Truckee River and Pyramid Lake Fly Fishing report.

Matt “ Gilligan” Koles reports on 12.15.2015

We are experiencing descent snows in Tahoe for the first time in 3 years. Decent snows, not huge for Tahoe standards. After todays storm we will be right around 80% of average annual snowfall in most parts of the Northern Sierra’s. The Truckee River watershed is looking good.

Last weeks storm came in very warm and we got a lot of rain before it turned to snow. The Truckee River came up over 450 cfs here in the Hirsch. A very good flush for the river. It has settled and we are around 130 cfs here now. Still low, but way way better than it was. Nothing is coming out of Boca right now, so good news, water is getting stored. Also there was about 5 cfs coming out of Lake Tahoe this week. That is the first time in a long time any water has flowed out of the lake.

The Truckee River is a very good winter time fishery. Look for fish in slower deeper water this time of year. Midges, and beatis are the main bugs. Golden stones are around, and swinging streamers through the frog water can produce some huge fish this time of year. Be patient. You’re best bet is to fish a run thoroughly than to cover a lot of water.

Things look very promising for the Truckee River.

Pyramid Lake is transitioning into it’s winter time mode too. The big packs of fish are not cruising like they do in the fall and spring, but the big fish will come in usually at some point in the day. That is usually the last few hours of the day. You may have a great wind and waves coming in on you and you may not get any grabs until that last hour or two, just the way it is at Pyramid in the winter. You may get lucky though and have a good grab all day, you never know. The Lahontan Cutthroat trout of Pyramid Lake always like Tui Chubs, but this is a good time of the year when leeches and midges and stuff work great too. Dress warm and grind it out until that fish of your lifetime grabs your fly.