She’s big and bad, the Truckee River. Can you catch fish in this water? Absolutely.
Flows have been somewhat stable this week. Between 3,300 cfs-3,600 cfs, here in Hirschdale. Pretty big flows, and a little off color. Not chocolate milk. Down river, she’s much bigger and dirty. It’s gonna be hard to find fishable water from say, Floriston down in through Reno. It can be done, but you’ll have to be Jedi.
Back in ’18, it was higher. It was above 5k for several months. Who knows how high the river will get? There’s still so much snow that has to melt. Right now it ain’t too bad. It’s fishing, if you know what, and where.
Like I said before, this is the time that’s gets me excited to fish. Why? This is when the big fish show up. Good luck in August.
So, you’ll have to find soft edges where the fish can get out of current. It’s there, if you look. They’ll literally be a rod tip away.
This is probably one of those times that if you don’t have a good guide that understands the river at these flows, you ain’t catching fish. You can’t bullshit your way into catching fish at these flows.
Streamers, worms, rubberleggs, they all doing the trick right now. Any big stupid nymph you have. Use heavy ass tippet, as you’re fishing up in the bushes. Figure you’re going to loose a lot of flies. Pull the leader with your hand, not straight with the rod tip when you get hung up. That’s how you get out of the wood.
Get fishing boys and girls. Be safe and have fun.