Truckee Report

[El Rey]

Not much in the way of fishing/catching. These past two days are all about smoke, smoke, and more smoke from the fire over by Pollack Pines.

Arrived in Truckee around mid-day hoping to fish the main Truckee until evening. With cool nights I had hoped the river temp would be lower. However, the gentlemen at Mt Hardware said it was around 68 degrees. That is their cutoff for no fishing. They advised me to try the LT. That water remains cold from the bottom of the dam. It worked out well with a few to hand on dries.

So, first thing this morning I went to the main Truckee and was surprised at how low it was. Got skunked.

Smoke, however, is the big story. Yesterday, Tuesday, the smoke started appearing around Auburn and got thicker and thicker driving up the hill. Maybe a little less dense on the east side, but you couldn't see the mountains from Truckee.

This morning the wind seemed to shift, and it was bright and clear and windy in Truckee. However, my car was covered with ash. Then around 1:00 PM the wind shifted and the smoke returned. So I packed it in. By the time I got up to the Pass, the sky was black with smoke, and it even seemed like snow flurries as ash was falling. Then around Baxter it was bright and clear again. Looking back you could see the spectacular cumulus build up. Looked like a thunder head, but it was all smoke.

Anyhow, anyone with respiratory problems should avoid the area. Saw many using face masks. You who live there, take care.

Cheers,
Harlan

[bigfly]

Harlan, I probably should have posted and saved you a trip.
But nothing much has changed, from the last post.....
My thermometer hasn't read 68 for a couple weeks, I recommend bringing one with, they've sold out locally.
Water has been 58-59 deg at dawn, with clouds it's maxing at 65 or so.
I heard they dredged out the natural rim at Tahoe, so we have some water in the river.
In the morning there is a window of opportunity.....down in the canyon.
Nothing much has changed....Midges, a few stones, and a couple of Caddis.
Having been harassed since early May, and with low flows, they are spooky and not stupid.
Little guys are most active....
I'm still giving them a break......not due to temps, just low water.
It has the feel of shooting fish in a barrel which doesn't say much for one's angling ability.
Getting cool in the evenings 35-38 deg, leaves are changing.....
You will breath smoke if you come up, but you can't have forests without fires.......

Jim

[JasonB]

Yep the fire is very serious, grew like crazy yesterday. For those with an interest, I've found the following site to be the most helpful in terms of current updates http://yubanet.com/nevada/King.php. We had to evacuate last night and have been watching this thing very carefully. Unprecedented growth rate, ran something like 15 miles to the north yesterday! Heading possibly into Desolation wilderness and Granite chief wilderness at this point.
JB

[Bill Markwood]

Jason, Thanks for the link to the fire update website. My wife and I are planning to backpack into Desolation next week and this is valuable information.

Bill

[bigfly]

I heard this morning the fire is 14 miles from Tahoe. In an unpopulated area.
Seasoned fire fighters are saying they haven't seen a fire quite like this.
3000 people evacuated so far.
Jason, hope you get to go home soon.......

Jim

[Morgan]

Very smokey this morning in South Lake. We haven't been effected by the smoke since this morning on this side of the lake. SOunds like the north side of the lake has been getting the brunt of the smoke. We hope for the best for those in immediate danger. Lets hope mother nature holds off on that one word for the next few days. The word we don't mention to hope it stays away. Hope all is well JasonB.

[JasonB]

Thanks guys, didn't mean to totally sidetrack the thread. The fire is certainly fishing related though, as this will likely have some impact on quite a few miles of streams on the divide. Clearly the air quality is something that a lot of us will have to suffer for a while, probably wont get a really good handle on this thing till we get some rain.

Back on topic, and just as sobering I saw the flow for the Truckee river near Truckee was at 15cfs!!! I presume this is upstream of Trout and Donner creek, though I doubt those are adding much to the trickle. Even all the way down at Floriston the flows have dipped below 100cfs (98 to be exact), which is about half what it was a month ago, which was already low! To put in perspective I looked at the flows for this time of year for the last two years, which were also dry, and the flows at Floriston were ~500cfs. Looks like we are ALL in pretty dire need of some rain asap.
Hope you all are finding some fishy time, I'm trying to set up a little space to get down to some serious fly tying myself. A pretty substantial tying kit was one of the first items to go in the evac supplies.
JB

[bigfly]

The Tahoe Ironman has been canceled due to smoke......
Low winds and higher humidity and some showers, have kept the fire from growing much since yesterday.
Fire is 10 miles from Alpine meadows.
People are getting antsy up here........smoke is pretty bad.

Jim

[baldeagleflyfishing]

The King has gone up silver creek , so fork american, rubicon and now the middle fork as well as jay bird, junction, hell hole and french meadows res, so its been devastating to our local fisheries, forest and burn't @ least 10 homes in the white meadows area. They're planning on back burning from the Swansboro area down to slab creek to mitigate it's movement closer to the mosquito rd area. We really thankful to all the firefighters for saving as many homes as they have and sorry for the injuries( @ least 4 firemen have fallen down 20' or more cliffs(steep ass canyons) and one crew was overrun and had to deploy their shelters). It's been like a war zone., hopefully w/ the lt. rain and light winds they'll get it contained soon!!!