by Huntoholic » Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:51 pm
Personally I did not think it was crowded. Talked a little with the DWR guy and he was kind of laughing. He said last year there was hardly anybody using Yuba. What a little TV coverage will do. We got there so early that I'm not sure how the over all crowd was. We were the 2nd rig to show up and was one of the last to leave. As always having machines let you get away from the bottle necks. I could still see plenty of places to try and there was really only a couple of groups that went past our group to the south.
The 4 that we kept went home with some of the other guys and the 5th was quickly released for another day.
As far as leader goes we were using 6" steel.
We did not have any break offs or anything from a line stand point. So I was happy with at least that effort. All lost fish appeared to be hook setting issues or trying to set to soon. Tried rigging the bait some different ways, but it did not seem to make much difference. It appeared that we got more action when the sun would break through.
It was interesting in that it appeared like the fish would come in from the center of the res. towards the shore and then go right back out. Poles the were lined up but at different depths would get hit, but not the poles on either side.
It was a fun day, mostly because my daughter wanted to go. First time ice fishing for her. I was worried that it would be a tough go for a first timer, but she enjoyed the bald eagle and coyotes howling before first light. She said she really enjoyed seeing such big fish.