Truckee River 

The river has come up to a bit over 225 cfs through the downtown gauge and the temperatures are fluctuating from the high 30s to the mid 40s. The fish have acclimated to these wintery water temperatures and are starting to feeding midday as the water warms. Smaller nymphs under an indicator or European style nymphing has worked well. We’ve been using #18s-#20s with an occasional #16 if I really need to get down without external weight. 

Dry fly fishing has increased too! Look for overcast not too windy days to produce a prolific blue winged olive mayfly hatch around noon. This is the time of year to dry fly fish the Truckee! These mayflies are anywhere from an #16-#18. Streamer action has begun to taper off as spawning is nearly done if not finished already. It still may be a way to entice that larger fish into biting specially on cloudy days. 

Flies we suggest: Pull Over BWO, Olive Perdigon, Carot, CDC Red Tag, Parachute Adams, Parachute Madam X, ID Theft, Sculpzilla, Weirs Sculpin, Frenchie

Pyramid Lake

The action at the lake has increased as the trout are getting comfortable in depths less than 15 feet. Retrieving flies has still been the most productive, but midges and balanced leeches under the indicator are producing at times. Morning and evening bite, in low light conditions, has been best.

The Cat Whisker and Deadpool Booby Fly have been very effective. Followed closely by the Midnight Cowboy. Under the indicator Diablo Balanced Leech or the Peacock Balanced Leech have fished well. Try pairing a Holographic Midge with your Balanced Leech. We have catching fish on the Albino Wino and Wine/Copper. 

Adjust your depth often with both indicating and retrieving flies as may fish have been hovering 1-5 plus feet off the bottom throughout the day. 

Flies we suggest: Midnight Cowboy, Booby Fly, Pyramid Lake Beetle, Balanced Leech, Holographic Midge, Mini Jig Leech, Jan’s Tui Chub

Here at the shop we were thinking of ways to kick off the holiday season and came up with a Holiday Fly Selection that will be an awesome gift for any angler. It would be an awesome little gift to yourself if you needed to restock your Truckee River ESN fly box.

The Perdigon and the Carotene have become staff and customer favorites for many of our local/regional waters. These flies simply work. Staff use them regularly on the Truckee and these patterns have been known to catch fish all over the West.

We have these patterns custom tied for the Shop and, in doing so, we take the opportunity to upsize the bead a whole hook size. This extra weight seems to make the difference.

The Holiday Fly Selection is made up of 18 flies in a custom branded puck for only $39.95. A total of 6 Carots (2 each #12, #14 and #16), Red Perdigon (2 each #14 and #16), Black Perdigon (2 each #14 and #16) and the newly introduced Olive Perdigon (2 each #14 and #16). You get over a 20% savings from buying these flies individually and a box of the most popular patterns we sell here in the shop for the Truckee River.

The Holiday Fly Selection is only offered in store and while supplies last. Swing by or call the shop soon.