This is not the Bighorn.

That was a bumper sticker I saw, sums it up almost perfectly for the Truckee River.

Took a few folks out this week that asked, is the whole river this rocky and gnarly? Yep, pretty much. I can’t take the boulders out, or make it any easier to wade. I can get you fish if you can move around in the river. If you can’t, my hands are tied.

Like I say, spend some money on a wading staff and good boots. Felt are still the best. Simms with the Vibram sole are second. Put some aluminum type studs in them and you’ll be a gazelle prancing along the river. If we can’t get to the fish, we can’t catch them. Stay away form the box stores. Those guys don’t know shit. Support your local fly shop, if you still have one.

Fishing is good in the mornings right now in the faster oxygenated pocket water. Sunrise-about noon. It’s hot in the afternoons and just not good for fishing. Parts of the river, the water is bathtub warm in the afternoons-Nevada. If you’re wet wading up to your balls and and the water feels warm, get out of the river you knuckleheads and stop fishing. I can’t tell you how many times I drive to Reno in the afternoons and there’s dudes in the barn hole plugging away. No, that ain’t cool. Stop fishing. Here’s a video we did before the drought, it still applies now. It’ll cool down in about a month when we’ll have cooler nights.

So for now, nymph up in the faster water. Crayfish should be your very best friend. Caddis and mayflies and little bugs like that for your droppers. If you ain’t so good at nymphing, get schooled up. I still have some spots for the Tight Line Nymph Clinics.