Truckee River Fishing Report & Forecast

While flows are still up and down on an hourly basis here, we have seen a downward trend over the last week thanks to the cold days. The river has cleared up from any of the color it had and is fishing very well using most perdigon-style flies or various mayfly nymph imitations. The larger bugs like stones, worms and eggs are always good for a few of the more ambitious fish. These larger bugs play an important role in bringing the fish’s attention to your set up, but are currently not as effective as the smaller flies they are paired with.

With warmer days expected after this weekend, the flows will come back up and we may see the water become stained once again. Don’t stop fishing when this happens, just start using two larger bugs together to grab the trout’s attention and don’t forget to upsize your tippet. 3x is not too heavy right now, when the water gets dirty, even 2x is appropriate on those big bugs!

The main flies remain much the same, with stones, worms and eggs making up the majority of the large bug offerings. Perdigons and buggy CDC collared euro nymphs are fishing best as the smaller fly. The fish have started to sit in the medium water speeds consistently now and the deep riffles, sides of fast water, or undercut banks have been where we are finding most of our fish. If you aren’t finding any fish, don’t forget to mix up one of the variables until you have success. Typically, we’ve found the order of significance to be the amount of weight used, the depth you’re fishing, the types of water you’re targeting, the bugs you’re using and lastly, the tippet diameter you’re fishing. Above all, the most important factor would be getting good drifts, this means big upstream mends above your bobber, slowing it down and allowing your flies time to get to depth.

Little Truckee River Fishing Report & Forecast

The flows on the Little Truckee remain high, at around 350 CFS as of today. At these flows the fishing is tough. It limits the amount of good holding water for the fish and requires more weight than people are used to using on this tailwater. With all of that said, there is still fishing to be had here! This is a great time for all of you that love nymphing as much as we do to head out here, and cover water with your euro rods or indicator set ups.

At 350 CFS, this is a much different river and will fish a lot more like the Truckee. This also means that you can catch fish on larger bugs like stoneflies. Given this is still the LT however, there are still plenty of fish that want a size 20 BWO, especially if fishing closer to Stampede dam. Right now, 5x tippet should be just fine for these otherwise picky fish, in fact, when fishing out here last week I grabbed my pre rigged euro rod with a TJ Hooker on 3x and started fishing with it, not realizing how heavy of line I was using, and still caught a nice 16-inch rainbow on it! I’m a big believer in presentation over everything else, good drifts on your first drift equal more fish in the bag.