Truckee River - Fishing with the Boys

The wife's been out of town much of the past month which explains why I'm not posting. My household is something out of Mr. Mom right now and I'm being cast as Michail Keaton. Nonetheless, I've managed to get the kids on the water a few times for some fly fishing, though I'm relegated to just a few spots where I feel comfortable letting the kids wade near shore while I'm doing the casting, which limits our success. On the bright side, flows are perfect right now and as a result, we're going to get to fish some sweet hatches that can't always be fished in high water years.

Here's Luke commanding a feisty bow in Reno with a switch rod no less.


Some Glenshire sites

Check this female crayfish out, its got about 200 eggs that were very developed and days away from hatching. No wonder these invasives are so invasive.No post is complete without a little recon. Our very basic entomology efforts unveiled drunella grandis or western green drakes with developed wing pads. They're very close to hatching right now, though we didn't see any adults.Also, for the past week, adult caddis have been thick in Reno. If they're not in good numbers on the CA side yet, I can't imagine its more than a few days away. Sedge larvae were in large numbers. Unlike mayflies, you don't find too many by flipping rocks in the softer waters, but if you can hook a stick on the river botton in a fast riffle, you'll see what I'm talking about, they're thick in the fast water.Because they're so delicate and are usually attached to large rocks at the bottom of fast runs, its hard to find in-tact caddis larva nets, but this stick was covered with them. Caddis larva use these spun silken nets to seine food particles out of the current.

Though we couldn't catch them, we did see two large stonefly husks floating down the river. Given the time of year and their size, they were likely Calineuria or Golden Stoneflies.

Independence Lake - A Great Hike

Today was an exploratory mission to Independence Lake with my closest childhood friend. We didn't bring any fishing gear, just hiking boots and cameras. We were hoping to document some of the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout spawning up Independence Creek, but according to the fish biologist, we're a few days early. Apparently fish are staging just outside of the creek inlet right now, and the hens are super fat. Below is a classic shot of Indy with Mt. Lola (9,144 ft) in the background.Even without a rod we had a great time just hiking around the lake. To the lake's north there is a good dirt road which borders the shoreline all the way to Independence Creek. From there, the ambitious hiker can bush whack through the meadow at the lakes southwestern shore until you hit another dirt road that borders the lake's southern shore which will take you past a scenic aspen grove and eventually get you back to the parking lot (but you'll have to find passage around the spillway).They recently drained the lake about 6ft or so to do some repairs on the dam which will change the topography along the shelf which separates the two natural lakes that existed before the damn brought the water level up 18ft. This shelf is like a shallow reef in an otherwise deep lake, and fish cruise along it patrolling for forage.There are some beautiful meadows and creeks in the area to explore, some have brook trout, fresh water clams and even salamanders.

Upper Independence Creek is where the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout spawn naturally, however, as this is now a threatened species, biologists have set up a weir to monitor, tag, weigh and identify each fish before it is allowed passage to the spawning beds.This is the inlet of upper Independence Creek, all the spawners have to pass this gauntlet which, as the fish begin to migrate up the river, will be guarded by osprey, bald eagles and occasionally black bears.The reward for fish that successfully run that gauntlet is freedom to spawn in the numerous gravel beds that extend from the lake to a large waterfall approx. one mile up river.On this trip I noticed the population of hikers and sight seers has recently exploded as the Lake has won some awards which have been published in magazines. Nonetheless, the Nature Conservancy does a great job at keeping it pristine and enforcing the rules. It appears that due to AIS (aquatic invasive species) concerns, float tube/pontoon boats which require the operator to wear waders/boots may get phased out of use in an effort to better protect the lake. However, I suspect its highly likely that an alternative form a fishing vessel may be supplied, so anglers, don't dispair just yet.

Good Times East of Town

On Friday my pops and I hooked up with Matt "Gilligan" Koles for some spring fly fishing on the Truckee River East of Reno. I have to tell you, going with Matt makes it seem so easy to catch fish, but it ain't. The water East of Reno is tough to read and difficult to effectively fish without a boat, having the guide is a huge plus. We put a few nice bows in the net but lost some nice ones too. I had a healthy rainbow pop me in some heavy water and had a hot brown wrap me up around debris on the bottom, but hey, that's why they call it fish'n. All in all, it was a great day, great weather, and a great guide. Folks, if you want to know where the big dogs lie...now you know who to call.

Thanks Matt, we had a blast!

Truckee River Know-How

Sunday Dan and I spent the day with Matt "Gilligan" Koles, learning the tricks of the trade from a Truckee River legend. We had a great time as Matt is as cool and laid back as he is knowledgeable about Fly Fishing the Truckee River. I'd encourage anyone wanting to learn more about the tricks of the Truckee to enroll in Matt's "Spring Fever Clinic". Its always great to see new strategies and techniques from Matt's tricked out dry-dropper rig to his nymph and streamer setups. Its also helpful to get some switch and spey casting pointers from someone who makes it look all too easy.Though we were primarily practicing, the fishing wasn't bad, I had some nice bows come and maul my thing-a-ma-bobber, they need to develop one with a hook...I'd have had three more hookups!
March browns began coming off mid morning in good numbers, even saw a possible golden stone sighting (couldn't grab it).Matt, thanks for the pointers and knowledge, its always good to see if first hand from a pro!

Pyramid Lake - Fishing with the boys

The BT was blown again so it was off to Pyramid for an evening session. Today apparently was a bust for everyone, I saw one fish landed but personally never saw or felt one. Water surface temps cooled a bit from last week to 57 degrees, but the water its still unseasonably warm for late April. Today the weather was warm and calm, the worst possible conditions, I don't think its worth going unless a system is coming through or we gets some big winds.

Pyramid Lake - Mid Season Update - April 22nd

Well, we're catching fish, just not trout! Can't say we've put in much time though. Most reports and observations last Sunday indicated fishing was slow for almost everyone, though we did hear of a 30 fish day way up north from a gal at the creel census station. We should be in the thick of the good season at this point, but this year is atypical. Got a late start, hit Sandhole but it already had about 20 guys on it, none of whom had caught a fish in the prior 3 hours. As everyone has been saying, its been hit and miss this season, Sunday was definitely a miss for us. On Sunday, the water was an astonishing 60 degree by noon! Only two weeks earlier, it was 44 degrees, what a shift, never seen it do that in such a short span and never seen it this warm this early (though this was just the surface temp). In desperation, we tried Howard Bay. We've got some nice fish out of there in years past and thought what the heck, wind wasn't bad that day, so it meant we might be able to cast (since the beach faces north). We caught em, its just that "em" were cui-ui. After a handful of these fresh water bone fish and no Lahontans, we bugged out and took some photos.

Check out this Skwala, first ever seen at Pyramid. This was near Popcorn, so I guess it could have came from the river, but I don't know...

There are thousands of Western Tent Caterpillars hatching from their cocoons.
The long, lonely road to Howard Bay.

Umpqua Steel

Had a chance to get away for 3 days on the north fork of the Umpqua River in central Oregon. Good friends, good food and good drink! Oh yeah, and a few monster steelies never hurt anything.

Red SteelWine, scotch and whiskey floweth like the river...Check out the cottages, on the water and only $135/night...the 18yr Scotch cost more.
Can you see any Ewoks?
Kind of looks like the Shire.
If you could only taste these fresh, custom cut ribeyes. They're +2" thick, they should be at $23/steak.

Some highlights. My good buddy Doc Jay put the hurt'n to me this trip, he couldn't do anything wrong. I think I need to fish less with doctors...



If you are itching to catch big steelies, the Umpqua is your place, we didn't get any world records, but they go well over 20lbs in this river. If you need an awesome, laid back guide that is polite, fun and very professional, call Dan Taylor's Guide service at 541.643.6640, he's been fishing the river his entire life, the guy is super fun, easy going and knows the frigg'n river. Of note, on this section of the Umpqua, this ain't true fly fishing in the purist sense of the word, more like catching huge steellies with a fly rod, there is no double hauling or swinging lead heads, there was too much drinking for that. That said, its gorgeous, relaxing and super fun!

Till my next hall pass...

Pyramid Lake - Early Season Update - April 5th 2012

It's still cold and slow at Pyramid, water temperature is the same as last week at 44 degrees, it needs to warm to near 50 before things start really getting underway. A half dozen grabs, a stollen fly and two fish in the net from sunrise to 9, then it died down. Everything took a white foam beetle. Everyone seemed to be averaging a fish an hour. From a far, it looked like guys were able to wade most if not all the way to the shelf at both north and south nets. Till next time..