Showing posts with label san juan worm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label san juan worm. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Truckee River - Strains

It always gets me how many different rainbow trout strains are in the Truckee River system.  I think some of these are McCloud strain, some probably Eagle Lake, some of the silvery ones could be Donaldson's, who knows.  Some have big spots, green backs and bold colors, others have tiny speckles and a pastel palette such at first picture of the prior post.  
 The Little Truckee rainbows are notably different than Big Truckee rainbows, thinner build and lots of orange down to their bellies, could be related in part to the strain of the fish but also in part to diet or water tannins. This isn't to even speak of hybrid species such as the cutbow...quite the cornucopia 
 Warm weather and good flows makes for fine fishing but needs snow.  There, I hit my poetry quota for the year.  
They're sitting on the bottom just off the heavy current.  Midges and SJW's, the later seems to be doing better than I recall in years past,.  Could be that the lower water, which dried most of the river bed, killed a lot of the exoskeletal insects.  Annelids live in the mud at the bottom and have hemoglobin in their blood allowing them to tolerate anaerobic environments.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Truckee River Tributaries

Don't get much better than a spring day mid week on some of the Truckee River's tributaries.  The Rainbow spawn has been done for bit now, most of the fish you're seeing in the shallows are suckers and dace.  Much of the water is in great shape, despite warm temps there are no spring blowouts due to a lack luster snowpack.
Water is a bit high in some places, but nothing a little high sticking with #6 shot can't fix.  
 Look at this handsome truck, for $9,700 you can take it home today for less than blue book (by the way, before you say something, there is a road right there, I'm not blazing a trail).
 Some of the water is too skinny to hold fish so you may need to hike to find quarry to hunt.  DJ landed a hard to fool bow in some skinny water, this little guy fought like an SOB.
The meadows look surreal this time of year.
 Check out this sculpin sunning himself on a rock, its how they warm their bodies....okay, bullshit.
The bug activity was minimal, a handful of little yellow stones and PMDs doing their thing but not much rising.  If the substrate is fee stone or gravel throw on a #20 micro may or an HBI and just enough weight to get down, if the substrate is muddy or silty, try a San Juan Worm dragging across the bottom.  Didn't catch a ton but boy what a beautiful day!