Truckee River and Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report January 7, 2022
Happy New Year everyone! A Break in the weather this week will continue to open up access along the Truckee River as snow remains a major factor of where you can and cannot fish. Sunny days are in the forecast for the next week and conditions on the Truckee are great for those willing to put in the bit of leg work to get there. Access will still be closed out for a number of other waters such as the Little Truckee and several of our local lakes. Lakes like Boca or Prosser will have a good few inches of ice on them as of today but with a rain/snow mix today and some sunny weather expected, please use caution if heading out here to ice fish, always carry spikes and test the thickness of ice.
Join our Balanced Leach Fly Tying clinic
Thursday January 13th at 6pm
Call the Shop for details (530) 563-5119
Typically the ice fishing season is short lived here in Truckee as we don’t get long periods of consistently cold weather. Lakes Davis and Frenchmans also hold good ice and will be an option over the coming weeks. While we do not sell ice fishing gear we thought this would be worth a mention as an alternative method of fishing this winter. We are also running our New Year’s Sale through this weekend and will be offering 25% off of all boots and waders as well as all winter gear such as jackets, gloves, sock, beanies or anything to keep you warm this season. This will be going on through this Sunday 1/9, so stop on in and get geared up to get out this winter. We aren’t kidding when we say this is our favorite time to fish our local waters, so see what the hype is all about!
Truckee River Fly Fishing Report
Fishing on the river has been great, and while you can’t expect the same kind of numbers you may find during the summer, these months are the best time to catch the quality wild fish that this river is known for, big and hungry. As the sun stays low along the horizon and days are short, we recommend focusing on fishing during the warmest points in the day and not so much during the mornings and evenings. The window from 11-4 will not only provide good fishing but will also be when temperatures are most comfortable for the angler.
The flows remain very steady over the last few weeks as these storms have mostly been coming in cold and with very little rain and while flows remain on the low side of our average, with the abundant snow pack already dropped this year we are predicting that we are already in much better shape for summer fishing on the river than we where last year, such a sigh of relief! A long slow melt of our snowpack will keep the river running clear, that is unless we get a major rain event or warm temps. What that means is as of now we recommend using smaller bugs under the indo such as BWO nymphs and midges.
While we are currently in the season of smaller offerings, not long from now we will be seeing our first big hatch of the spring, The Skawala Stonefly! These bugs are the first big protein source these fish have seen after a long winter and are one of our favorite hatches of the year because of this. If conditions align, there can also be some stellar dry fly fishing with them as well. They are usually a pretty prolonged hatch and can be found throughout most of the late winter into spring, last year we saw them all the way into June! The lower section of river will be a good area to focus your efforts on over the next few months as most of the Nevada side of the river really shines when temps are at their lowest. The area from Lockwood to Mustang Ranch provides an easy float for those looking to get some experience rowing and will get you a good shot at some incredible fish found along this stretch using streamers or BWO dry flies. If you have any questions about put-in’s or take-out’s along the lower river or questions on tactics of fishing down here, hit us up… we got you!
Little Truckee Fly Fishing Report
As of today The Little Truckee remains closed out due to snow on Stampede Dam Rd. The only access here will be via snowmobile, snowshoes, X-country Skis or the likes but we encourage you to embrace this limited access and give these fish a well-deserved break before they once again see heavy angling pressure this spring.
Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report
While we are in the height of the season in terms of finding the largest fish here, the sunny, high pressure days can still make for some slow fishing and choosing the day you head out here based on weather conditions can make all of the difference. Any kind of cloudy, overcast day with 5-10+ MPH winds will drastically up your odds when fishing Pyramid this time of year. Conversely, sunny days with little to no wind can absolutely shut off fishing along the entire lake. This is what we experienced yesterday, and while you know what they say about a bad day of fishing, it can still be brutal fishing all day with no action. With that said our group still saw a 14-pound fish landed when the sun was high and the lake surface was glass, so remember these are just guidelines and not rules to live by, and all it takes is one fish like that to make our day!
Fishing remains good along most of the beaches and in typical Nevada fashion, it’s all just a roll of the dice when choosing where you’re fishing for the day. Be adaptive when fishing here on slow days and remain diligent about changing depths, retrieve speeds and styles, flies and locations, sometimes you got to give them the kitchen sink. When fishing under an indicator, we have been finding fish a little shallower than in previous weeks and the sweet spot has been in the 8 foot range, with the top producing fly being balanced leeches of various colors depending on lighting. On calmer days with little to no chop try using smaller midge patterns (#10-#14) and dropping your tippet diameter down a size or two for more strikes. Also, play around with twitching or a hand twist retrieve when fishing during days with calmer weather. Stripping streamers remains steady as well and beetles or boobies fished alone or paired with buggers on a fast-sinking line will be a great way to mix up your day of fishing here and will be especially effective during the low light periods of the mornings or evenings.
We are also happy to announce our next set of fly tying classes at the shop. Our first class will be next Thursday the 13th and it will be a balanced leech clinic. The balanced leech is one of our most requested flies here in the shop and we have been tying this style of fly for nearly a decade. This is a great platform to get creative with only limited by your imagination and can be adapted for a number of situations, it can be used to imitate baitfish, crawdads, leeches, nymphs and damselflies just to name a few. This class will be here in the shop on Thursday from 6-8, all materials will be provided and a nominal fee of $30 will be requested to participate. First come first serve with a limit of 6 spots, please call the shop to sign up.
As always, thank you all for your continued support of Truckee’s only dedicated fly shop and local fishing hub, Trout Creek Outfitters!
– Miles
