Truckee Fishing - Oct 15, 2017

Just a short Sunday trip of 2-3 hours fishing on the Truckee West of Reno in Nevada. This small section of the river mainly has small trout, 8-11" with a few 14 inch or so fish about. I think it is because it is between two spillways and it gets poached hard by locals despite the special regs. This section has much smaller water than the rest of the river due to a lot of water sucked out upstream for power plant generators and irrigation canals--A lot of the water gets pumped back just downstream, and at other spots as well further downstream.

A little rusty on the euro nymphing but I slowly got better drifts as time went on. All fish but one were taken on the frenchie bottom fly. The mop fly served as the top fly and was weighted.

​I added a small palsa indicator to the sighter for you to help see the sighter better in the video. I do like the palsa however for seeing the sighter better myself, and it also acts as a short term indicator as the nymphs initially sink on longer casts and it is to far to lift all the line/leader out of the water. I trim it with scissors a little otherwise it would be a little too bulky. I also like how it can ride just on the surface as you make your drift and help keep your drift more controlled. I will eventually experiment with it using almost weightless nymphs for shallow water flats, similar to how you would use a French slinky sighter.

Lots of baetis about, in the air and under the rocks. That is why the frenchie worked so well and the mop went almost untouched. The biomass under the rocks was impressive. The most I have seen on the Truckee. Hopefully this will mean great fishing next year and the river  closer to recovery from the recent low water period. One of the best rivers in the west will be back!

Biggest fish was about 13". Put up a great fight. The dam batteries on the video camera went out mid fight, but I captured the release after quickly changing the batteries with the fish sitting in the net in some soft water while along the bank.

A little secret for those who read to the end of this post! For the next time there is a low water period, this section of river fishes well--probably the only section when conditions are dire. This section actually had more water in it during the drought than it does now and fished well when the temperatures weren't too hot. Because the water that normally got sucked out during normal years, did not during that time. 

First time using the new Sage Pulse 10' 3wt. Awesome rod! Great for euro nymphing, but I can see it working well for dry fly fishing and using it for indicator nymphing. It is a great looking rod too with the lime green finish. It was sensitive enough and yet it felt very sturdy, as in I think it can handle big fish. We will see....