You want the good news or the bad news? The good news is that we’ve had a week of solid cool temps, some rain, it made for some muddy flows, brought the river up, and bought us some time so to speak. We had a little of everything, and pretty solid fishing. The bad news is that flows will lower this Friday on the Truckee River. No one knows for sure exactly what the flows will be, but they will be much lower than what they are now. Flows out of Boca will be 0-50 cfs? Out of Lake Tahoe around 50 cfs? That could mean a meager 100 cfs running down through the Hirsch. Flows are 444 cfs here today. To supplement flows this fall we have Donner Lake, and Independence Lake to drain. The Little Truckee River will remain at about 47 cfs or so through fall- that is pretty average. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Of course things are going to change. Fish will be stressed out with the low warm flows. You will have to fish early and get done probably by 11:00 am, maybe earlier. The Nevada side could be a big concern, especially if we have a hot August. Now, flows may not drop to those levels, and we may get rain every afternoon. I’ve seen flows at 28 cfs here in Hirschdale, but it was fall, and the fish were ok. We are all, no matter what, going to have to change the way we fish the river this late summer and fall. Let’s see what happens this week. For guide trips, we’ll be fine, we’ll start earlier, and most likely fish the California side of the river.
