Truckee River and Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report February 11, 2022
Another week of warm weather has us concerned about how the summer months will shape up if we don’t get any more significant storms. The fishing as of now is awesome, however, so don’t sleep on your chance at some solid “false spring” fishing conditions. As snow continues to melt, access opens up along most waterways now, and where there is still snow along the Truckee here in town and along 89 South, the snow will be firm enough in most spots to keep walking in pretty easy. Please be aware that the warmer temperatures over the last week have softened the ice at all or our local reservoirs making it unsafe to walk onto. With a death at Stampede last week and an incident resulting in a rescue yesterday at Boca please stay off any remaining ice for the remainder of the winter.
Truckee River Fly Fishing Report and Forecast
The Truckee has seemed to really turn on with the warmer weather, and we have been getting some great quality recently. The rainbows have started to take on some brilliant colors over the last few weeks as they head into their time of pre-spawn behavior. With the water temps back on the rise, we have been seeing good hatches of midges prolonged throughout the day, with the occasional #16 baetis in the mix. This has made for a better possibility of dry fly fishing, and using dry dropper set up’s have been working well for the fishing feeding on top or in the mid water column.
As the Skwala stoneflies become more active, and will continue to do so over the next couple of months, using a black or olive stimulator, chubby, or the likes will be a great option for a high-viz dry to hang a small nymph below. When fishing nymphs we have been catching most of our fish on #20 midge larvae or #16-18 baetis nymphs. If you are going the indicator or euro nymph route, we recommend paring them with any olive stonefly nymphs in sizes #8-10 or other attractor nymphs such as worms, eggs, rainbow warriors or copper johns, to name a few. Fishing is good along pretty much the entire river at this point, so try a new section of water while looking for the typical deep slow moving buckets for your best odds, and don’t count out the sections running through Reno or east of Sparks for both a good float or just a day of wading.
Little Truckee Fly Fishing Report and Forecast
The Little Truckee still has limited access as there is still a fair amount of snow on the road. The water authority still has been messing with the daily flows out here as well making for poor fishing conditions. It will be best to leave this fishery alone until flows stabilize out of the dam and the snow melts a bit more.
Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
Hit-or-miss fishing with a payout of a trophy LCT – this is fishing at Pyramid Lake in February. While this may not sound very tempting initially, when a trophy fish is a 26+ pounder like the one caught the other week, the average size of fish caught this time of year should help pique your interest a bit more. We’ve been getting reports of days with little-to-no activity, as well as some days with a half dozen fish with most being in the double digits.
The keys this time of year will be keeping an eye on the forecast, fishing on days with any wind, overcast or low barometric pressure, and adjustments on depth, color and sizes as well as different methods of retrieval and presentations of your flies. Location can also be a factor and moving around throughout the day can help you get into better numbers, but you can’t catch a fish when in your car, so be strategic. We’ve been seeing the fly selections shift from the typical winter bug, the balanced leech, over to more springtime offerings such as midges and other attractor nymphs, as well as an improved stripping bite, so be sure to put in some more time with the sinking line. Low light periods will still be best here, especially with the persistent sunny days, so getting here before sun-up and fishing until dark is the name of the game if you’re looking to get into the larger fish. We’ve been seeing the summit strain of fish become particularly active recently as they tend to attempt to spawn before the pilots do, and what they lack in size when compared to the pilots, they make up for in beauty as they have a much more vibrant coloration, especially when pre-spawn.
A huge thank you who attended last night’s fly-tying event. We had a great group of people and some really cool flies coming off the vise! Please stay tuned as we announce our next event slated in a couple weeks. Thank you to everyone for your continued support of Truckee’s only dedicated fly shop!
Hope to see you soon! – Miles