I headed down to yuba late on Saturday to catch the 7pm session. The guys that hassled the crap out of me for the lure advice from a few weeks ago came flying right over my lines while I was trolling to say that the lure they did their 3’ps on (persistently, pestering, painfully) paid off. They held up the pike and told me it was my lure that helped. Muh kind of hard to know how to take that…after all they did bother the hell out of me to get that info but it did get them on fish.
So I got skunked that hour and set up camp right on the beach. Whew it was CHILLY!!!
Awoke to smoke on the water at 7am and got started. Worked the beaches and landed a 20 inch pike. So I switched to a lure Tube Dude swore by and within 1 min a 31.5 inch 7lb, 4oz pike grabbed it! The fight was quicker than others in the past as I got a new baitcaster set up with a stiff rod and 20lb mono line. Got him in the net and while he tried to breach like a dolphin to get out of the net he snapped the lure. Still he was successfully added to the stringer.
So I tried to jury rig it and eventually sort of got it to work. By then the 1st battery was dying so I went back to the car and tried to convince some European carp eaters to try a minnow with steel leader for pike. Despite me offering them free gear their hearts were content on eating carp. Decided to bust out my ice rod and a psycho prince nymph to try my hand at the panfish. In 8 mins I got 10 green sunfish at the dock!
So I went back for pike and had a dodger and lure set up. What do you know I got a few hits and lost a few but none to boat…well toon in my case. So I went for a radical idea. In deeper water I trolled deep divers that Tube Dude gave me and what do you know something hit. I reeled it in and it shot away fast. But I identified it and was determined to get it in… I landed a 3lb 1oz 20.5 inch Walleye!
So by dark I couldn’t stand another night in the cold for a short morning session so I just went home. With 13 fish landed I was more than happy to go home to a comfy bed.
nice report, your going to be an expert on that lake in know time if you keep at it, that sunfish is a pretty one and decent sized, also what was just said, its nice to see an eye in there, i just wish the perch would start showing back up. thanks tdt
Excellent job!!! Walleye are hard to come by at Yuba. Ya must be doing something right you seem to get on the pike every trip.
Pike have become an obsession of mine. I have put over $350 in gear alone for them this year and plenty of hours.
You know you have a problem when all you do is worry. You worry if you are gonna get one, you worry when you hook one that you will lose it, you worry that once you get one that you are not gonna get another. When you the last pike all you do is think and worry about how you will get back to yuba next weekend. Same story for 2 months now.
My car cannot make any more trips like Yuba so until I get a new one I wont go down there unless I car pool with someone else…which has happened plenty of times so far. I am gonna get a new car soon so the pike obsession can continue.
nice report, your going to be an expert on that lake in know time if you keep at it, that sunfish is a pretty one and decent sized, also what was just said, its nice to see an eye in there, i just wish the perch would start showing back up. thanks tdt
If you wanna make a trip to Yuba with me let me know and I probably can get you on a few pike.
Over the past few months I have heard a few anglers say that they have caught a few perch but it is far and few between. Number 1 complaint by perch fisherman is that the carp get to the bait 1st.
very glad to see some eyes are still around yuba. thanks for sharing
It is ironic that a guy asked me if the pike I caught were walleyes. My response was walleyes are not really around anymore and that one guy I spoke to caught a 9 incher in the spring.
Hey bud it was nice to meet ya down there. Wish I would have talked to you as we were launching instead of leaving. We got 5 carp and thats it! I haven’t fished that lake from a boat in a long time and I guess I will have to make it down there more often next year! Nice to see the pics after hearing the story!
I didn’t mention you as I forgot the username…told you I was terrible with names!
It sure was great talking to you man and we should fish and shoot the breeze sometime. Sorry the pike-sters gave you the middle fin. They tend to do that!
Now there’s a guy who’s got his priorities straight. Buy a new car so you can go fishing. Dude - go ahead and jump up to a truck, then you can pull the boat easier!
Nice array of fisheses. I can still wish there were pike closer by up these ways.
Nice work. Sounds like you got in enough practice with the new baitcaster to make it pay off. No doubt about it…using stouter tackle will improve hooksets on tough mouths and bring in the larger fish before they can outmaneuver ya and arrange an early pardon.
Purty little greenie. Love those fish. They have never been a real presence in Yuba before. Glad you found some.
Congrats on the wallie too. There are still quite a few in the lake but not enough to create the same kind of walleye farm as in days of old. You could get totally spoiled on walleyes during some past fertile periods.
I plan to make my annual pilgrimage down there for a perch search soon. It has been about 3 or 4 years since there have been enough perch to make it worthwhile. My last two years have produced only a handful of mediocre perch. Not like the years when you could catch grundles of toads…from 12" to 15". But like most diehard fishermen, I gotta keep tryin’. Maybe?
Got any pike friends you would like me to say hi to? I often hook a couple even if I don’t fish for them. Silly pike will bite for anybody, I guess. Can’t understand why some folks get so twitterpated about them. Oh…you do. Sorry.
The truck is a good option and I have considered it but then again it is an anchor. You can’t leave everything in it and fish a place without worrying that someone is gonna steal your stuff.
Yeah well you guys up north are pike-less, white bass-less, and splake-less (for the most part) but you do have quite the array fish species right next to you. But you can probably already tell I would be fan of planting pike all over the place!
Yep the baitcaster was worth the price and hey I only had one backlash while trolling.
The next few paragraphs are the 3 pike buddies you might be referring to.
Please do get some pike! And hey you know me I would love to join you down there. I have ran out of friends to get me down there. I get all the pike and they get the skunk. The advantage of having more gear is on my end. If you are looking for any info from me let me know…but something tells me you know WAY MORE THAN ME!!!
As for pike buddies watch out for the bombarding questions of how, what, where, when, from all the newbies on the beach. But something tells me you know how to deal with them. After all you deal with me at your house so you should be fine down there.
Say hi to the ranger lady that I force to take my fishy pics. I think she might have left for the season though…she wasn’t around last weekend. And yes if you see wayne say hi…I was glad to hear from the staff down there he and his family are still around.
I plan to hit Yuba sometime soon…depending on weather and whether. You would be welcome to rideshare if your schedule allows you to make a daytrip…early morning to afternoon. TubeBabe will be in California for a couple of weeks so I will be flying solo.
Yeah, I know how to deal with “pests”…besides you. You are easy…just dangle some smoked fish in front of you and you roll over and sit up and beg. For the doofus crowd…who doesn’t know which end of a fishing rod to hold…I cut them off pretty short. But if I am questioned by a dad with kids I am done. Toast. No more fishing for me until I get them properly set up and hopefully catching fish.
I have always been impressed with the folks who staff the Yuba park…going back to the 70’s. I haven’t spent much time down there or gotten to know any of the current staff since Jeff Rasmussen was manager…and got promoted to Salt Lake. Also never got to meet Wayne, but I did get to fish down below the dam a lot before the vandals got it all closed to the public. Great memories.
