# Fly fishing for Pike at Yuba



## razorider (Feb 26, 2009)

Has anybody tried fly fishing for Northern Pike on Yuba Reservoir? If so did you have any success and what weight rod and line did you have, what fly pattern did you use? I am new to this but would like any help some of you pro's could give, actually I would take any advice anyone can give me. Thanks


----------



## basinboy (Feb 1, 2009)

I am also new to pike on a fly, but I tried fly fishing for pike at yuba yesterday. No luck. The park ranger said it was a little early for the pike fishing. And access at yuba seemed very poor unless you have a boat. The only 2 places I could find to fish were at the 2 boat ramps. Everywhere else had big signs saying areas were closed. I wonder if it is just for the winter or if it is like that year round. If so, and you don't have a boat, you might want to try another reservoir, maybe one with tiger muskie. I have a fast action 8 wt rod with a magnum taper floating sharkskin line. I know a lot of guys like sinking lines for pike as well. I also use a toothy critter leader made by rio. It has a 12 inch stainless steel tip and a snap swivel at the end for easy fly changes. For flies, I use a size 2/0 hook and use a lot of zonker strips and marabou to make a very large fly with lots of action. I also epoxy some eyes onto the head, because some people swear the eyes get more strikes. Not sure if it is true, but I figure it can't hurt. Also you will want to prepare for when you catch one. Things like pliers and a big net will help to land and unhook the fish quickly. The dwr website has tips for handling tiger muskies, but it all applies to pike as well I think.


----------



## Improv (Sep 8, 2007)

A friend and I had the opportunity to fish for the toothy Esox lucius at Yuba a few weeks back. Although we were able to put a few nice rainbows in our nets, we did not have the same successful for the pike – that’s not to say we didn’t find them. We used our steel leader a various times, but found that the trout were not interested in our offering when we used it, so we would take it off - and when we did take it off, that would be the exact time the pike would be interested in our flies. I’m sure the steel leader did effect the action of the fly –and in the future I’ll use the mason hard leader, it’s a bit more flexible and would provide the action that we were looking for. 

I was quite happy with the size and how healthy the rainbows were in Yuba. Perhaps Yuba is on the crash side of the “crash and boom” cycle that it is so well known for. And if it is, this is great news for our “interim fish” Mr. Rainbow trout. I personally wouldn’t mind catching 25 inch rainbows again. The few that were caught last week were pushing close to 20 inches.


----------



## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

Improv said:


> in the future I'll use the mason hard leader


Dude: 0x floro 30lb.


----------



## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Mason is as stiff as wire leader. Like Thresher said, Fluoro (or Maxima) in the 25-30 lb range will be fine. The little Pike fishing i've done, never had one completely chew through Maxima. You can attach it with an albright or huffnagle and avoid all those swivels.


----------



## ScottyS (Sep 11, 2007)

We were just down there today... A boat is definitely the way to go. The water temps are still a bit cold (wait until they hit 45 to 50), although they are definitely catchable right now. We had at least one follow, but nothing hooked or landed, and then we decided to try Redmond. That was a joke as the wind was blowing white caps on that tiny lake. Fishwest has a good selection of pike flies, and I know Dustin there has some helpful advice on pike fishing at Yuba. 

Good luck to you, and hopefully this warmer weather will get the pike fishing moving...


----------



## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

razorider said:


> Has anybody tried fly fishing for Northern Pike on Yuba Reservoir? If so did you have any success and what weight rod and line did you have, what fly pattern did you use? I am new to this but would like any help some of you pro's could give, actually I would take any advice anyone can give me. Thanks


I'll have to do a little research, but I actually think the world record for Northern Pike on fly gear is from Yuba.


----------

