The interesting north shore is part rocky cliffs, part smooth beaches. There's a state park on both east and west sides of the lake. Yuba Lake from the eastern shore near the boat launch area. Bruce Argyle, September 15, 1999. Yuba Lake has a silt problem.
Visibility varies sharply from area to area, but is never very good.
The best site we found had around 3 feet visibility. Visibility dropped dramatically at 23 feet, where we encountered a silt and algae layer, to around one foot. At 30 feet, it was dark. Much of the bottom is silty, with occasional rocks. Summer surface temperature is 70 degrees.