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.
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. A few highlights:
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!
