After our first heatwave of the summer, this week’s forecast is looking a bit cooler. Truckee is even getting a little moisture today with a small thunderstorm pushing through the area. We are still seeing good temps for fishing all day down in the canyon, but these warm days have really made the morning hours the time to be out, at least on the main river. While the warmer weather has slightly culled the bug life when compared to a couple weeks back, there’s still a ton of different aquatic insects around for both the fish and the fisherman to choose from. PMDs, Caddis, Golden Stones, Yellow Sallies and Green Drakes make up the majority of what’s on our local rivers, but bigger offerings like crawdads and sculpins shouldn’t be forgotten about either. Don’t forget that we are open 7:00am to 7:00pm, 7 days a week right now, giving you plenty of time to stop in before or after your time on the water. We are well stocked on all gear right now, including a whole lot of new flies. So, stop by and see what’s new!
June 19th Fly Fishing Report for the Truckee River, Little Truckee River
Summer Half-Day Guided Floats
Trade the long wade for a summer float on the Truckee. This is one of the best windows of the year, with PMDs and caddis bringing consistent dry fly action and steady flows setting up the kind of deep-water streamer bites this river is known for. Summer brings some of the most explosive fishing of the year, and our guides know exactly where the fish are holding as the season warms up. Book a half-day float now to beat the heat and make the most of it.
Truckee River Fishing Report
As water temps continue to rise on the Truckee the dry fly bite has been a bit tougher this week. With the fish mostly holding in the fast moving sections of the Truckee, your best bet for success will be euro nymphing, focusing on the deeper pockets and riffles. The dry dropper fishing still remains a great option as well, with good numbers of fish holding in somewhat shallow riffles. Just be sure you are using a large enough dry, Ideally containing a lot of foam, as well as a heavy enough nymph to get down quickly with the often short drifts allowed in the faster moving water the trout are currently calling home. For the euro rods, we are finding the best luck with either crawdads or sculpin patterns for our anchors, in part because of the weight that is often found in these larger bugs. For the tag fly however, there have been quite a few different things working for us, as the variety of smaller bugs is abundant. Last week, we did best on caddis along most of the river. This week, it seems like PMDs have been fishing well, but the yellow sallies are another great fish catcher right now. The fish are sitting in fast water, focus on pocket water and riffles. If you find some of this water type with any small pocket where you can’t see the bottom, even if it’s less than 10 feet long, odd are there’s a fish in there. Fish these water types fast and keep moving. Cover water and maximize the number of fish you present to by walking.. a lot!
Recommended Flies for the Truckee River
Little Truckee Fishing Report
The Little Truckee is fishing very well again this week. The flows continue to hold at right around 300 CFS, which is just enough water to spread fish out, make for good conditions for all types of fishing and add a fun challenge when presenting to them relative to the typical 60-120 CFS. The PMDs are going to be your best bet for hooking fish day in day out, with daily emergences that go off like clockwork. Due to this, we recommend focusing heavily on these bugs in all life stages. There will be many times where they are focused in the emerging nymph compared to the immature nymph, or the emerging dry compared to the dun, or what’s worse, the dreaded spinner! Soft hackles, flash back nymphs with beads compared to no flash no bead flies, there’s a lot of nuances when fishing this river effectively, and consistent success comes from a mix of experience, time on the water, talking with others and a lot of trial and error. That’s a big part of the fun of this river. Other than those little pink mayflies, we are finding some fish on green drakes, caddis, worms and midges, which make for some great alternatives on your 2 fly nymph rig, and even those first two as dries. Keep in mind that we are at the busiest time of year for fishing here in the Truckee region, so consider fishing during odd hours of the day out here or the less popular sections of the river to avoid crowds. This is a tailwater, so we are not in the same dilemma with warm water out here. The temps stay the same all day, use that to your advantage and fish the warmer points of the day and through the evening. Also, it is very much worth noting that there are a lot of mosquitoes out here right now, so bring bug spray or prepare to get eaten alive.
