Little Truckee River - Dry Fly Action

School is back in and crowds have subsided. I finally took a full day off work, dusted off the 4wt and 7x and hit the LT, first time this year, but then again, I wait until the crowds are gone. I have only been able to manage short evening sessions the past 6-months on local watersheds until today. Today, I got a full day in....well, it was going to be a full day but became a half day when the water master felt it appropriate to drop the LT to 17cfs...ugh! What's the purpose of having a recommended flow of 32cfs if they can drop the river below that? UPDATE: David Lass of Truckee TU explained it's not a required minimum flow, and only a recommendation. The low flows are due to a 6-year dam inspection; unfortunately they found some things that needed repair and are working on it night and day. Until flows get back up over 30cfs, please avoid the LT for the time being. They should be back up close to 100cfs soon, hopefully in time for the big Boca Reservoir spawn runs this fall.
Check out the exposed river bed, 20 minutes prior it was under water...all that trout food is dead. Prior to the flows dropping, I managed some fun dry fly fishing and sight nymphing while the river was @ 106cfs.

The AM was VERY slow and nothing was coming off. Though I prefer to dry fly fish the LT, if there is no hatch...I'll occassionally go for an SJW (without the San Juan Shuffle part, which is illegal on some watersheds). Sometimes you have to use what they're feeding on, and certain parts of this river are full of Annelids.Luckily BWO's started popping in fishable numbers by 11am; from then on it was BWO dries and nymphs only! QUESTION TO THE AUDIENCE: Anyone know why LT bows are so much darker than BT bows, other than the obvious...cause they're a different strain. Does anyone know the specific strains and/or any other reasons for why they differ so much? I caught this BT bow later the same afternoon, and it really struck me how different the two fish really are in color, number of speckles, shape and build. And another thing, BT bows always jump, LT bows seldom do.

BT bow LT Bow

All fish were heavier than normal, thanks to good flows all year (except the 1 day this year I decide to go). Oh well, I'll be back many times between now and mid December. I had an Osprey splash-down 20 feet from me today. It missed the fish, but what a sight! Of the fish I netted, half had what appeared to be talon scars across their backs. You'll see a closeup on the 2nd fish in the video.

Truckee River - Conditions are Perfect

If you stay in the canyon above the Verdi Hydro Plant diversion, there's lots of cool oxygen rich water, below that flows drop considerably. Fish seem to be holding in fast heavy water, practically in white water. Also, if you can find cooler inflows, you'll find a few more fish. There were a few small sporadic caddises hatches throughout the day, and a moderate mayfly hatch at about 7pm, but I didn't observe any heavy hatches.Check out these Golden Stones, I didn't think they'd hatch this time of year, but I saw Gilligan's post that they've been hatching late. Too bad I forgot my larger stone patterns. Check out this one, it was wet like it just hatched. I didn't see any live nymphs or adults though.Fish are fat and feisty, and as usual, I got all rainbows and one brown.
Oh, and yes, crayfish are still in demand.
Check out this yellow jacket (aka meat bee) nest, I found two of them like this one.

Factoid: Beaver wood (like in the photo below) is evidenced by beaver gnaw marks. If you're ever out camping along a river or a beach near a river w/ beavers, look for this wood to cook with. Beavers won't eat woods that have a bad flavor and generally only gnaw on soft woods such as alders, birch, aspens, poplars, dogwoods, etc., most of which are great for cooking and smoking. Still waiting for that big brown to come along and give me a tug, maybe this fall.

Truckee River - Bug Bonanza

Bugs are so thick in the evenings that you won't need to pack a snack, you're bound to inhale enough to hold you over until you get home. The most prolific bugs on the water right now are the caddises (size 16) from mid day till dusk. Green and spotted sedges, saddlecases. Shoot, the adults look so similar I can't tell them all apart, but what I can tell you is they're everywhere and fish love em. We got some fish to take dries on the surface, but most are feeding on mayfly nymphs and caddis pupae. You won't see the large numbers of green drakes until later in the evening, but the fish are taking their nymphs all day long, and they seem to prefer these over caddis right now. You'll see little yellow stones start popping thick closer to the evening. With all the bugs on the water right now, it's hard to figure out what the fish are keying into, but for me, it was GD nymphs with either a green rockworm or burnt orange pupae as a close second. Water is in about perfect shape from Boca to Glenshire, and if you can find some soft seems, large fish are holding in the canyon (as I found out), but with the strong current, good luck landing them! Check out these baby Merganzers. As much as I hate Merganzers because they wreak havoc on trout, watch them hunt, they'll tell you where the fish are holding.
We were able to spot fish from shore and the water is clear enough we could see underwater takes on nymphs. All fish were rainbows today in the 15-20" range with a large fish hookup in the canyon, but he was gone in the current before I could see it.

Truckee River Outfitters

There's a new website in town.... http://truckeeriveroutfitters.com/ Check em out, Rob Anderson and Doug Ouellette are both local pros with tons of knowledge. They offer guide services and educational clinics. Additionally, they're going to put out a regular fishing report (we've needed this) which can be accessed at their new website or the old Reno Fly Shop site. Best of luck to these local legends.

Pyramid - Fish'n with the Boys

Mom was gone this weekend so it was time for a guy trip. I didn't get a lot of quality fishing in, but we had a good time. A few sand toys and a bag of M&M's and you'll get about an hour of uninterupted fishing.....right. I'm totally confused, there wasn't a single person at any of the beaches accept Indian Head and South Nets. Sand Hole and Cattle Guard were abandon, probalby because there aren't any fish to be had. In about an hour and a half i got one fish, that's it! At the creel census station they said its been slow for the past two weeks, and they think most of the fish have spawned, but there not totally finished. They're going to have a couple more tours at the hatchery, so that means the fish will be spawing for another week or two, but it looks as though its winding down. As expect, last weeks warm weather brought the mid-day surface temperature up to 53 degrees and winds created some nice rollers, but where are the fish? This year has been unusual, I never really saw the big push of fish which typically lasts for a week, if not two. Did they go up the Truckee this year due to its higher than normal flows? Who knows. I'll give it another shot soon, but if I don't start getting fish, it will be time to move on to the Truckee and Little Truckee. Its been too long since I've been on moving water.

Pyramid - Its Gonna Be Late

I don't even know where to begin, kind of a bummer day. Was planning to head out to Anderson Bay on the east side of the lake only to find out its been closed. Apparently the closure is indefinite as the Tribe is considering whether or not to allow access.While on the east side we tried Howard Bay for about half an hour. Something grabbed my fly a couple of times, but it could have been Cui-ui, there are over 2 million in the lake today and HUGE schools of them congregate in that particular bay this time of year. Visibility was a foot...max. Even the Pelicans were striking out largely due to the low visibility. Here's a few hundered congregated near the Truckee inlet.
Here's the Pyramid Lake Fishway and one of its many fish ladders which leads to the Marble Bluff Fish Handling Facility. The ladders help fish get over Marble Bluff Dam. The dam was constructed in 1976 to reduce erosion in the lower Truckee and aid in the spawning migration of the the Cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout.Here's where the fishway dumps into the lake.The creel census station said it was very slow today, we barely ended up fishing and didn't land anything. Nobody was catching fish at the north nets, however, apparently fishing was fair (but very crowded) at the south nets. It looks like its going to be late this year, the water is still cold. This week is going to be warm, I hope that gets the fish moving next week. Since the Truckee is flowing unsually high this year, and high enough for fish to breach the silt delta barrier, I'm wondering if the proponderance of LCT are trying to run up the Truckee to spawn vs. running up David Dunn hatchery in Sutcliffe. Has anyone spoke to the fisheries biologist about this possibility? Here is some insightful research which explains how lake water levels and Truckee water flows impact the ability of fish to successfully spawn in the river.

Pyramid - From Hot to Not

It rained literally the entire day, non stop. The wind was almost non existent as were the fish. In 6 hours I landed 3. I spoke to guys from Block House to Pelican, nobody did well, it was very slow. I didn't see any schools of fish like last week, just a couple of singles cruising the shelf. The fish seemed to want to watch my fly rather than take it, I had several chase it in and bump it, but they didn't grab it.

Looked like this all day.

This sand dune looks unassuming at first but....

Upon closer inspection, what appears to be white sand is actually thousands of small snail shells. Pyramid Lake is a remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan. These gastropods lived in Lake Lahontan dating back as far as 25,000 years ago, but have since died off. They were so abundant, that even today they still wash ashore in droves.

Can you appreciate the size of ancient Lake Lahontan? It was practically an inland sea, and within it evolved, what explorer John C. Fremont dubbed, "Salmon Trout". Today we call them Lahontan Cutthroat Trout.

We need water temperatures back in the 50's and some high winds for the fishing to pick up again. Of note, off colored water from the Truckee inlet has crept up as far as Rawhide Lookout, where visibility is only 2 feet. Not that you can't fish it, but something to be aware of.

Pyramid - Heating Up

Best fish of the day for me, just shy of 26" in full spawn colors. The amazing part was it started out as a double hookup, yep, he had a twin of the same size that took my beatle dropper. I was able to get both to the top before one came unbuttoned. Bummer, that would have been about 12lbs of fish on one cast had I landed both! Not a nibble for me or anyone else from Block House to Rawhide Lookout. They're stacked up near the nets, I landed a dozen there and lost two more. A westerly wind howled at 35-45mph, the harder it blew, the better the fishing was. Air temp was 60, water temp was 51, up several degrees from last week and just about perfect. Looks like the fish are in full spawn mode now, they're schooling up heavy and chasing anything you throw in front of them. They're bunched up, so back to back fish are not uncommon. Keep an eye out down the beach, if others are hooking up, its only a matter of seconds before the school is in front of you. Streamers outperfomed midges by a large margin today. This guy took a Martini Bugger right at the surface.Wind and cloud cover really emblodens the fish to come into the shallows to hunt. It also provides them with cover for ambushing Tui Chubs, the LCT's primary forage.
I thought this little creek and its cold snow melt water source would lure fish to its inlet. No such luck today, but fish do congregate at fresh water sources like this one from time to time.

Visibility was a big improvement over last week, 5ft plus from Block House northward. The Truckee is flowing into the lake at 2,300cfs, nearly 4x its mean and has the entire south end of the lake from Block House on looking like chocolate milk.

Pyramid - Cold Again

This last cold snap that came through on Thursday and Friday followed by a calm and sunny weekend really put the fish off. Three of us fished 4 different beaches for 7 hours with only 2 fish in the net, one long-line release and two fish that chased our flies into the shallows. The creel census station reported numerous goose-eggs and we didn't run into anyone who did well. The mid day water termperature actually dropped to only 45 degrees (a degree colder than last week). Unless the water gets into the low 50's this week, it looks like the big fish run won't occur until late April and into May. The good news is, we haven't missed it yet. Water visibility is appoximately 1ft at Popcorn and 3ft at Cattle Guard improving to a maximum visitibility of 5 feet at the nets (yes, it was so slow we broke down and made a few combat casts). Even though we only got two fish, I did manage to make one of the most amazing catches. The first fish of the morning came on a lasso, that's not the name of a fly, it's just what you're thinking it is. Somehow, my mono line looped around the tail of the fish and it didn't come loose until I'd landed him. I'm guessing he was chasing my lead fly to cause this to happen. We'll see what next week brings. Here's the big fish of the day...bout 25".

Pyramid - Starting to Pick Up

I Fished almost the entire west shore Sunday, water is like chocolate milk from Howard Bay to Popcorn Rock, it clears up to about 3ft visibility at Block House, but it doesn't get much clearer than that, even at Pelican. The Truckee (measured at Nixon) is coming into the lake at about 1,400cfs, double the historical mean. Despite low visibility, fish are schooled up, in shallow and actively on the move. I had three fish back to back in only 2 foot visibility near Cattle Guard. All in all I put 5 in the net dragging streamers. I fished next to a guy that did very well on an ice cream cone midges 7 feet under an indicator. According to the biologist, the spawn is late this year and fish numbers should peak in the next few weeks. THIS IS THE TIME TO BE OUT THERE! For what its worth, the Tribe voted to allow fishing at the North and South Nets again, not that I care to stand shoulder to shoulder...See you out there!