The warm days on the Truckee have made flows trend upwards, but not really to the point of it hindering the fishing. In fact, as mentioned above, the weather has made the bugs go nuts, and we are getting more topwater eats this week than we have in the last few months. The most exciting of these newly emerging bugs, in our opinion, is the carpenter ant, for whatever reason the fish absolutely love these things and it can bring some of the biggest ones in the river up to the top.

Another pro tip is fishing a sunken ant this time of year. We’ve got a pretty cool sunken ant pattern from Umpqua that I don’t feel gets enough love. You would fish these just like any other nymph, and can also make a really great dropper underneath a chubby Chernobyl! The fish are almost solely in fast water now, unless they have sunk back into the slow stuff to eat some dries.

Using Euro nymphing tactics will be your best bet to get down and get in front of them fast when they are in the bubbly stuff. With the high water this time of year, the heaviest anchor fly you can find is your best friend. This is the exact situation I tied my Rocksteady stone for, and the sizes 4 and 6 in tan or black have been getting a lot of eats.

On the sections of river with more turbid water, jigged streamers on the tightline set up have been putting some fish in the net. Think sculpin or crawdad patterns, tied heavy with a good profile and a lot of motion; rubber legs, marabou, rabbit or squirrel zonkers, and a whole lot of tungsten and lead! With more of the summer bugs on the menu, we’ve been seeing patterns like peaches and cream, iron sallies, hunchback drake nymphs and fox’s poopah working better and better lately. The fishing remains good all day right now, but mornings will likely get better and better in the coming weeks. Don’t forget that we are open for our summer hours right now, 7am-7pm, every day!