Little Truckee River - Dry Fly Action

School is back in and crowds have subsided. I finally took a full day off work, dusted off the 4wt and 7x and hit the LT, first time this year, but then again, I wait until the crowds are gone. I have only been able to manage short evening sessions the past 6-months on local watersheds until today. Today, I got a full day in....well, it was going to be a full day but became a half day when the water master felt it appropriate to drop the LT to 17cfs...ugh! What's the purpose of having a recommended flow of 32cfs if they can drop the river below that? UPDATE: David Lass of Truckee TU explained it's not a required minimum flow, and only a recommendation. The low flows are due to a 6-year dam inspection; unfortunately they found some things that needed repair and are working on it night and day. Until flows get back up over 30cfs, please avoid the LT for the time being. They should be back up close to 100cfs soon, hopefully in time for the big Boca Reservoir spawn runs this fall.
Check out the exposed river bed, 20 minutes prior it was under water...all that trout food is dead. Prior to the flows dropping, I managed some fun dry fly fishing and sight nymphing while the river was @ 106cfs.

The AM was VERY slow and nothing was coming off. Though I prefer to dry fly fish the LT, if there is no hatch...I'll occassionally go for an SJW (without the San Juan Shuffle part, which is illegal on some watersheds). Sometimes you have to use what they're feeding on, and certain parts of this river are full of Annelids.Luckily BWO's started popping in fishable numbers by 11am; from then on it was BWO dries and nymphs only! QUESTION TO THE AUDIENCE: Anyone know why LT bows are so much darker than BT bows, other than the obvious...cause they're a different strain. Does anyone know the specific strains and/or any other reasons for why they differ so much? I caught this BT bow later the same afternoon, and it really struck me how different the two fish really are in color, number of speckles, shape and build. And another thing, BT bows always jump, LT bows seldom do.

BT bow LT Bow

All fish were heavier than normal, thanks to good flows all year (except the 1 day this year I decide to go). Oh well, I'll be back many times between now and mid December. I had an Osprey splash-down 20 feet from me today. It missed the fish, but what a sight! Of the fish I netted, half had what appeared to be talon scars across their backs. You'll see a closeup on the 2nd fish in the video.