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Home › Waters › California › Yuba River
Tailwater · Sierra Nevada Foothills · California

Yuba River Fishing Guides

The lower Yuba below Englebright Dam, a wild rainbow tailwater in the Sierra foothills with a genuine skwala hatch and steelhead-sized trout, fished by drift boat and on foot.

A red drift boat on a moss-lined river in the Pacific Northwest
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Yuba River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Yuba River

The lower Yuba runs twenty-four miles from Englebright Dam through the old hydraulic mining country to the Feather River at Marysville, and it is California’s most interesting wild trout river. There is no hatchery program for trout here. The rainbows are wild, they average larger than most tailwater fish, and a good number of them behave like small steelhead when hooked, which is not a coincidence given the anadromous history of the system.

Guided days split between drift boat trips from the Highway 20 bridge down to Sycamore Ranch or Daguerre Point and walk-and-wade trips on the long gravel bars. The Yuba is famous among western anglers for its skwala stonefly hatch in late winter and early spring, when good fish look up in cold water, and for strong caddis and pale morning dun activity later. The riverbed is a legacy of hydraulic mining, so it is wide, cobbled and constantly rearranging, and the fish hold in specific seams that a guide who fishes it weekly will find far faster than a first-timer.

The Marysville gauge reads the lower river below Daguerre Point Dam. Flows are managed for water delivery and for salmon and steelhead, and they swing seasonally. Something in the several-hundred to low-thousand cfs range gives good wading and clear water; big winter and spring releases push the river hard and shut down wade access. Flows can change with little notice, so check the gauge the morning you fish.

Marysville, Grass Valley and Nevada City are the nearby towns, and Sacramento is an hour and a half away, which makes this the most accessible wild trout river in Northern California.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

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Posting to Yuba River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Yuba River cfs

Now: 575 cfs, read 1:30 am CDT, Thu Oct 22, 2026 (USGS 11421000, YUBA R NR MARYSVILLE CA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Englebright Dam and the Narrows: top of the tailwater, limited walk-in access.
Highway 20 Bridge: the standard upper boat launch and a popular wade access.
Parks Bar and Sycamore Ranch: county park access with camping and river frontage.
Hammon Grove Park: mid-river access on Highway 20.
Daguerre Point Dam: fish ladder and access; boats must take out above it.
Simpson Lane and the lower river near Marysville: access toward the Feather confluence.

Seasons

January through March: skwala stoneflies, cold water, the signature Yuba season.
April through June: mayflies and caddis, moderate flows, excellent dry fly fishing.
July through September: warm afternoons, early starts, technical fishing to wary fish.
October through December: salmon in the river, fall nymphing, fewer anglers.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Yuba River?

As of Oct 22, 1:30 am, the USGS gauge YUBA R NR MARYSVILLE CA reads 575 cfs, the 43rd percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Yuba River?

Anglers target American Shad, Chinook Salmon, Rainbow Trout, Steelhead, Striped Bass on the Yuba River in California.

Are there fishing guides on the Yuba River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Yuba River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Yuba River?

Englebright Dam and the Narrows: top of the tailwater, limited walk-in access. Highway 20 Bridge: the standard upper boat launch and a popular wade access. Parks Bar and Sycamore Ranch: county park access with camping and river frontage. Hammon Grove Park: mid-river access on Highway 20. Daguerre Point Dam: fish ladder and access; boats must take out above it. Simpson Lane and the lower river near Marysville: access toward the Feather confluence.

When is the best time to fish the Yuba River?

January through March: skwala stoneflies, cold water, the signature Yuba season. April through June: mayflies and caddis, moderate flows, excellent dry fly fishing. July through September: warm afternoons, early starts, technical fishing to wary fish. October through December: salmon in the river, fall nymphing, fewer anglers.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Yuba River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the California agency site: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Inland/Regulations