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ENLARGE
Denis Peirce
The older I get the more I recognize the cycles in all aspects of life. Annually, the year changes with the shortest days of the year and normally some serious stormy weather.
There is a 75 percent chance of a major winter storm each year between Christmas and New Year's Day in Northern California. The stormy period lasts sometime into January and then, in most years, we get a beautiful break in the weather, featuring freezing nights but shirt sleeve days.
This January break can be a week or, in drought years, it can last three weeks.
It is in this break that the first good hatch of the year comes off on the Lower Yuba River. It is the skwala stone fly, a bug that is about an inch long as a flying adult.
The first time I noticed the skwalas was in the mid '80s when we had a series of cold storms come through the county culminating in a storm with a snow level of 1,000 feet. The snow-laden live oak trees sounded like rifle shots as their limbs broke and took down power lines all over Penn Valley.
My neighbor came by the following morning. He said that since the roads to town were dangerous and there was no electricity the only alternative was to take the day off and go fishing at a lower elevation.
That was all the prompting I required and off we went to the old Highway 20 Bridge. The river was off-color brown, yet we did hook a couple of squaw fish on black "AP" nymphs. Then at midday we started to notice fish splashing on the surface. They were out in midstream and we had no clue what we were witnessing. Finally, a stone fly (skwala) came floating by, riding the surface film and disappeared in a trout swirl 15 yards down river.
Needless to say we switched to dry flies.
We pounded the surface all afternoon in a vain attempt to fool these trout with the flies we had with us. Skwalas have a distinctive profile that the trout key in on and a good imitation is called for. They stand on the surface film with their wings folded flat on their backs. The profile is about an inch long and less that a quarter-inch wide. They can ride the current this way for as far as you can see them.
This bug is the first large portion meal these fish have seen since the salmon egg feasts of Halloween. It will motivate a trout to swim vertically through 5 feet of swift water to eat one.
I have heard reports in previous years of the first skwalas appearing in December. At the Gold Country Fly Fishers meeting Jan. 2, a member reported seeing the first bugs on New Years Day. This past weekend, Frank Rinella floated the river and reported good numbers of skwalas spotted during the warmest hours of the day. In addition there was a fair hatch of Pale Morning Duns size Nos. 14-16 that the trout were also interested in.
Frank drifted with his wife Karen, Dennis Carlson and Barbara Driscoll. They were on the water from 11 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. with the best fishing from 1 to 2:30 p.m., the warmest hours of the day. The most successful strategy involved fishing from the boat in mid river and casting close to shore. The fish were most active where the bottom dropped from 2 feet down to the 5 feet depth close to the bank.
There are skwalas hatches on selected rivers in the intermountain west. These bugs hatch when the river temps are in the mid 40s. This is January/February in the Lower Yuba. But in the higher country of the Sierra, the Rockies and the Cascades these conditions occur in March and April just before the main snow melt. I am not aware of other Sacramento Valley rivers that have this hatch. It seems to be just in our back yard.
If you go down to the river, shake the willows at streamside. This is a favorite resting place for these bugs that can live for long periods out of the water. These bugs crawl out of the water onto the bank and hatch there. They do not fly in swarms like mayflies or mosquitoes. If you wade the river it is common to have one or two land on you to rest if they are around.
There are a number of patterns that work well during the skwala hatch. Local fly tier Ralph Wood ties one of the best. Drop in at the Nevada City Angler for a selection of good skwala patterns. They can be fished with a casting bubble as well as a fly rod. Just remember that the Lower Yuba is a barbless hook river and "catch & release" is the rule.
This Thursday, the International Sportsman's Show opens at Cal Expo. If you are a kokanee angler, Gary Gordon will again have his booth close to the bass demo tank.
Gary is a local manufacturer of kokanee tackle. He has the most scientific approach to the pursuit of kokanee of any of the guides I have met. He is very willing to share his theories on the relationship of depth, color, vibration, contrast and season to the choice of tackle. If you are looking for deeper understanding of kokanee behavior be sure to look him up.
I will be tying trolling flies on Thursday and Saturday in the fly tying hall. Please drop by and say hello.
ooo
Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of "The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report," which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. He may be reached via e-mail at denisp@theunion.com
There is a 75 percent chance of a major winter storm each year between Christmas and New Year's Day in Northern California. The stormy period lasts sometime into January and then, in most years, we get a beautiful break in the weather, featuring freezing nights but shirt sleeve days.
This January break can be a week or, in drought years, it can last three weeks.
It is in this break that the first good hatch of the year comes off on the Lower Yuba River. It is the skwala stone fly, a bug that is about an inch long as a flying adult.
The first time I noticed the skwalas was in the mid '80s when we had a series of cold storms come through the county culminating in a storm with a snow level of 1,000 feet. The snow-laden live oak trees sounded like rifle shots as their limbs broke and took down power lines all over Penn Valley.
My neighbor came by the following morning. He said that since the roads to town were dangerous and there was no electricity the only alternative was to take the day off and go fishing at a lower elevation.
That was all the prompting I required and off we went to the old Highway 20 Bridge. The river was off-color brown, yet we did hook a couple of squaw fish on black "AP" nymphs. Then at midday we started to notice fish splashing on the surface. They were out in midstream and we had no clue what we were witnessing. Finally, a stone fly (skwala) came floating by, riding the surface film and disappeared in a trout swirl 15 yards down river.
Needless to say we switched to dry flies.
We pounded the surface all afternoon in a vain attempt to fool these trout with the flies we had with us. Skwalas have a distinctive profile that the trout key in on and a good imitation is called for. They stand on the surface film with their wings folded flat on their backs. The profile is about an inch long and less that a quarter-inch wide. They can ride the current this way for as far as you can see them.
This bug is the first large portion meal these fish have seen since the salmon egg feasts of Halloween. It will motivate a trout to swim vertically through 5 feet of swift water to eat one.
I have heard reports in previous years of the first skwalas appearing in December. At the Gold Country Fly Fishers meeting Jan. 2, a member reported seeing the first bugs on New Years Day. This past weekend, Frank Rinella floated the river and reported good numbers of skwalas spotted during the warmest hours of the day. In addition there was a fair hatch of Pale Morning Duns size Nos. 14-16 that the trout were also interested in.
Frank drifted with his wife Karen, Dennis Carlson and Barbara Driscoll. They were on the water from 11 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. with the best fishing from 1 to 2:30 p.m., the warmest hours of the day. The most successful strategy involved fishing from the boat in mid river and casting close to shore. The fish were most active where the bottom dropped from 2 feet down to the 5 feet depth close to the bank.
There are skwalas hatches on selected rivers in the intermountain west. These bugs hatch when the river temps are in the mid 40s. This is January/February in the Lower Yuba. But in the higher country of the Sierra, the Rockies and the Cascades these conditions occur in March and April just before the main snow melt. I am not aware of other Sacramento Valley rivers that have this hatch. It seems to be just in our back yard.
If you go down to the river, shake the willows at streamside. This is a favorite resting place for these bugs that can live for long periods out of the water. These bugs crawl out of the water onto the bank and hatch there. They do not fly in swarms like mayflies or mosquitoes. If you wade the river it is common to have one or two land on you to rest if they are around.
There are a number of patterns that work well during the skwala hatch. Local fly tier Ralph Wood ties one of the best. Drop in at the Nevada City Angler for a selection of good skwala patterns. They can be fished with a casting bubble as well as a fly rod. Just remember that the Lower Yuba is a barbless hook river and "catch & release" is the rule.
This Thursday, the International Sportsman's Show opens at Cal Expo. If you are a kokanee angler, Gary Gordon will again have his booth close to the bass demo tank.
Gary is a local manufacturer of kokanee tackle. He has the most scientific approach to the pursuit of kokanee of any of the guides I have met. He is very willing to share his theories on the relationship of depth, color, vibration, contrast and season to the choice of tackle. If you are looking for deeper understanding of kokanee behavior be sure to look him up.
I will be tying trolling flies on Thursday and Saturday in the fly tying hall. Please drop by and say hello.
ooo
Denis Peirce writes a weekly fishing column for The Union and is host of "The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report," which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. He may be reached via e-mail at denisp@theunion.com
