May 13, 2022 Fly Fishing Report for the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake
With weather in the low 70’s expected and great flows on all of our local waters right now, these next few weeks should provide some stellar fishing with great conditions for both the trout and the angler! We have seen a mixed bag of hatches at the moment and anglers are finding fish using march browns, BWO’s, midges, caddis, stoneflies, worms, eggs, crawdads and sculpins. Basically, just get out there and get a fly in front of their face. We are coming into the height of spring fishing right now and probably won’t see conditions get any better than what’s expected in the next month.
We are very excited to share our new space with you and have mostly settled in at this point, but still have a number of projects to complete, it’s been a hectic week and a half, but this location is well worth it! We are currently open during our normal business hours so please stop by and pick up a few bugs before you head out to the river and check out the new digs, we are open from 7-7 daily.
Truckee River Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
The Truckee saw some fluctuations in flows over the last week with the late season snow but has seemed to mostly stabilize at this point. Near Glenshire, we are seeing flows around 500 CFS while around Farad, we’ve seen them hang around 1000. This is big water along most of the river and the name of the game right now will be finding the type of water that is holding fish and using the appropriate amount of weight to get your flies in front of them. We have been finding most of our fish in a medium-to-slow water speed with a depth of at least 3 feet. Look for fish around rocks that create a cushion of soft water, any deep pools or edges of the river where a good cut bank or drop-off is present.
With the current size of the river, we have found the indicator set up to be the most advantageous so you can easily adjust weight and depth and allow your flies to get longer drifts to give them ample time to sink. During last week’s stormy weather, streamers were moving some nice fish, but this will likely slow down as the week progresses unless we see these warm days melt some snow and create some tinted water. In that case, using large and heavy streamers in olive, white or black will be your best bet and don’t be afraid of flash. With the biggest water found down below the Boca confluence to the Nevada state line, the upper section of river around Glenshire and up, as well as the West Reno area and through downtown are all great alternatives to fighting the runoff conditions and are all fishing well.
Little Truckee River Fly Fishing Report and Forecast
The flows on the Little Truckee are some of the best we’ve seen in a while and the fishing out here has been the same. With the rainbows now post spawn at this point, the bite has begun to improve and these fish are feeding much more aggressively and are more uninhibited than normal. We have been finding fish out here on a wide variety of bugs and similar to the main river, right now the most important factor to success will be using enough weight to get in front of these fish fast. The runs found here are often short and deep, so making sure that you’re getting down quickly and getting a good drift in front of these trout will really pay off. With that said, we believe euro nymphing to be the best technique for this river at the moment as it allows you to quickly get into the strike zone, effectively detect takes and maintain a stealthy presentation to these notoriously spooky fish. We did see a small hatch of baetis when fishing out there yesterday, and while the dry fly fishing hasn’t been the best, it is certainly possible for the persistent dry fly angler and will likely get better as the week progresses.
Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report and Forecast
As we come towards the end of the fishing season out at Pyramid, this will be our last report of the year for this lake. Starting next week we will switch gears to our local still waters.
Although this is technically the tail end of the season for Pyramid, the fishing still remains fair, thanks in part to this cold and wet spring thus far. The fish are mostly post spawn at this point and the bite will likely remain good until consistently warm temps drive fish into deeper water for the summer months. We are starting to see fish hold in deeper water already and if fishing under an indicator we recommend trying depths of 6-8 feet. The mornings have seemed to provide the most consistent action and starting the day by stripping streamers has been working quite well, this late in the season we find that using streamers with less flash and in more natural colorways has been best as is using sinking lines with a slower sink rate, which allows the flies to stay in the strike zone longer. Using midges or other bugs such as maholo nymphs, copper johns, dragonfly nymphs, etc. under an indicator has been working well when the sun is high or the lake has little to no wind present. This time of year is also a great time to camp out here, as the days are long, the weather is nice and the fishing remains good, just be sure to bring lots of sun protection (I.E. sun shirts, sunscreen, pop up canopies and lots of water).
Thanks again for supporting your dedicated local fly shop. Please stop by this week and check out the new space.
– Miles