TCO Fishing Report - February 7th, 2025 for the Truckee River, Little Truckee River and Pyramid Lake
While we are happy to see the storm window open up as we head into February, last week’s weather was less than ideal. It turned out to be yet another warm storm dropping mostly rain. Looking ahead, there appears to be another storm on the horizon, and this one should come in colder, laying down some snow around the end of the week. The rain last week brought the Truckee up significantly, starting at 350 CFS, peaking at 1,700 CFS and slowly dropping. This will likely throw things off for the week but should settle down by next weekend. One positive out of this storm is that it has really fired up the fish at Pyramid and this week has been excellent! This has continued to be one of the best years in recent memory for fishing out here and we should see the lake fishing very well all the way through the spring!
Truckee River Fishing Report & Forecast
The river came up, a lot. This will make fishing here a bit tougher for the next few days, but certainly not impossible. If you are looking to fish the river right now, pick your location wisely. The long slow deep runs primarily found in the canyon will likely be your best shot at finding good holding water.
This is also an excellent time to fish streamers and can be a great chance to find some of the biggest Truckee trout. Looking at the USGS gauge at Farad we are not only seeing the flows taper off, but also looking at the Turbidity gauge, we’re seeing water clarity increase close to what it looked like before last week’s storm. This will mean that using attractor nymphs such as stoneflies, worms and eggs will fish great, but you can also mix in some smaller flies representing BWOs and midges.
With the sunny days ahead, we hope to see the river drop back down below 1,000 CFS in just a few short days, opening up more areas of fishable water. As the flows drop, expect a few days of great fishing as this storm surely stirred up some fish. San Juan worms and gummy worms should be your confidence patterns while the river is off color and dropping back into shape.
Little Truckee River Fishing Report & Forecast
While this last bit of weather primarily dropped rain, we did see a bit of snow overnight and again this morning. Access out here may remain open for now, but we would drive back here with extreme caution as heavy rains followed but sub-freezing temps will create ice and newly fallen rocks into the road.
Due to the lack of snow this year, this fishery has continued to get a lot of angling pressure, and we encourage you to give these fish a break and try elsewhere at this time.
Pyramid Lake Fishing Report & Forecast
Pyramid has fished very well this week. The fish have begun to consistently hang in shallow water, and the beaches with a gradual drop offs have started to really fire off. This is an excellent sign for great spring fishing conditions ahead. These beaches are where using a ladder will really come into play.
We have noticed a serious drop off in the effectiveness of balanced leeches and the fish are mostly keyed in on the midge. Size 10’s have been fishing well on the days with big chop, size 12’s are the go-to’s in most conditions and dropping down to a 14 will be best when the lake is glass and the sun is high.
The beaches on the south end of the lake have slowed, especially as a number of them have very quick drop offs, going down 20-30 feet. The beaches with more consistent depths of 8-15 feet are fishing best right now as the fish begin their prespawn behavior. With some sunny days ahead, the bite will likely slow down but should get good again as this next low pressure system pushes in late next week.
Keep in mind we have a full moon happening on Wednesday, which almost always makes the fishing poor for a few days. If you’re looking to plan a trip out here, we recommend looking towards the end of the week when we see a combination of a waning moon, a drop in barometric pressure and hopefully a few days of cloud cover.
Also, for you fly tying junkies, we recently got a restock from Hareline and have all of your bases covered for Pyramid flies, including strong midge, leech, and bugger hooks that won’t bend out on a 20 pounder. We have plenty of balanced leech pins, high floating and loco foam for tying beetles, various colors of tinsel, and a great selection of colors in tungsten beads. We also have more on the way from both Aqua Flies and Wapsi. These are two new vendors for us, providing a larger variety of fly tying materials with Pyramid and the Truckee River in mind!
