Sunday, October 14, 2012

Truckee River - Down and Dirty East of Derby

....Derby Dam that is.  I finally took some time off work and spent a full day actually fishing, morning till dusk, first time in months.  I really did some exploring on the eastern stretches of the Truckee and spent most of the day fishing waters I've never fished before.  The mid day water temperature has finally dropped to an ideal 59 degrees and fish are very active.  I found some really cool riffles and runs and also found some dead water.
Its a tight squeeze getting under the tracks to Derby Dam.  As you approach, you're greeted by some beautiful wetlands full of cottonwoods turning color.  Remember, there is no fishing 1,000ft below the dam, which I'm sure is due to the Lahontan Cutthroats which come up to spawn in April and congregate at the base of the dam.

Here is a nice run below the dam but above the ranches further down. This section of the Truckee gets relatively little water as compared to the upper river, so don't expect a lot of deep runs/holes.


This little bend has some great riffles and good riparian habitat that's been largely untouched by man.
A few miles down things are different.  Here is what man has done to mitigate flooding, isn't it beautiful. The Truckee looks more like a ditch here than a freestone river. There are some good runs below this point, but the water gets very skinny and public access becomes increasingly difficult without a boat.   The fishing was good below Derby but the catching wasn't so mid day I tried some new waters below Clark.
Check out these beetles, they were hatching by the hundreds.  I couldn't positively identify them, the closest I came was Carabus intricatus, a type of blue ground beetle, but I know its not what they are.
This brown took a copper john, but I probably could have hooked him with a streamer.
Look at what he coughed up as I netted him.  Its hard to make out but it looks like a juvenile trout.
Everything seemed to be working today, so its no surprise that one would gulp a G6 Caddis.
This is a great bend with deep water, but there are lots of signs that the bait dunkers exploit this hole frequently.
A majestic view of the Truckee River Canyon looking East towards Wadsworth.  
Even streamers caught the attention of trout today.






3 comments:

aaron said...

Nice fish dude. Sounds like a good day

JRob said...

I fished the river on Thursday. 1 Hit all day...

I was fishing from McCarran to Ferrari Farms. Found lots of Crawfish, signs of Beaver and a dead chicken in the river. Wasnt really that exciting.

Since I follow that you are a Sparks resident maybe we can fish the river together sometime. I am very familiar with many of your pics. (Secrets safe with me, LOL)

I frequent Pyramid.

dlholloway09 said...

to get to the river from "under the tracks at derby dam", how did you get to the river?? iv been to the spot under the tracks but it was fenced off and turned back. did you drive down the dirt road to the left a bit?

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