Truckee River Fishing Report & Forecast

The cooling weather and thunderstorms over the last two weeks couldn’t have come at a better time as we were just reaching 68 degrees along most of the Truckee River. As things heat back up, expect to be back into these same trends, which are likely to persist through August.

During these Hoot Owl conditions, be sure to fish early morning on the Truckee, being off the water by mid-day to early afternoon, based on where you’re fishing. Also carry a thermometer with you and call it a day when temps exceed 66 degrees.

The fish are continuing to sit in faster water this week despite the dips in air temps over the last week, thanks to mornings into the low 40’s. Using euro nymphing tactics remains by and large the best way to find fish on the T right now, and the fun thing about this time of year is the large meals the fish are after. Crawdads, sculpins, and a hatch of large stones, I.E. Nocturnal stones are a large part of these fish diets right now.

Imitating these bugs also just so happens to work very well together with euro nymphing the Truckee, thanks to the often heavy fly patterns used to imitate them. That said, and without fear of sounding redundant in my weekly reports, use weight. Like a lot of it! While we would say this is a year-round policy for this river, I would think this may be one of the more important seasons to do so. This is because of the often fast, short and deep slots, shelves or just even just a small depression in a riffle these fish find themselves in.

For your smaller fly selection, we have mostly PMD’s and caddis of the river right now, as well as maybe a lingering green drake, or two. Typically we are starting to reduce our fly size over the first few weeks in August as the larger mayflies of spring diminish, and the BWO’s ramp back up towards the end of the month.

We have had things get a bit quieter here in town and on the river this week after the post-holiday chaos. Less crowds and most of the river being in such good shape, this means people are pretty spread out along the large river system. There’s plenty of good quiet sections to spend the day at. It’s always a good policy to give other anglers and anyone else around plenty of space to enjoy their time on the water. We promise it will make for a better day outside for everyone involved, even if you don’t get to fish that one run you turned that huge brown at a few weeks back. Don’t worry, it’ll be there for you next time!

Little Truckee River Fishing Report & Forecast

We are super happy to see the continued steady flows on the Little Truckee for yet another week, but don’t expect it to last forever. With reports that the LT will drop heading into August, these dreamy 150 CFS flows may plummet to 45 before long. At which point we would recommend to fish elsewhere.

With the consistency of this cold flowing tailwater, it shouldn’t surprise you that the bugs remained the same yet again this week. PMD’s are the most day in, day out hatch, coming off daily around noon and sticking around for most of the day. With them are the other smaller bugs, such as baetis and midges, which also provide some good fishing before or after the mid-day PMD hatch. Worms are another one that can put fish in the net out here for 12 months and are a good option when they aren’t keying in in PMD’s.

As mentioned on the Truckee River section, the one curve ball is the green drakes, which continue to stick around, while normally being done a few weeks ago. This could be in part to the continued high flows this spring, the continued cold water this river provides, and the cold, stormy days as of late. The presence of this green drake should also hint that the fish aren’t only looking at size 18-22 flies, and big flies with a good first drift can hook some pretty epic fish out here on occasion. 6x tippet, accurate fly selection, stealthy fishing and a good presentation are all important factors to success out here right now, as the angling pressure remains very high. Bring your A-Game!