Joined Bassrods (IN HIS BOAT) today for some research on Yuba. We both had some new lures to try out in an experiment to see how many we could get the pike to ignore. Happy to report that we were able to convince them to ignore everything we threw at them. Mission accomplished.
After suffering through several hours of raging gale force glass calm, exercising our casting arms and our talk muscles…mostly BS of course…we decided to try for a perch or two before heading back down the road.
The good news…there are hordes of fish all over the lake at various levels. The bad news is that they are mostly carp. Really tough to distinguish perch from golden toothless pike on sonar.
**Fortunately, I remembered an area that has held perch at this time of year in times past and we sought out the 25 to 30 foot depths that have been best before. Sent down some of my Ultra Minnow jigs with a piece of (previously caught & frozen) perch meat. We both got hits quickly but I boated the first perch…about a 12 incher. Okay. **
We had to work for them but got enough for dinner. I brought home about 7…biggest at 13 inches. All were fat and healthy…and barfing up perchlets…all except for one tiny “micro pike” that should not have been able to eat the large hooked jig I was using. Best color was hot chartreuse with a red eye, but I also caught a couple on my famous gold with orange spots.
There were a couple of other boats slinging lures for pike today, and we know of one 25 incher that was taken on a Wally Diver…with another follower. But, we practiced total conservation on pike. We also practiced “selective hook setting” and “long range culling” on several perch bites.
Also, no walleyes were harmed during the research or writing of this report.
Yep. Earlier in the year there were reports that many of the perch were thin…like the little one I caught. But, the bigger fish are finding plenty to eat and porkin’ out. Of course, the mama fish are also developing large egg sacs (ovaries) already, even though they do not spawn until early spring. That makes them look even fatter.
Sunday was a productive day at Yuba. 5 or 6 boats fishing. I talked to 2 anglers in a ranger boat that caught 3 pike of a fly. Largest was about 40". other two in 30" class, if I remember correctly. Said the flies they were using were made of rabbit fur and were big. The pike are hard enough to catch on a lure…A fly is something else again. Those two are very serious fly anglers. I applaud them for their tenacity and skill.
The DWR guy there told me someone else caught a 27 1/2" walleye, seven lber. That is a nice fish. same guys caught a few pike. I can’t remember how many.
In total there were about 10 pike caught Sunday. We caught 1 31" and lost an absolute hawg after having her in the cradle net twice. I truly believe she would have been a new state record. When she decided she had been through enough, she opened her huge mouth straightened the treble hook, tore open the ring, broke the wire that runs through the lure and swam away. All we could do is moan. I took the cradle net back to Sportsmens and now have a big lake trout net in the boat.
Having never used a cradle net before, (my last net was destroyed by pike so I got a cradle) I wasn’t too sure about it and almost used a boga grip on the big sow, but once you clamp it on their jaw the fish are known to go bezerk and you’ve got a pair of treble hooks thrashing around in close vicinity to your hand. With hind sight I should have used the Boga. Oh well, that’s fishing
In truth, we were not REALLY aggressively fishing for pike. We tossed some lures in some likely looking spots, but we were not using the “hardcore” pikemeister program…runnin’ and gunnin’ down the shoreline to find a few isolated active fish. Those who catch most of the pike are those who have the lures, tackle and techniques refined to the point that the only variable in the equation is the amount of water they can cover in a day. It is hard work to catch a few fish. But, for those with pike fever, it is evidently worth the effort.
Congrats on your success. Condolences on your loss. The only consolation is that you still have the memories…and the hope for a rematch with that biggun…or one even bigger.
As I stated in my previous post, most decent pike ARE caught by dedicated (wacko) pikeologists who put in the time and effort to learn their quarry and who are properly geared to handle them. Then they must search out the potentially active fish and seduce them…and to be able to effectively deal with them at boatside. It is a complete program…not just a random “chuck and chance it” process.
But, as with many species, the very biggest fish are often taken by amateurs…fishing for another species…and are landed more by accident than by design. Frustrating to the pros who work darn hard for every fish they catch.
There also seems to be a “boom and bust” cycle on Yuba…from all the reports I get. The fish may be active one day in three…or every other day…but seldom more than one day in a row. They apparently function according to their own schedules and their own set of motivations.
Have you ever heard the expression “You should have been here yesterday”…or…“Just wait 'til tomorrow.”
You keep on keepin’ on and you will own the state record. If getting the big fish is dependent upon dedication, study, perseverence and time invested you surely have accumulated a lot of points toward eventually earning the title.
Hmm… I was planning to hit Lincoln Beach tomorrow (Thursday) in my tube, but now I’m thinking I might even boogie on down to Yuba. Firstly, I love fishing Yuba. Secondly, I love eating perchkeys. That sounds more fun than Utah Lake, and the added bonus of hooking into a larger walleye or even a pike is enticing… I would probably fish around the dam area, or do you think I’d be better off launching at Painted Rock? With the water level so low, I don’t know which would be best. I would target the perch and throw same bigger stuff for a “walleyed pike”.
The courtesy dock has long since removed from painted rock and it might be at Oasis as well. From tubedude’s pictures it looks like their perch and walleye came from the dam and launch area.
My recommendations would be to launch at Oasis and fish that area. Many pike have came from right there this year including a 22 pounder caught off the dock on a tasmanian devil (go figure) and several others with jigs and crankbaits. Tubedude explained how he caught the perch so you’re half way there already.
If you go back and do a little Yuba research in the archives you’ll find numerous lures and techniques used to catch fish on Yuba. It is a lake of many cast or many hours of trolling, but the rewards can be substantial If a big fish is in your sights. Good luck Thursday I hope you catch a 30 pounder.
For what it is worth, we fish w/perch crankbaits that dive to various depths depending on where we fish on the reservoir and big spinner baits (1 to 5 OZ) I personally believe that any good lure (Rapala, lucky craft, ethics.) will catch a pike if you drag it across its nose and it is in a feeding mood. Then again I know that some days casting the same lure to the same spot time and time again can provoke a strike. Did the lure finally irritate the fish after seeing it repeatedly or did the fish just swim into where you are casting? Who knows for sure.
I have gone as many as 6 days without a strike, but that did not dissuade me. I knew the fish were there and I knew that eventually I would catch another one and so it was. Now the count is 23 pike in my boat and 3 giants lost after getting a good look at them. If you figure hours fished per fish I certainly would have been better off at Strawberry, but would we have caught 8 fish over 15 pounds? I think not. I guess it depends on what kind of fishin’ addict you are. Best of luck
I could be wrong, but the pic of the “micro pike” looks like a walleyed pike…
**It was actually a very skinny and very pale yellow perch. The reference to “micro pike” was not a play on the old Utah “pike” nomenclature for walleyes. Just a snide reference to our lack of success with northerns. **
If you go, launch at the Oasis ramp. You can throw large stuff for northerns all along the gravel shoreline to the bridge…along the dam…and then around the south shoreline into the muddy cove past the rocky rubble on the south shore. That is where one boat scored yesterday, on pike.
Although we metered perchlike targets in many spots around the lake, the only place we got bit was at the NW corner of the dam area. Most of the biters were from 24 to 30 feet deep, and the best action was kind of in between the last two buoys and a few yards to the east of them.
We did best on a 1/4 oz. chartreuse jigging spoon with pre-prepared perch meat chunks. But, they will hit crawlers too. But, if you get a “micro pike” then cut it up for bait.
The key to success seemed to be to keep the bait/lure right next to the bottom and only wiggle it a little bit. Most of the bites came on a “dead stick” after wiggling and then letting it sit. You really have to watch your rod tip and maintain touch. Almost more delicate than ice fishing for them. But, they put up a great fight when hooked…and they ARE great on the table.
One other thing. We found the “zone” by first looking for bait schools on sonar. They were usually a ways up off the bottom. Once we found schools of small perch we fished with more confidence. And, the fish we caught had all been eating perch about 2 inches long.
I could be wrong, but the pic of the “micro pike” looks like a walleyed pike…
**It was actually a very skinny and very pale yellow perch. The reference to “micro pike” was not a play on the old Utah “pike” nomenclature for walleyes. Just a snide reference to our lack of success with northerns. **
Now that makes more sense…at second glance, it looks much more like a perch than even a walleye. I didn’t catch your sarcasm…I thought you really caught a “micro pike”. That would actually be kind of cool…I don’t recall ever hearing of someone catching a tiny pike!
**I have seen pike fry and younguns in a hatchery environment (not in Utah), but they try to plant them as soon as possible. They turn cannibal and start eating each other. **
The smallest I have seen in Yuba were about 16 inches, in 2005…the first year after the lake filled back up after the BIG DRAIN. There were lots of them around the dam, eating the fathead minnows, along with the abundant rainbows. Evidently there was a good spawn the previous year…unless the young can reach that size in only one year. Maybe.
I suspect it is that “first wave” of northerns that is now reaching the 20 pound mark. Shouldn’t be long before the state record is broken.
Joined Bassrods (IN HIS BOAT) today for some research on Yuba. We both had some new lures to try out in an experiment to see how many we could get the pike to ignore. Happy to report that we were able to convince them to ignore everything we threw at them. Mission accomplished.