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Yuba River Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The Lower Yuba: gold-country's wild rainbow ribbon, running clear below Englebright with steelhead genes and skwala springs.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Flow
569 cfs
Air / High
67 / 73 F
Wind
NW 10 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 11421000, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

4/5Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Yuba River rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. The river is running 569 cfs, steady over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NW around 10 mph, falling pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 73. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:45 AM-11:45 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

SteelheadExcellent

Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Smallmouth bassExcellent

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Brown troutExcellent

Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

Tomorrow: Similar at 76 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

California requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $64.54 for residents. What a California licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing steelhead here? Check the size and bag limits with CDFW before you keep anything. The season dates for California, read off the agency, are on the California seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Yuba River near Marysville.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 11421000.

613736858569 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 83 years of October 23

At 569 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 11421000 (Yuba River near Marysville) is at the 54th percentile for the date: normal. In half of the 83 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 531 cfs; the highest was 2,770 cfs and the lowest 21 cfs.

p10 120median 531p90 1,582

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 11421000; today’s reading is the latest instantaneous value. Classes follow the ones the USGS used on its WaterWatch maps (retired at the end of 2025): below 10th, much below normal; 10th–24th, below; 25th–75th, normal; 76th–90th, above; over 90th, much above.

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp67 F
High / Low73 / 56 F
WindNW 10-13 mph
Pressure1017.9 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain3% cloud, 17%
Sunrise / Sunset07:23 / 18:15
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Yuba River this week

Today is the pick of the week on Yuba River, at 4 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Good

Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Solunar majors
9:45 AM-11:45 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM
Minor period
4:09 AM-5:09 AM
Sun
07:23 to 18:15
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 14 mph
Rain chance
17%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Yuba River: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Steelhead illustration

Steelhead

Great Lakes tributaries from fall through spring; West Coast rivers have both summer and winter runs

Steelhead are rainbow trout that migrate to the Pacific or the Great Lakes to grow, then return up rivers to spawn; unlike most Pacific salmon they can survive spawning and spawn again. Main tributary season: fish seams, pool heads and tails and structure with drifted eggs, beads, nymphs or streamers, and plan trips around rising or falling water.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Close to Vermont's 53-66Β°F optimum, browns feed more freely; in fall, pre-spawn fish move toward tributaries and gravel, so fish streamers and keep off the redds.

When to come: the Yuba River calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Steelhead
Smallmouth bass
Brown trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Yuba River today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 65 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Steelhead led the card at excellent. High of 75 F, wind to 12 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brown trout led the card at excellent. High of 72 F, wind to 8 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

California requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

California license + steelhead card (wild rainbows count). No stocking: wild-trout rules: check CDFW Yuba regs.

Access

Parks Bar (Hwy 20), Sycamore Ranch, Hallwood accesses; drift boats Parks-to-Sycamore.

About this water

The Lower Yuba below Englebright Dam, Yuba County, CA. Wild steelhead-gene rainbows in gold country.

Fishing Yuba River: the full guide

The gold river

The Lower Yuba runs from Englebright Dam through historic mining cobble to the Feather: a wild-trout sanctuary (no stocking, ever) whose rainbows carry steelhead genetics: chrome-bright, hot-running fish in a valley river that fishes like a mountain tailwater.

The wild program

Year-round season, wild fish only: skwala stones bring March's famous dry-fly window, pinkish-albert and hopper summers work the riffle edges, and egg-and-nymph winters track the salmon redds (fish behind them, never on them: the river's fall kings seed everything). The fish average 14-18 with genuine 20-plus surprises.

Reading the cobble

The 1850s mining legacy built today's structure: cobble bars, deep slots and the daguerre-era channels: floated by drift boats (Parks Bar to Sycamore the classic) and waded at the accesses when flows allow (our Marysville gauge: under 2,000 CFS invites boots). High water rearranges bars yearly: the river stays new.

Valley practicalities

Access concentrates at Parks Bar (Highway 20) and the Sycamore/Hallwood reaches: summer heat makes mornings mandatory: and the lower river's shad run (May-June) adds a swing-rod carnival the trout crowd shouldn't skip. Marysville anchors services: the Sierra foothills rise minutes east.

Common questions

When is the skwala hatch on the Yuba?

February-March: the West's earliest famous dry-fly window. Overcast afternoons bring the river's wild rainbows up to size-10 stones.

Are Yuba rainbows steelhead?

Genetically entangled: the river's wild fish carry anadromous lineage and fight like it. A steelhead card is required: treat every chrome fish as the treasure it is.

Is fishing good at Yuba River right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Nearby waters

Collins Lake10 miBullards Bar Reservoir19 miFeather River22 miLake Oroville23 miSacramento River33 miFolsom Lake37 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 11421000 β€” Yuba River near Marysville
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:30 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 39.2200, -121.4000 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.