The Seasons of the Yuba River

The Yuba River is open to fishing year round. There are opportunities to fly fish for rainbow trout nearly every day of the year on the Yuba, but our favorite time of year on the river is certainly the late winter/early spring months, when great insect hatches occur and dry fly fishing is the way to go.

February, March, and April

Starting around the middle of February, Skwala Stoneflies start their annual migration towards the Yuba River's gravel-lined shores, driving the Trout crazy for the huge food source. There are only a handful of rivers across the west that can boast of these phenomenal wintertime stonefly hatches, and the Yuba is one of the best.

As the Skwalas slowly start to wind down in early March, they are replaced by another large and scrumptious aquatic insect: the March Brown Mayfly provides great top-water action from March through April. Any sunny day from late February through March and April will likely have thousands of these mayflies dancing above the water, tantalizing the resident rainbows of the Yuba.

Amongst these two main hatches, minor hatches of PMD’s, Baetis, and Caddis hatch throughout the spring, often affording sporadic feeding flurries from hungry trout. There are so many different insects that can hatch on the Yuba this time of year, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out exactly which flies the trout are rising, too. At other times, they seem willing to eat any dry fly drifted past their lies.

May and June

May and June have fairly consistent hatches of Pale Morning Duns (PMDs) almost every morning, as well as Pale Evening Duns in the evening, little yellow stoneflies, and even a few larger golden stoneflies. Several sizes of caddis can be seen hatching at dusk nearly every night.

July and August

July and August is hopper-time on the Yuba. In addition to grasshoppers in the afternoon and evenings there can be daily caddis hatches. Most of the best fishing in the summer months is in the afternoons and evenings, although there can be some productive fishing with nymphs in the early morning, too.

September, October, November, and December

Although there are sporadic hatches of Baetis mayflies and caddis throughout the fall and early winter months, the best fishing this time of year comes once the salmon arrive and start to drop eggs. Trout, as well as the steelhead that arrive in the lower Yuba this time of year, will often concentrate behind the spawning salmon gorging themselves on egg patterns.