

Some good info here, but quite honestly if you can't catch a Northern at Yuba last year and this year, you never will. There are a ton of 30" and less Northern's in there and if you want to, and enjoy catching big Northerns release them if they are 36" and up. The walleye just aren't going to happen so we should try to preserve the quality Northern Pike fishing.
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[zrykhus]

I have never fished them in yuba before. But, I do fish for them every year in South Dakote. With the water temps they are having I would fish submerged plants on sandy or rock shores. They like the warmth the rocks give off and the concealment/ambush aspect of the brush. I usually start with big swim baits, lipless crank baits, and broken back rapalas. I also like throwing the biggest fluke I can buy on a worm hook and put some split shot above it to help with some weight and the action. I usually fish fire line with a 4-6 ft 100% floro leader. The fire line is for the brush as snags come easy. The fish will also ike big boulders and point and shelves which make for an easy ambush. Good Luck and post how you do as I am curious and want to fish Yuba this year myself.
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[prov17]

The trip was awesome. We boated several in the 20 something inch range, each one looking like a clone of the next. Then right before we called it a day, my buddy landed this 34 incher to cap off a great outing.
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[utahgolf]

Nice going!! were you out there today or yesterday? we were out there yesterday and caught around 20, biggest was 32 inches.
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[prov17]

Thanks. we were there yesterday. (gray lund) We were on the water about 8 hours and boated 15. Covered a lot of water and found a few productive areas. Good times. Thanks for the info.
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[MasterDaad]

Yuba is my next major destination. Is there a reason to get up early to hit the dawn bite or does the fishing get better as the water warms later in the morning and early afternoon? (which is what I recall from last year).

Thanks!
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[prov17]

I really can't comment on the morning bite, I wasn't there. Based on what others had said, we didn't hit the water until close to 11:00 am. It stayed fairly consistent throughout the afternoon but I think the best bite for us anyway, was around 3:00-6:00 pm.
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[utahgolf]

we were in a big aluminum canoe with pontoons on the side.
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