April 1, 2022 Fly Fishing Report for the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake
With some slightly cooler weather this week we have seen the rapid melt of our less-than-average snowpack begin to taper off and flows are a bit more sustained as of now. With no more weather in the immediate forecast we are lucky to see below freezing nights that can help prolong the melt off in hopes of seeing cooler water later into the summer.
As the surge in cold water begins to breath new life into our local creeks, we encourage you to continue to get out and explore some of our various small water fishing options as the opportunity may be short lived this year. Lake fishing will also become increasingly productive in the coming weeks and ice out can provide some stellar fishing off shore, or on a float tube or boat using various techniques such as indicators, streamers and dry flies. As the snow continues to melt, we recommend following the ice off of the various lakes, searching for higher elevation waters as the spring progresses.
Truckee River Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
The Truckee is starting to see flows near 1,000 CFS in the canyon section due to the release of around 300 CFS out of Boca reservoir. Up along Glenshire Road, the water is currently just over 400 CFS, which has dropped from 650 thanks to the cooler nights. During this time, fishing attractor nymphs such as stonefly patterns imitating the Skwala nymphs, as well as eggs, worms, and crawdads will all be great bets and both tight-line and indicator techniques have been similarly productive. Just be sure to use ample weight during this time and bring that tippet diameter up to around a 3x-4x to lose less flies in the newly created debris and so you can effectively turn larger fish before they make their way into the heavy current. That photo of a Skwala on Scott F's handle was taken around 1pm on Wednesday up here in Truckee.
Streamer fishing has also been on fire with the increase in flows and chucking larger articulated flies on stout tippet in a 1x-3x will be a great way to move some of the monsters found in our river as they are often forced to seek softer water during this time of year moving them out of their familiar lies. This is an exciting time to fish the big Truckee.
Little Truckee River Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
The Little Truckee has yet to see the benefit of the spring run off and flows here are still only at 38 CFS as of today, April 1st. In our opinion, this is too low for ethical fishing and we encourage you to fish elsewhere during this time. There are a lot of other great small waters to try this time of year, please come into the shop and pick our brains on the abundant options in this regard. Thank you!
Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
Pyramid has seen some good days over the last week, and while these days have mostly been when weather was present, as the fish get closer to spawn, we should continue to increasingly consistent action using midges or other nymphs under the indicator.
Downsizing flies has become more productive as we come into the latter part of the season and anglers using sizes 12-14 midges have been seeing more hook ups, although landing them on the lighter wire hooks can be challenging, with the smaller flies using smaller tippet may also be necessary, but we don’t recommend going below a 3x in case you hook into one of the trophies. There’s nothing worse than loosing one of these due to a bent hook or broken tippet, but unfortunately it happens, often. The middle beaches remain the most consistent and also remain the busiest, so if fishing here please be patient of other anglers and remember, it’s just fishing.
Back at the shop, Scotty is back from his winter trip, I am writing from the IFTD Show in Utah. Hope to share some cool stuff with everyone next week.
– Miles
