Truckee River - Overlooked?

[OceanSunfish]

I spent the day in Truckee with the family as an alternative to baking at home. Turned out to be a good idea as it reached about 82 at around 3PM. Beautiful day in that area, outright cooking back at home.

Anyway, we decided to make a run for the Cabelas store which turned out to be a mistake as road work, or actually road equipment left in place by CalTrans, squeezed traffic into a single lane 3 miles east of Floristan. It took us 90 minutes to cover the distance from Hirschdale to Floristan, ugh.

The flip side is that I got to see the Truckee River for 90 minutes before exiting Floristan Rd. and turning around for home. Usually, the Truckee River is something seen in glimpses as one travels to Reno, etc. So, I really got a good stare at the river.

As the sun was setting to the west, the canyon was completely in the shade and the day's heat still lingered, but it was magificent outside (like being in Montana in early August) as we stretched our legs at Floristan. It sure looked like a nice evening to fish the river with dries. Yet, I only saw two anglers up by their car between Hirsch and Floristan.

I've always wondered why I really never see that much angler traffic on that river.

Is access limited? Some private?

Is the catching too difficult and techinical?

Is it because nearby lodging is essentially of the expensive variety and a day trip too costly for just a few effectual hours of fishing.....

Is it due to the river primarily being a limited opportunity, i.g., AM or PM, late. Folks have other places to hit all day.......

BTW, is a section of the river private?

Perhaps much of what I don't know of the Truckee River can be answered by a data sheet on the Kiene website that I'm too slow to find, etc.

Lastly, and I could be mistaken, but the advent of the switch rod can be traced back to perhaps, Randy Johnson, who was making long fly rods specifically to fish the Truckee with nymphs under a special indicator. This maybe going back some 9 years or so.

[nightgoat]

I see plenty of people fishing the Truckee. But there is a lot of water and certain sections see more pressure than others. There is a section of private water from the Glenshire Bridge downstream a ways (I forget the end point).

The Truckee can be a very tough river, but it is definitely worth the effort.

[easymends]

I wish it was over looked.

[OceanSunfish]

I wish it was over looked.

Very good.

Since I'm one of 'those' that only sees the Truckee while traveling 65 mph and not actually down in the water, I miss the actual goings-on........

Still, it's not like the Yuba at highway 20 when it comes to actual pressure. Right?

[easymends]

Hard to answer that question. I bet the Yuba gets more play than most based on the fact the Truckee has snow and harsh weather throughout the winter.

[trog]

Ocean Sunfish - Funny you should mention the Floriston exit. I was on my way to pick up my wife's aunt from the Reno airport last week for a family gathering on Lake Tahoe, so I got a hall pass to fish the Truckee during the morning. I'd never fished the river before, so I just got off on the Floriston exit, walked under the bridge, and had at it. I was high-sticking some pretty fast water, hard to find pockets where I could actually get the nymph down, but I was gratified to pull a 10" rainbow out from behind a boulder. Took about 2 hours, but its always a treat to catch a fish in unfamiliar water. Caught him on a small copper john dropped below an egg imitator.

Fished just below Truckee later in the week. I didn't see any action, but my buddy brought three decent fish to hand in 3 hours of fishing.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

The Truckee River is close for us in Sacramento and not too bad for the Bay Area fly fishers as well.

I think late June and most of July is a great time to fish the main Truckee River.

It has a lot of water that is fairly accessible.

It has lots of different food types too.

It has some really big trout in it and can be moody.