Truckee River & Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report for May 8, 2022
As we move our new shop space this week, we have put in long days to reopen our doors as quickly as possible. Yesterday, we opened back up for business, but it’s still very much a work in progress. We are incredibly excited for you stop on in and check out the new space, but keep in mind that it is not a finished product, and we will be doing a number of projects over the next month to get it where we want it. I wanted to give a huge shout out to Scott, the raddest fly shop employee out there, for all of his hard work and contracting skills to get us up and running in what must have been some kind of record-breaking move time.
I don’t think we could have chosen a better week to move as we are in our shoulder season of tourism and the foul weather continues to make its way through our area. Cold, windy and snow days are expected this week and these days are a welcome sight to us as we hope to see this weather prolong the river fishing later in the season with cooler air temps holding the remaining snowpack and keeping the water cooler later into the year. Plus – the now shop has a massive stone fireplace in the middle of it to help keep us warm during these colder days. Come see!
Truckee River Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
Right now the Truckee is still holding at around 1,000 CFS in the canyon section but the big change has come upstream along Glenshire Drive where flows have gone up to around 750 CFS thanks to heavy run off in the upstream creeks, primarily Donner Creek which is flowing at around 300 CFS near the confluence of the Truckee. This has added some turbidity to the water as well as helped keep water temps cool. This will not necessarily work to our advantage this time of year as is will make fish less willing to move for your offerings, so our recommendation would be to try larger bugs now to entice them, and fish later in the day as temps come up.
We are starting to see a good mix of spring hatches happen as well as standard winter fare such as BWO’s and midges. But with the off-color water, we recommend using Stoneflies, worms, or eggs in tandem with bugs imitating march browns, caddis or BWO’s. With the heavy winds this week, fishing in the canyon can be a great way to find some protection from the elements and using indicators will certainly outperform the tightline set up which can be next to impossible to fish during high winds. The streamer bite will likely be good this week with the overcast days expected, and now’s a great time to swing for the fences for those big browns found in the deeper pools or frog water waiting to pounce. For this we recommend using Sculpin patterns or any pattern imitating a brown or rainbow trout and don’t be afraid to use larger sizes (2”- 4”) with a lot of flash to move some fish.
Little Truckee Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
The Little Truckee has seen some great flows over the last few weeks and the fish are responding positively. However, with a mix of high water and late season storms, we have not seen great dry fly fishing out here yet. Using a Euro Nymph set up can be a great way to get into fish, as long as the wind allows. If using an indicator, we recommend using white or clear ‘thingamabobbers’, airlocks or yarnies to prevent spooking fish. Dry droppers with a heavy nymph and a long drop (3’-5’) can be another great way to present to these educated fish right now. Keep in mind that even though this is small water and you wont need as much weight as the Truckee, the runs here are short and using heavy nymphs to get down quick will help tremendously.
The fly selection our here on the LT will be similar to the Truckee and flies imitating march browns, caddis, worms, eggs, BWO’s and midges will all work but usually it helps to go down a size or two and drop down your tippet diameter to 5x-6x for best results.
Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing Report & Forecast
The bite at Pyramid continues to be a little spotty this week with mixed reports of varied success. It appears to be mostly a stripping game at the moment and using a type 3 sinking line with buggers, boobies and beetles on beaches with a gradual drop off seems the most consistent. As we come into the tail end of the season out here the crowds have severely diminished and in that respect, it can be a great time to go out if you don’t like the concept of combat fishing. It’s tough to predict how this week’s weather will affect the fishing, but with gusts up to 40 MPH expected it will certainly be tough casting and it may be worth holding off a week or two if you wanted to head out here. With that said, we did get a report for a customer who caught a 20 pounder during an otherwise slow outing a couple days back, so as is typical with Pyramid you never know what that next cast will bring, and every day you fish here is a shot at a potential world record trout.
Thanks again for supporting your dedicated local fly shop. If you’re interested in getting out on the water with a guide, use our ‘trip inquiry’ form online and we will help match you up to one of our local guides. And stop by the shop, just one door down from our old shop, in corner space where our friends at Mountain Home Center used to be.
- Miles