The cooling weather and thunderstorms over the last two weeks couldn’t have come at a better time as we were just reaching 68 degrees along most of the Truckee River. As things heat back up, expect to be back into these same trends, which are likely to persist through August. 

During these Hoot Owl conditions, be sure to fish early morning on the Truckee, being off the water by mid-day to early afternoon, based on where you’re fishing. Also carry a thermometer with you and call it a day when temps exceed 66 degrees. 

The fish are continuing to sit in faster water this week despite the dips in air temps over the last week, thanks to mornings into the low 40’s. Using euro nymphing tactics remains by and large the best way to find fish on the T right now, and the fun thing about this time of year is the large meals the fish are after. Crawdads, sculpins, and a hatch of large stones, I.E. Nocturnal stones are a large part of these fish diets right now. 

Imitating these bugs also just so happens to work very well together with euro nymphing the Truckee, thanks to the often heavy fly patterns used to imitate them. That said, and without fear of sounding redundant in my weekly reports, use weight. Like a lot of it! While we would say this is a year-round policy for this river, I would think this may be one of the more important seasons to do so. This is because of the often fast, short and deep slots, shelves or just even just a small depression in a riffle these fish find themselves in. 

For your smaller fly selection, we have mostly PMD’s and caddis of the river right now, as well as maybe a lingering green drake, or two. Typically we are starting to reduce our fly size over the first few weeks in August as the larger mayflies of spring diminish, and the BWO’s ramp back up towards the end of the month. 

We have had things get a bit quieter here in town and on the river this week after the post-holiday chaos. Less crowds and most of the river being in such good shape, this means people are pretty spread out along the large river system. There’s plenty of good quiet sections to spend the day at. It’s always a good policy to give other anglers and anyone else around plenty of space to enjoy their time on the water. We promise it will make for a better day outside for everyone involved, even if you don’t get to fish that one run you turned that huge brown at a few weeks back. Don’t worry, it’ll be there for you next time!