Truckee River Trout Population

[Chris Evison]

Ran into some U.S. Fish & Wildlife field workers putting in above Glenshire bridge on 7/10. I asked if they were doing a population study and found that they weren't checking #'s but rather health of the fish. Saw alot of people go downstream with U.S. F&W ahead of them shocking the river, then saw most of them come right back out. Gotta be tough to catch fish after they have been shocked!

The day before they had worked down from where Martis Creek enters the Truckee to Glenshire bridge. They got 40 fish of which one was a wild fish of 14" all the rest were stockers that had move up from below. I wonder why the "private" flycasters club gets to stock the river without doing an EIS as the state has had to do with lakes? Now I'm not complaining to hard as these fish boast the river #'s making it easier for us guides to get people into fish, but I'd rather have a wild fishery than the stockers any day.

I asked if he would take an educated guess at fish #'s. He obliged me! He figures that the Ca. side is around 400 fish to the mile and the Nv. side is 1,100 to the mile. Pretty low #'s for Ca. side but these #'s support what I see as a guide in Ca. and Nv. Now remember that this is a guess and not proven, but helps explain one of the reasons that the Truckee can be very tough.

Anybody have any more info on trout populations in the Truckee River? I'm curious now!

[Fochetti]

I am not very happy about the fact that the SF Flycasters are allowed to plant. I go up to this section of river because it is supposed to be a designated wild trout fishery. Does this bother anyone else? It bothers me when I catch a nice trout and land it to find out it has no fins left. If I wanted to catch stockers I would go off 89 and catch them all day. Just a thought it has been bothering me for a while, since I caught two of them below the Glenshire bridge. I don't mean to jack your post, but I had to ask.

[Darian]

Aside from the fact that there's something wrong with allowing Trout stocked by a private party to wander off the reservation (so to speak) into waters, supposedly unplanted under a binding settlement agreement, I have no concerns about this situation.

Regardless, the real problem is that DFG can't enforce against the club any more than it can carry out its mandate to enforce all laws assigned to it. This is due to a lack of funding for law enforcement personnel. Those that are available are working on higher priority matters (e.g heavy duty poaching rings in the Delta and along the entire coastline of CA).

Why not approach the principals in the club and ask why they're allowing their stocked to fish to wander around or why they're stocking at all Also, ask them to cease stocking operations in the Truckee in order to keep the results of any studies free from outside influences Then you can decide how to proceed, or not....

If the fish counts are higher per mile in the Truckee in Nevada, why not go there to fish until this situation is resolved. Of course, there's no assurance that at least some of the fish caught there will not be stockers....

[caltagm]

There are no fish in Nevada. None. Really no reason to waste your time and gas driving ALL the way over here.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[jigger]

The truckee has a reputation for being 'tough', 'tricky', 'technical', 'sucky'. These fish do not have more intelligence or recieve more pressure than trout in similar streams. There simply aren't many fish in those runs. The dinks come easy in these dog days, and the river certainly has it's times when conditions and luck bring a beauty to hand. But there's many more tough days prospecting than good ones. Poaching must be common. Lots of worm fishing under 80 bridge below flycaster - hint, hint DFG. The new warden was around quite a bit in the winter/spring, but haven't seen him in a while. A guy could still bend down the barbs on an artificial and put a couple nice ones on the stringer. Only a planter from the truckee should be on a stringer. Just as word had it that the truckee was fishing well, it started sucking. flows? temps? Fish at 9 oclock at night? guys catching planters?
The flycasters stocking arrangement seems strange as does treating the river like an amusement park ride catering flows to rafters. Tahoe's just about tapped, so fishing below the reserviors should improve as they release from colder sources to meet the downstream quota. Thanks Chris for the info

[tallguy]

400 fish per mile is very low for a river of the Truckee's size... Any thoughts on why it is so low? I hear fishermen say the Truckee is full of food, and the large size of some of the trout seems to support this, but it would seem like the river should have a better native population if thats really the case. Maybe the river really isn't as full of trout food as we think. Maybe we should push for year round special regulations? Is it poaching? Other habitat aspects?

Are the 700 excess trout on the NV side due solely to stocking? Or is there something different there that results in better growth of the wild population?

Thoughts?

[Rich Leonetti]

Maybe this is a stupid question but here goes. I thought the Truckee had the designation of being a "Blue Ribbon Trout Stream" based on the number of fish per mile? The number mentioned seems way lower than what the designation implies. Does anybody know anything about this?

[gilligan]

This is an interesting topic. 400 fish per mile seems accurate upstream, and below the Glenshire Bridge. Non wild fish have mostly taken over that section of river and seem to have pushed the wild fish further down river. I would say that there are more fish downstream from Boca to the Stateline than 400 fish per mile. It is a matter of technique and what type of water you fish that will determine your success on the Truckee. I watch people fish daily from my deck in Hirschdale, fishing the wrong type of water. I’m sure some of those people go back home and go to the local fly shop complaining that there are no fish in the Truckee. Little did they know that there was just a family swimming with their dogs in the spot they were fishing just 10 minutes earlier. Fish are in deeper, faster, pocket water now, and unless you fish those areas you will have limited success. There has also been more pressure on the river this year than any other year I can remember. More pressure means more spooked fish, period. It would also be hard to have a great day on any river when the water temps go over 65 degrees. I’m sure fishing is tough, say on a river such as the Upper Sac. I’m also not sure how accurate the electro shocking is either. The DFG biologists floated past me last year a little above Hirschdale and said all they shocked were whitefish. I know for a fact they floated over numerous trout, some me and my clients already caught. How many fish per mile is hard to say. I know past the Hirschdale Bridge the river never gets shocked. As far as planting goes in the Fly Casters property it is something the local game warden helps with every year along with people in the community. How we can stop them is anyone’s guess.

www.gilligansguideservice.com

[windwalker]

A little off topic, but gilligan raises an interesting point about pressure. "most" of the places I have fished this year have had more foot traffic than any other year I can remember. Not sure what the reason is, maybe more people fishing generally (doubtful), maybe more people fishing for trout since salmon is shut down, maybe it's due to the fact that since a large portion of the planting shut down more naturally productive waters are more heavily targeted?..............maybe its the internet. Whether more pressure is good or bad, well, thats a whole different ball game, maybe, maybe not.

One thing to note, the more crowds there are up in the sierra attempting to beat the heat, the more room there is on our local tailwaters, which can be suprisingly productive this time of year.

[Scott V]

Not sure about Truckee area but alot more people are fishing due to the fact of the huge unemployment rate. I know of people fishing alot more often since they have been layed off.