Incline Lake - A potential local Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Fishery?

Some of you may remember fishing Incline Lake (aka Little Lake), formerly owned by the Incline Lake Corp. which was little more than a collection of locals who wanted a nearby private retreat. Above is an aerial photo from 2006 when the lake had water.  Situated at an 8,300ft elevation and only one mile west of Mt Rose Ski Resort (Slide Mountain), it is secluded and private and you used to have to be invited by an owner to fish it.  What a great little fishery, feisty little brookies and nice fat bows 2-5 pounds with some fish growing well in excess.  The lake was full of forage fish that kept the trout fat and healthy.  The 33-acre lake is now at a crossroads.  In 2009 it, along with 777 adjacent acres of forest, was purchased by the Forest Service for the bargain price to the public of $43.5 Million, of which ~$5.5 Million was appropriated for rebuilding the damn.  Part of the "official" rationale for the purchase was to make it a public fishery, but per inquiries with former owners, I've surmise that the real impetus came from powers in Tahoe intent on preventing further development of this grandfathered real estate.  In any event, the lake has since been drained and the damn could (and in my humble opinion should) be repaired, but there is talk now about restoring it to natural meadowlands. The public was invited to weigh in recently but unfortunately the public comment period closed June 6th.  

High Sierra Fly Casters has a good article that explains the situation, unfortunately, I just became aware of the role we (the public) could play a few days too late.  Here is a link to the aforementioned article, A Lake is a Lake, Until it Isn't.  If the Forest Service decides to rebuild the damn, the plan is to  possibly plant the lake with Lahontan Cutthroat Trout - wonder if they'd put in Pilot Peakers.  It would be awesome to have a new alpine fishery only 30 minutes from Reno.

Below is an aerial photo from 2010, the lake looks like this today, dry.  I'm hopeful (fingers crossed) they decide to repair the 70+ year old dam and restore this awesome fishery.

 If anyone has intel on the situation, love to hear it.

Lagomarsino Petroglyphs - Indian Rock Art

Lagomarsino Canyon contains an impressive collection of petroglyphs dating between 5,000 and 10,000 years old.  The rock art portraits etched on the basalt cliffs by ancient Paiutes number over 2,200.  The petroglyph below is one of one of only two sheep found in the entire gallery!

This images stikes me as avian in nature.  Perhaps the stork dropping off a baby?

A serpent, bird and fish fighting over a baby turtle?

A Plethora of Petroglyphs?..Nobody has deciphered what the images mean, for all we know, it could be teenagers just being teenagers, or they may hold a much deeper cultural meaning.

You have to go digging a bit for these images below, they're atop the rim rock and are very intricate.

Panorama of the Canyon

On the way out we hit Castle Peak Mine, if the invalids aren't using it for target practice, this 100 year old trommel is really cool to check out.

Remnants of a boiler for a steam engine?

Tailings a plenty.  From prior exploration, the workings appear to be pretty extensive and I'd guess the mountain is so excavated its about like swiss cheese.

A 40 foot climb through a vertical shaft.

Watch out for the ticks this time of year, they got a couple of us.

Truckee River - August Update

On the Nevada side, ts all about the AM right now, if you can get on the water at sunrise, you're bound to pound em till about 11-12, then it warms up and slows down (except today, nice and cool all day).  Crayfish patterns dead drifted and swung through fast water is nailing them, Dan and I lost some really nice fish in the few days on Crays.  There isn't much of a pronounced hatch going on but caddis is as abundant as anything.  I like caddis pupa patterns right now, usually below a cray

 Been doing some metropolitan fishing as well.

Switch up, try an indo, then high stick it for a bit, try a #6 shot in a slower run, then throw on 2 BB's and hit some heavy water.  If the water is white, fish are in it.

 This is the type of water to hit, run every pocket, bucket and riffle a couple times, then move, cover lots of water.

 Nobody was out today, had the river too myself!

Truckee River - March Update

Played hooky from work for an afternoon session, only wish I had more time on the water, fish are active on 70 degree days in March.  Be careful, many of the bows are getting with it right about now, full spawn mode.  Several redds spotted from Verdi to downtown Reno.  You'll have to do some walking to find fish that aren't trying to procreate right now, but they're out there.  You can find fish in deeper runs that are still feeding on the myriad of bugs.  BWOs were being sipped readily today, but there were so many bugs, I think several patterns could have worked.  Fish are all hefty this time of year.

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Pyramid to Reno

Fishing slowed a bit this Saturday. Despite some good winds late last week, Pyramid was miserably slow and that seemed to be the consensus for everyone we spoke to. Water is still only 44 degrees; it needs to warm about another 5 degrees for fish to start coming in from the depths.

Though flows were stable in the 500 cfs range, the Truckee, through Sparks and Reno, wasn't much better since the river blew out last week. Water is still off colored but fishable. DJ put one in the net and lost a nice one, other than that, just a few random grabs. The usual suspects (BWO and Skwalas) were out in good numbers as well as ever increasing numbers of caddis.

Truckee River March Update

Yesterday conditions were just about perfect for this time of year. Tons of BWO's and Skwala's hatching, and a stiff breeze knocked enough adults into the water that we saw a few fish smashing bugs on top. Flows on the NV side have been up the past couple of weekends to ~545 cfs due to higher flows coming out of the dams at Tahoe and Boca, but still, the water was in great shape.

Fish seem to be keying into either BWO's or Skwala's, depending on where you go. Some sections of water still don't have many Skwala's hatching yet; in those sections, BWO's are on the top of the menu. Fish can be found in slightly faster water than last month due to the warmer temps.

A few highlights:

Today we ran into the Western Regional Qualifier for the US Fly Fishing Team. This particular day of the event, 30 anglers were on various beats of the river throughout Reno trying to tally the most centimeters in a day. For the second part of the qualifier, they do the same on Pyramid Lake. We learned one guy got 600cm in one day on the Truckee, that's 240" between 11 fish for an AVERAGE length of 21.5" per fish! Out for 30 competitors, 6 will move on to the US National Fly Fishing Championships and possibly make the 'Fly Fishing Team USA' World Team. That's the team that would represent the US in the The World Fly Fishing Championships in Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia. It was a cool event to observe, though we did have to give way to competitors which were hitting some of our favorite runs...oh well, it was for a good cause.

Post mortem update: I got the real skinny from the guy in charge of the competition, the angler mentioned above who caught 11 fish...apparently the official count was 10 fish averaging 20" each, still an amazing haul!

Truckee River - Like a Roll'n Stone

Two words for the Truckee today..."Stone Flies", and lots of em. Adult Skwalas were out in force and the fish were honing in on their nymphs. I cutoff my midge dropper and rigged up a double Skwala rig, hit some faster water and had some luck. I only landed a few smallish bows, but big brownies can't resist this T-Bone of the insect world.




Stones are not in the slow water, they're in fast running, oxygenated water, and fish feeding on them are in the same. I tested out my new switch rod today (idea for the setup courtesy of Gilligan) which was awesome. Roll casts send it out there and high sticking is actually possible for the hard-to-reach water.
Fellow contributor Dan and I attend the Fly Fishing Film Tour in downtown Reno. What a great event, sweet videos and lots of avid anglers that love fly fishing as much as us. It was a treat to meet many of the moguls of the Reno and Truckee fly fishing scene (including event coordinators Matt Heron and Dave Lass) and catch up with some old pals. This was the first one they've done in Reno and the turnout was excellent. I highly recommend going to next year's event, we'll post it when it comes up.

Reno Petroglyphs?

Been moving into a new home last few week, so I've been on a fishing sabbatical so to speak, but I'm dying to get back in the game as we settle in and life returns to normal.

Came across some wood carvings that reminded me of petroglyphs, only these carvings likely came from the indigenous boengrip tribesmen which lived here from 1988 to present (pronounced bong-rip). Anyhow, they guarded a deep hole with some spooky but fat fish that saw me on the approach and bolted.

One lethargic bow just couldn't resist a midge pattern, but every other fish seemed to. It was slow. The mallards in this bend practically ran me out, they felt the fishing was so slow they were doing me a favor...no respect for fishermen!

Truckee Rivere - Big Fish...Coming Soon To A Monitor Near You

and we aren't talking about this

Truckee River - Fishtacular II

This video was really to test out a new HD video camera. This particular day, caddis adults were so thick that I inhaled about half a dozen throughout our session. Despite the prolific hatch and hundreds of adults depositing eggs as they smacked the surface, the trout were only looking for pupae. I know caddises are some of the best dry fly hatches, even so, I often run an emerger/cripple or an un-weighted caddis pupae in the film vs. an elk hair on top, even when the fish are breaking the surface. This tactic works at the head of a hole where a long riffle of fast water dumps into a slow run. That's because towards the middle and end of the run, the adults are generally able to fly. Try watching rising fish closely, if you see them expel an air bubble from their gills, it means that their mouth broke the surface and they're sipping items on top of the water. If an air bubble isn't present after a rise, they're likely sipping subsurface. I read this years ago, and I've found it incredibly useful in practice, especially in technical waters like the LT.

Truckee River - Fishtacular

The little furry guy in the video is a mink, not a river otter or a muskrat. They're incredibly agile underwater and can prey on trout much larger than themselves. Take a look at this amazing video. I corresponded with its owner and learned that the mink ended up killing this MASSIVE fanny bridge brown trout. I have mixed feelings when I come across these little guys. Part of me says find another place to fish, the mink has spooked everything. But then again, the mink is hunting your hole precisely because it contains fish. Try standing on an elevated vantage point next time one of these predators prowls your pool. You’re likely to see it push out some big fish. When they do, the fish may not bite that day, but at least you’ll learn their holds.