Tony and I hit the Yuba yesterday. At the bridge we ran into Oldtrout,Pycho don, Skirt and Ho-Dad. We exchanged our pleasantries and Tony and I headed downstream. I went up there with really no expectations with all the slow reports recently. Well, pleasantly to my surprise, the fishing was excellent. We stuck 4 or 5 fish in the first riffle. And it went that way for every riffle after that all day. The highlight of the day was when Tony was working one side of a deep run and I crossed the river and was working the other side. He stuck two fish from his side and pointed me in the right direction. First cast, Bam!, fish on. It was a nice 16in. fish. The very next cast, Wham!!!!,fish on again. This time, the head shakes were much larger. Then he rolled right in front of me. Big, big, big fish. I didn't think i was going to land this fish. There were huge rocks all around that he was darting in and out of. I kept the most pressure I felt safe with on 6lb test. After a good ten minute fight, I finally got him in. It was about a 5 or 6lb buck steelhead. Beautiful red stripe, rosy cheeks and a well developed kipe. He smashed the golden stone nymph I was using. Tony took a couple of pics, can't wait to see this fish again, and will post when they get developed. After that, fish were biting very consistantly pretty much all day. It must have been 7o degrees out. Bugs were flying around, stoneflys were crawling on me, even found a skull of some sort of creature. We even found a brand new pair of neo-waders out there with a wallet in the pocket. This dude was from New York. He must have heard how good the fishing was out here or something. Anyways, I give the day an A+. Going with no expectations and having the day we had, was the ticket for sanity. Sorry I missed the ISE, but I wouldn't trade a day like yesterday for just about anything.
Steve
