With daytime temps in the 80’s and 90’s for over a week now, the dog days of summer are officially here, and trout fishing will be best reserved for the mornings when water temps are at their lowest. We have been seeing the temps on the Truckee River hitting 66 around noon and this is a good target time to be off the water by as the fishing will slow mid-day anyways. Please continue to keep your thermometers handy during this time, be sure to land fish quickly and minimalize handling to ensure a strong release and avoid potential delayed mortality for exhausted fish unable to recover due to low dissolved oxygen in the water.

Truckee River Fly Fishing Report & Forecast

As mentioned, the Truckee has been seeing temps exceeding 68 degrees daily and as of now we strongly encourage you to get an early start on the water and calling it a day around noon or when your thermometer reads 68 degrees. With that said, the river is fishing very well this week, and we’ve seen good numbers of smaller fish particularly active, with a few larger fish in the mix. We continue to be doing best on smaller offerings such as PMD nymphs in a size 16-18, caddis pupa in a 14-16 and yellow sallies in a 14-16, mixing in a few BWO’s, Stoneflies and crawdads, oh yeah, don’t forget about the crawdads!

We’ve seen a few molted craws this week, which is most certainly a dinner bell for the larger fish in the river, and fish have been taking them swung, dead drifted or tight lined. We’ve bolstered up our fly inventory on these and currently have a good selection of these clawed crustations, stop in! The fish have mostly been found in medium to fast water speeds and in 3-4 feet of water, so tight lining riffles, pocket water, and the tops of runs will be especially effective during this time of year. Dry droppers with a big foamy hopper like a Chubby Chernobyl will be a good way to work this water as well and can be a stealthier approach with the current clarity of the water right now.