A dam built to hold mud
Englebright Dam was not built for fish or farms. The 260-foot concrete arch went in during 1941 to catch the hydraulic mining debris that the Sierra had been sending down the Yuba since the Gold Rush, and it is the upstream limit for salmon and steelhead. Below it the river runs out of its canyon, past the Highway 20 bridge and through the Yuba Goldfields, a landscape of dredge tailings with mercury still in it, to Daguerre Point Dam, built by the Army Corps in 1906 and given fish ladders in 1937. From there it winds to Marysville and the Feather.
What lives in that short stretch is a wild rainbow and steelhead population fed by cold water out of the bottom of the reservoir. Reel Anglers, the Grass Valley shop that has closed its storefront and now runs guides and reports online, puts summer water at 58 to 60 degrees.
Highway 20 and the December opener
CDFW's 2026 regulations treat the lower Yuba as two pieces, each with its own season. From the mouth up to the Highway 20 bridge it is open all year; from Highway 20 up to Englebright Dam it is open December 1 through August 31 and closed September through November, the Chinook spawning months. Both sections are artificial lures with barbless hooks only, and the only fish you may keep are hatchery trout or steelhead with a healed adipose clip, 2 a day and 4 in possession. Anything with an adipose fin goes back, which on this river is nearly everything.
Fly Fishing Specialties marked the reopening in its December 2, 2025 report: the top section above Highway 20 had just opened, the river had dropped to a very fishable 920 cfs, and trout were feeding on Baetis and eggs. Reel Anglers' reports add a request: do not walk on salmon redds, the clean gravel patches the fish have fanned out, and fish the water below them instead.
Skwalas, then caddis, then eggs
Reel Anglers' hatch chart for the lower Yuba shows midges all year, Skwala stoneflies February through April with a few in January, Blue-Winged Olives January to April and again October to December, March Browns in March and April, and PMDs peaking May through August. Summer belongs to caddis, golden and little yellow stones and terrestrials. The Skwala is the event: its reports fish Tom's Klinken Stone or a Biot Epoxy Stone in 10 to 12 with a Baetis nymph in 16 to 20 below, and Fly Fishing Specialties had fish on Skwala dries from late morning at about 1,500 cfs in February 2026, with more steelhead around than in any year since 2021.
By summer it is hoppers and evening caddis. The August 17, 2026 report from Hammon Grove had no hatch at all and still moved fish on a swung Sweetmeat Caddis Deep in tangerine, size 14, and a tan Caddis Poopah in 16 on a 4-weight trout spey. The September 2 report said the hopper bite was winding down and the egg bite was close. From October, when the salmon are on the gravel, fish eggs and tan caddis in 14 to 16 below the redds, and a small olive on grey days.
Hammon Grove, Daguerre Point and the private float
Hammon Grove, near the Highway 20 bridge, is the walk-in water shops name most. Fly Fishing Specialties calls its inside seams and tailouts wadeable at 1,500 cfs. Below Daguerre Point the river is slower and holds shad in late spring, and a June 2026 guide trip floated from Daguerre Point to a take-out below the Recology facility, which the report labels private access, catching shad on a pink Shad Comet and Shad Bugger in size 10. Plan any float with an outfitter who has permission for the take-out.
Marysville reads less than the dam lets out
USGS 11421000 is near Marysville, below Daguerre Point and the irrigation diversions, so in summer it reads less than Englebright releases and in winter it adds Deer Creek and rain. The release gauge below the dam at Smartsville is carried on CDEC as YRS by Yuba Water Agency. The 900 to 1,600 cfs on this page comes from shop reports: 920 cfs very fishable in December, about 1,500 for wading Hammon Grove in August, 1,600 on the June shad float. Reel Anglers has fished it well far higher, at 5,000 to 6,000 cfs in March 2023, but that is boat water. Long-term monthly means since 2010 run from about 640 in October to 4,340 in March. On September 24, 2026 the gauge read 911.