One week we have beautiful weather, and the fish are responding well to our flies, the next week we get nights into the negative temperatures and days below freezing. This caused the water temps to drop and make fish more sluggish, slowing the bite down drastically on the Truckee. Winter fishing is never straight forward unlike the often-stable conditions found in the summer. Winter brings many more variables when it comes to outside forces such as temperatures, snow and rain, and wind and this fishing this time of year can definitely keep you on your toes! After this next small storm passes through on Sunday, we should see some warmer days coming into next week. Let’s hope this fishing improves as the weather does.

Truckee River Fly Fishing Report

The slow days spent on the river weren’t all for naught this week.  As I continue to explore the different sections of this amazing river system, I found some great looking new sections of river previously unknown. Although they might not have yielded fish this go-around, I’m very excited to head back to this newfound area when conditions change. That’s a big part of why the Truckee River continues to intrigue me year after year, I’ve been fishing this watershed avidly for over a decade and I continue to find new water, slightly different than anything I’ve come across before. The change in landscape from the headwaters out of Lake Tahoe down to the sections of river east of Sparks is so drastic and unique, and there’s enough incredible trout water to keep an angler busy for next to a lifetime.

The water along most of the system right now is cold and clear, until you get around Sparks and beyond where you will see clarity diminish and temps warm slightly. When fishing a section of water that appears “gin-clear” dropping your fly size down to a 18-20, going with finer tippet such as 5x-6x and using clear ‘thingamabobbers’ or white airlocks can help dramatically as fish will be increasingly skittish. Using indicators over the euro nymph set-up will be best right now for a few reasons, and in short it will help with presenting smaller flies suspended in slower moving water types at a further distance than euro nymphing can typically allow.

Look for fish mostly in the slower tail outs of long straight runs or slow moving, deep buckets. This is the season of BWO’s and midges, while the stones, worms and eggs take a backseat this time of year. We do expect to start seeing Skwala stoneflies begin there emergence here on the California side probably in the next month or so, and usually during the onset of this hatch the stonefly nymph bite will be amazing, with the dry fly bite being spotty from year to year, typically the best years for these early season bugs are those with low, clear water and warm springtime temps, that’s not looking like this case this year, but as anglers often are, we are optimistically hopeful. Even when water temps drop into the mid-30’s you can still get fish to move on a well-presented streamer, so if nymphing size 20’s on light tippet doesn’t sound appealing, covering water quickly with a streamer could produce a few big fish as long as you’re willing to keep moving.

Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report

The bite at Pyramid seemed to be less affected than the river by the air temps this week as we continue to see pretty consistent fishing out here. With the storm moving through this weekend, we should have some great days with a steady bite window most of the day and as the days get sunnier and warmer beginning next week, expect the mornings and evenings to be best. Remember to keep an eye on the following factors if planning a trip out here; The barometric pressure (a dropping pressure is best with a low pressure being next-best), wind direction (ideally, you want to have the wind blowing across the beach you’re choosing to fish for the day or if it’s 15 MPH or below, directly into the beach), moon phase (the days leading up to a full moon are typically the best, with the 2-3 days after a full moon being the worst), and cloud cover (overcast days will keep fish in close for longer periods and makes fishing much more consistent). This is where the belief that the worse the weather the better the fishing is when it comes to Pyramid Lake, and as a generalization, this is true, but more so it comes down to these factors. Of course, time of year plays a huge factor as well, and right now during the winter, the thermocline will be closer to the surface of the water keeping fish higher in the water column and although there’s fewer fish around right now this would be when you find the bigger ones off shore, Fall the thermocline is deeper causing the fish to sit in 30-40 of water, making the best fishing off of a boat or float tube, and spring is great as water temps are right in their ideal threshold and they are in pre-spawn behavior, making them feed aggressively and hang in close all day.

We are now in the prime months to be shore fishing out here if big fish is your goal, and the next 3 months, February, March, and April, will provide the best shots of the year in terms of trophy fish. The bite using indicators and stripping streamers remains pretty equal, so continue to have both set-up’s rigged, switching off when conditions such as wind or cloud cover change. For the indicator, the midge bite continues to improve and fish are hitting a variety of sizes and colors, with rule of thumb being, calmer days call for smaller sizes in 10’s-12’s and days with larger swells calling for heavier, darker patterns. The leech bite is steady as well and always a good fall back when nothing else is seeming to produce. We’ve continued to fish around 6-8 feet deep throughout most of the day, but we have found good luck shallowing it up to 3-4 feet early mornings when the sun hasn’t popped over the hill and the fish are rolling on the surface.  The streamer bite seems a bit steadier throughout the day and having the extra bit of versatility in terms of being able to cover greater areas of water and various depths has helped on those days where to bobber just doesn’t seem to go down. Using the classics such as midnight cowboy buggers, beetles and boobies are still the best choice for out here, even in a world of increasing specialty flies for this destination fishery. While the ever-evolving flies for bobber fishing has certainly upped the game on this method out here, don’t always believe the hype on the latest and greatest flies, especially for streamers, typically paring a black and a white streamer such as a midnight cowboy with a chartreuse and white popcorn beetle will still fish better than anything else, in my opinion!

Thank you all for your continued support of Truckee’s only dedicated fly shop. Please keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events through the shop!

Next Friday 2/10, we will be doing a fly-tying event, which will be a free form fly tying social. Bring in a few materials, a beverage of your choice, tie up some of your favorite bugs and learn a few new ones along the way!

On Saturday 2/11, we will be hosting a free fly fishing 101 class, this is a great value and not something to miss, so if you’re new to the sport stop in and gain some confidence coming into spring! These events will continue to be offered bi-weekly on Fridays and Saturdays, so if you cant make it this week we look forward to seeing you at some point in the future!

• Miles