For those of you that have been wanting to try fishing the T in the winter, we highly encourage you to give it a go. If the thought of fishing this time of year is intimidating, consider booking a guide trip with us, we would love to show you what fishing this time of year is all about! This week we went out with Gregg and Adam, who were interested to try their hand at it after reading our weekly report, and they saw firsthand the potential that this river has with a beautiful 25” brown stuck on a streamer. The day before while fishing in Nevada, I found my biggest rainbow yet out of the Truckee estimated at 25” and 5 pounds. Two Truckee River trophies caught a day apart and 60+ miles apart! It’s a great indication of the rivers health and it’s all boding well for a great 2023 season.

Access continues to get easier here on the California side with these continued sunny days. While the upper river along Glenshire Drive still has a few feet on the ground, by the time you reach the Farad exit, the snow is light and travel is easy. In Truckee, the morning temps have been down into the teens and afternoons in the mid-forties, so take your time getting on the water this time of year as the fish will become increasingly active throughout the day.

The flows continue to drop gradually and we saw a decrease of around 100 CFS from last week, overall though the water is higher than this time last year and the entire system is in excellent shape from Tahoe City to Mustang Ranch. The water remains very clear all the way through Reno, so we recommend downsizing your nymphs to a size 18-20 and lighten up your tippet to a 5x on most sections of river. Baetis and midges are on the main menu for these trout this week and the bite on stones, eggs and worms has slowed significantly, so try fishing two small flies under the indicator and focus on any slow water, deep buckets or the tailouts of long riffles. The streamer bite is excellent this week as well and for those looking to throw meat, fish slow runs up against banks or in front of rocks, and don’t be afraid to go big this time of year to tempt these big fish, we often go as big a 6”, and use a lot of weight to slow down the fly and keep it in front of their face longer.