Truckee River has been good

[dtp916]

Caught a handful of bows today in the 13-18" range. Little surface activity today, so I mostly dredged the bottom.

PMD Viz-A-Dun #14
Green Czech Nymph #12
San Juan Worm #12
GB Hare's Ear #16

Talked to a guy said the LT was getting better and flows were relatively stable. Told me he caught 5 in a half an hour yesterday.

[rosebud]

Hi all!

Well, fourth time's the charm. I've been flyfishing for 4 years now, sticking mostly to small streams and smaller trout. On my fourth trip to the Truckee, I finally landed a 20" Rainbow. (She looks smaller in the photo, but I swear, I measured her.) She was a beaut and did everything she was suppose to...ran upstream and downstream, went airborne twice, tried going under a rock. I was shaking with adrenaline.

I took my 12-year-old son, just learning to fly fish, and we hit the Truckee from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. this Tuesday fishing upstream from the Glenshire Bridge. I saw a few risers, had a couple of refusals, and nailed this guy on a #8 Stimulator at about 11:00.

BTW, my first three trips...#1 & #2 skunked; #3 two hooked, one broke and one shook off mid-air.

P.S. My son is starting to get discouraged from not catching. He's taken casting lessons and I work as hard as I can to try to help him. Please PM or e-mail me at nseroom2@yahoo.com if you have suggestions for a nearby stream with willing and forgiving trout. Thanks in advance!

- Rick.

[medfly]

so i went back to the truckee for another day trip yesterday, on the water at 2:30pm at the glenshire bridge and went up river, very different river from monday, during the day only caddis were out in abundance, found some risers but really had to search for them, hooked a medium sized fish and then LDR, but a few moments later hooked and brought to hand a 20 inch rainbow, a real beautiful fish, id show pics but in the chaos i dropped my camera in the river, its drying out (please work), i still feel fish over camera was the proper decision, one strange thing was the fight of this 20 incher, came up more like a log (not exactly), but nothing like the screaming up/down river of the 18incher i caught on monday in the truckee, this usually suggests too cold water but that is not the case, the water was warmer than i expected, around 7:30 the PMDs and a huge brown mayfly started coming off, fish didnt seem to key into them though, very few rising fish in the evening, looked to be going after emergers (just barely their dorsals breaking the surface), had no luck and left around 8:15 since a number of people had showed up, still a great day of big bugs and huge trout

[Oskar]

I fished Truckee Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday between Glenshire and Trout Creek. Tuesday I saw a nice hatch of greyish-brown mayflies between 9.30 and about noon. At one piont I had about six risers spread out over the pool I was fishing and didnt know witch one to cast at. I landed about five fish all in the 16-20 inch range over the morning. I guess they released more water from Tahoe on wednesday as the flow was much higher. Got out really early but no bugs until about 10 again though much less then the day before. I still got into a few fish but had to search for the risers. Just before dark saw quite a few big green drakes floating by. Never seen them before , man are they huge. Thursday was pretty much the same as Wednesday with a day of riser searching. If they are surfacing they are pretty good about taking the fly but man are they suttle.

[anon]

i fished the truckee again on sunday. on the water at ~1:30pm. not too much action, didn't see any surface activity. fished with some nymphs and caught several 5-7 inch browns and rainbows. got bored so i switched to dries, and continued catching a few more 5-7 inchers. still funner than catching them on nymphs though.

by 6pm or so, i decide to work my way back to the car to get a snack. continue casting my dry, had a few hits from decent sized fish (~12 inch)but couldn't hook any. then i hooked into a huge rainbow. i played him for a minute, then we were at a deadlock. the fish was downstream of me, and i couldn't bring him any closer without risk of snapping my 6x tippet that was beat up from getting tangled up in the alders all afternoon. i managed to work my way around some boulders and alders and got downstream of it, then it started to pull line. i managed to land it, and it measured approximately 22 inches. definitely the largest fish i caught on the truckee, and the largest i've ever caught on a dry. and this was on my brand new 3 wt rod!!! i was surprised that i actually landed that thing. i did hook it really deep, but i thought for sure the tippet would snap.

so i land the fish, try to take a photo with my lame camera phone, but couldn't manage. then i thought about how i'd been craving smoked trout lately, and thought about what wonderful fillets i could get from that fish. i pondered for a second... lucky for the fish, i would be far too busy to cure and smoke it over the next few days, so i let it go. seriously though, i would've released it regardless.

the fight from the rainbow was as medfly described. the fish didn't put up much of a fight. the 12 inchers i caught later that day on the little truckee pulled more line than the 22 incher. sometimes when i catch large fish that don't fight, i start to think that they've been caught and released so many times that maybe they learn that not fighting is the easiest route to them being released. maybe the smaller fish just don't have that experience yet.

while walking back to my car, i came across another fisherman taking a break on the bank. we sat and talked for a while, and decided to hang around there wait for some surface activity. just as the fish started surfacing, a family showed up and grandpa started to fish right in front of where we were sitting. a few minutes later a raft full of people pulled up to meet the family, and a few other joined grandpa. oh well, time for us (me at least) to find another hole...

so i went to the little truckee and fished for the last half-hour of daylight and caught a few 12 inchers, all on dries. not much surface activity at all, despite the really low flows.

[medfly]

returned just now from another truckee day trip, arrived around 3 at the confluence with the little truckee, was windy so the afternoon was slow, little bugs, no risers, so i took a nap, around 7 or so though things changed dramatically, every bug in the river started coming off, just watching the birds take them for a while entertained me, i missed a few strikes, but ended the day with a 20 inch brown on a size 16 yellow humpy, single fish worth the trip, any advice on setting the hook? i am generally fine with this skill but have missed a few fish recently cause of this, maybe i could use a refresher course????

[Ed Wahl]

Medfly, the most common problem when missing a lot of strikes or having the fish come unbuttoned is a dull hook. A million things out there can dull the point, even lots of fish lips. Carry a small hook hone and touch up your point before casting. Ed

[dtp916]

Depending on the angle the fish eats your bug, try a delayed reaction (not that much delayed, I'm talking in the fractions of seconds) or even better, strike horizontally instead of vertically.

I always strike horizontally and tend to fight a lot of fish with my rod parallel to the water. It has helped me increase hook ups and land more/bigger fish.