Truckee River Fly Fishing Report December 17, 2021
With heavy snow last week and sunny days this weekend we’re sure most of you are thinking about the skiing, and rightfully so. But with sunny days expected this weekend if you’re more interested in staying away from the holiday crowds on the hill, the river will be a great way for a little solitude and perhaps run into one of those winter giants.
Truckee River Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
Not surprisingly, the Truckee saw a bump in flows after this week’s storm. Because it was mostly snow with little rain, it has been coming up slowly and is running nice and clear as of today. We look forward to the next couple of storms behind this one to further bolster the snowpack and help sustain us for the warmer months, hopefully preventing any warm or low water situations like we had last summer. With the snow line being a little lower than normal, we’ve seen at least 6 inches on the ground all the way down to state line, making access a little more difficult than normal but certainly still achievable. As the plows still catch up on snow removal expect most of your secret pull-offs along I-80 to be inaccessible for the weekend and try sticking with exits like Hirschdale, Floriston or Farad or here in town along Glenshire drive.
With the heavy storm moving through, fishing pressure has been light as most people aren’t too keen on going out when it’s dumping. This means fish have had a break from seeing anglers and should be a little more willing to take your offerings over the next week, but a well presented fly always goes a long way on this river. Fresh snow on the ground also makes it easy to see if anyone has fished the run over the last few days by looking for footprints along the banks, no footprints means good odds! With water running clear we recommend sticking with smaller bugs, and we have been finding most of our fish on either midges or baetis down to a size 20. Streamer fishing will also be a great way to head hunt for the big trout found in the slow, deep “frog water”. Fish are certainly stacked up in any buckets at this point, and with the water still being on the low side, finding this type of water shouldn’t be very difficult, so move past any section that is shallow, fast moving (faster than walking speed), has riffles, or pocket water and work the deep pools intimately.
Little Truckee Fly Fishing Report and Forecast
Access on the Little Truckee is closed out due to no snow removal along Stampede dam road. While you can certainly snowshoe, cross country ski or snowmobile out here, we recommend giving the fish here a break and focusing on the main river or Pyramid Lake.
Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report and Forecast
These stormy days over the last 2 weeks have flipped the switch here at Pyramid and we are now in the best time of year to catch the large fish found here off the shore and on fly gear. With the bite remaining spread out through the day, to have your best chance at that trophy fish putting in a full sun up to sun down day is the name of the game. This can be very tough without the right gear here so be sure to bring lots of layers, thick socks, gloves and even things like hand and feet warmers, hot coffee and a hot meal to make these long cold days more tolerable. Both indicator and stripping have been working depending on your beach of choice and whatever you have the most confidence in, for me it’s in the indo. We’ve been fishing a midge leech combo under the bobber at a depth of 8-10 feet, sometimes going shallower in the mornings and deeper mid-day or evenings. Most fish have been coming on the leeches, but occasionally those big trout get a little picky and prefer the smaller meals, so its always good to give them the option. As always color can vary on a daily or even hourly basis and have a variety of colors from light to dark and everything in between is wise. With the bite so spread out over the day its always good to keep your flies in the water and we like to take shifts when taking breaks in case a school happens to move through. With such an abundance of fish found in this lake is hard to go wrong when choosing a beach to fish for the day, but in general beaches like Popcorn, Sandhole, or Blockhouse are good choices if you’re looking to strip streamers and beaches like Cattleguard, Pelican (the rocky side), or Spider make for good places to indicator fish. This theory is mostly based on the type of structure found there, sandy drop offs are better for stripping, while rocky bottoms are best for indo fishing. Not anything to live by, just theoretics.
Lastly, we want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and invite everyone to come in for any last-minute gift shopping for any of your fishy friends or loved ones, and if you haven’t already, check out our holiday gift guide here on our website for ideas. For our second holiday season, we pulled out all the stops on gift items and are well stocked on unique gift ideas and we’re giving away some swag when you spend over $100 too! Check out the gift guide for details, or stop by the shop. We will be open every day from 9-6 all the way up to Christmas day, which we will be taking off to spend with our loved ones. Thank you all for your continued support of Truckee’s only dedicated fly shop!
– Miles and the TCO crew
