Truckee River (east) Fishing

Just took a very short trip of 4hrs or so, to fish the Truckee east of Reno. The section east of Reno is basically from around the Lockwood exit down to the Painted Rock exit along hwy 80. The river here has a decent bwo hatch that goes from late Feb to April. You can see one floating below--they are the classic bluish grey color and are about size #16.

Weather was amazing. 60 degrees and almost no wind.

In the past, Rubber Legs patterns would catch a lot of fish but today it was almost all on the Frenchie. The fish seemed to be keying in on the bwo's. 

The rainbows fought very hard. The browns I caught were a little sluggish in comparison, but they got airborne! 

Reno is an incredible city for fishing. It is not great fishing like in Montana, but the access is incredible and the fishing is good. So many options within an hour or two drive and you have the miles & miles of the Truckee + Pyramid. I was disappointed in my first trip to Montana at all the access restrictions/private land. The poor Madison almost seemed like it was in the process of being privatized within 20 years with all the homes/cabins along the river.

Lost a solid brown that was I am guessing about 18", maybe pushing 20." It was right at the moment I was about to stretch out the net when he turned upwards and twisted a little to spit the hook out. My rig went flying backwards into the trees behind. 

There were 3 young mustangs running and playing along the river. Not sure how many of the horses roaming around the hills east of Reno are horses that were dumped and not truly wild, but these guys were probably born wild & free.