Truckee River Fly Fishing Report

Matt “Gilligan” Koles Reports on 6/2/2016

Memorial Day has come and gone, thank God. Every weekend warrior out on the river this weekend. Now we can focus on some summertime fishing.

Seriously though, Memorial Day sucks and so does July 4th, and Labor Day. So many people on the river illegally camping, having fires, leaving their trash and shit. I don’t mind all the anglers, it’s the other folks that don’t get it. No you cannot fish bait on the river, idiots. Lucky for me, I have my zones where I can find the whole river to myself and my guests, and yes, we catch fish.

The Truckee River is still very very big. 900 or so here in the Hirsch, and over 1,100 cfs down below. Good flows through town and the Glenshire stretch and through the schoolyard to Boca. Not my sections of river that I fish and report on.. If you want good wadable flows, go hit that stuff up. The fishing is good up there from what I hear.

In my zones -it’s big. It is very hard to find the soft edges. My best way to fish those edges is with a big dry, and 2 droppers off the back. It keeps you away from the fish and not hung up on shit that will spook those fish hanging in 2-3 feet of water. Big fish do not like deep water. I catch ALL my big fish in 4 feet or less of water. Another good way to fish is to drag a streamer up though those spots too. Fish have to stay out of the current right now and there is a lot of it. They will move to the middle slots and things when the flows come down.

When the river lowers we will have good fishing. Historically on a good snow year that is about 2 weeks away. Than the whole lower river goes off. Caddis will pop, and green drakes, and pale morning duns. We will also see some big golden stones too. In the meantime it will be tough to find those soft lies from Boca on down.

Flows are still up on the Little Truckee River and the fishing is good out there right now as well. The good dry fly fishing should happen about mid-June.