The Truckee River saw a great flush of water with last week’s big rain event peaking at over 3,000 CFS and now settling down to around 500 at the Boca confluence. For reference, this time last year the river was holding at around 300, so it just goes to show what a few good storms can do! These big flushes of water are not only beneficial to the river in terms of giving it a much needed bump in flows but also by clearing the river bottoms of sediment and creating better habitat for spawning fish and bug life.

For the nymph or streamer angler, this surge of water will often create new obstructions as more branches get put in the river, avoiding these can be difficult, and you will likely loose some flies, not much you can do here other than use heavier tippet. While the water has cleared up quite well there is still a tint to the water at the moment, and we found our fish still pushed up along the edges of the river on the slow eddies, or deep tail outs. While this week we didn’t see much action on top with the exception of one particularly large fish rise in a tail out, we are expecting the lower river dry fly bite to pick up in the coming weeks as the Baetis become increasingly active over the next few months. For those looking to fish on top, we recommend focusing on the river east of Sparks where the hatches of these winter mayflies will be more present.