Fishing Trip - Truckee River 10-07-10

It's feeling like fall and the trout should be feeling the change. With shorter days, and cooler nights I was hoping the rainbows and browns of the Truckee River would be ready to play. As I drove up to meet Blake Larsen the weather was cool and I -80 was wet from a steady drizzle. This is the first day of the fall that I didn't automatically put on shorts and a t-shirt. I brought along a change of clothes, rain gear and a fleece sweater thinking I may need it. Perfect fall weather.

As I drove up I was thinking about rigging up with a system that is similar to the Burks Czech Nymphing System. I've also heard this called a Pit River Rigg. Essentially you tie about 5 feet of 25 or 30 pound braided line to your fly line and then tie on a metal tippet ring with a clinch knot. The reason for the braided line is that there are so many boulders and rocks to catch your flies and shot that if you use a standard leader you may be re-tying new leaders and flies all the time. Makes sense to me. Why not try it, I thought.

Blake had suggested to run and gun the river from about the outlet at Boca down to below Hershdale and hit some good looking runs. I was looking forward to trying the river as I'd heard reports that it had been fishing pretty good. We were looking for areas that had mid stream boulders with deep slots between or below. The idea was to find areas like this and deliver short upstream casts and high stick the rigg through, leading the flies downstream and attempting to keep in contact with the bottom. Easier said than done. I found that it's a game of constantly managing the amount of weight you're using and that changes with the depth of the slot and the velocity of the water.

There were quite a few BWOs coming off at about noon with a lot of smaller fish taking them in the film or on top. Of course I was set up to fish on the bottom. I got the hang of the high stick nymphing it and was able to pick up a couple of small fish and started getting my confidence up. We fished a nice bouldery run and there was a nice slot, with it seemed to me, just the right current speed. It was behind a large mid stream boulder and had a soft trench that was about 25 feet long. The trouble was it was across a heavy current seam. This required a good roll cast with an immediate stack mend followed by large upstream mend to get a drift. I tried to get a good drift and finally got the rigg in the seam I wanted and was soon off to the races around the bend downstream chasing the fish as it ran. I got one good glimpse of it and it was a good sized fish. Blake was fishing further downstream and was able to net a nice Truckee River rainbow with big shoulders. I guess my patience paid off.

We headed further downstream and when I fished a dropoff to a run I picked up a 18" to 20" small mouth bass. That was totally unexpected. When I told Blake about it he said that he'd heard of small mouths being lower down the river. Like I said it, was a surprise.



I had a great time exploring the Truckee River and it was a fun alternative to being behind the oars on the Lower Yuba in my driftboat. I think the fall season is just starting up and there should be some real good days coming up. Another thing to look forward to.