Guided Truckee River Fly Fishing. Welcome to Gilligan’s Guide Service.

Guided Fly Fishing the Truckee River, Little Truckee River, Pyramid Lake Nevada, Truckee-Tahoe-Reno

A guided trip for beginners and experienced anglers includes instruction that builds a basic foundation necessary not only to catch fish but to understand the patterns in which fish feed and what they feed on particularly in the Truckee River throughout the changing seasons. A day with Gilligan’s Guide Service also includes honing the proper casting technique and fly presentation in order for an angler to have success on some of the most beautiful and difficult waters around Truckee, Tahoe, and Reno.

If you are new to fly fishing and do not have equipment, Gill will provide gear including waders, boots, and rods at no additional cost. Gilligan’s Guide service runs trips year round along the Truckee River, including float trips along the Nevada side, Little Truckee River, and Pyramid Lake Nevada.

Truckee River Fly Fishing – Latest Blog Posts

  • Truckee River Fly Fishing Report March 26 2024
    Spring is here, kinda. Still snowing though. That’s Spring in the mountains. Few nice days, then some snow, then mainly wind. I can say however, the fishing is good, and my favorite time to fish is Spring on the Truckee River. Welp, we have a lot of snow up top now and eventually that snow is going to melt. We’re kinda pre-runoff right now. The river will get big at some point. Usually that’s when it stops freezing so hard at night. Couple weeks, we’ll see those flows come up. Now if you’re in the know, big flows are some of the best times to fish the Truckee River. If anyone has trips booked with me this Spring, you’re stoked. I’ll show you the ways young Jedi’s. Right now the streamer bite is good East of Reno on the lower Truckee River in Nevada. Flows are up down there so think big. Nymph big, if you’re nymphing. Egg bite is on through Reno. Mainly skwalas, and dark mayflies up here in Hirschdale. I haven’t seen any rainbow redds up here in Ca yet. Always be cool this time of year wading through tail outs and such.    
  • Truckee River Fly Fishing Report March 11 2024
    Things are firing up for a good Spring on the Truckee River. We got lots of snow, sure you’ve heard, and now it’s all gotta melt. High’s could get into the 60’s this weekend in Truckee. Yahoooo! Look for the river to come up. My favorite time to fish is Spring on the Truckee RIver. The bigger the water, the better. People always ask, what’s your favorite time to fish the river Gill? Right now until about mid-June. I like brown trout. Now, don’t look for the river to get that big or anything yet. That’ll probably happen more in April. Right now, look for good nymphing all up and down the river. Skwalla’s are out, blue wings, and lots of midges. Spring is also my favorite time to streamer fish, and it will be the best dry fly fishing we’ll have too. If the water don’t get that high. Just a fun time to fish. I’ll have some clinics coming up in April. Don’t forget to check these out too. Best rods on the planet, not kidding.  
  • Truckee River Fly Fishing Report February 13 2024
    Interesting weather and fishing on the Truckee RIver. Pretty good storm cycle last week, and looks like it should continue starting this weekend for about another week. We’re stacking the snow up on top, so that’s really good news. Relatively warm for mid-February here in Hirschdale. We got less than a foot of snow on the ground and access is pretty easy all over. Flows are nice in California, and great out East on the lower Truckee River. Not too high, not too low. The dry fly fishing out East has been relatively good. It’s mainly about timing. The streamer fishing and nymphing has been descent as well. Flows will probably pop up a bit next week, but they’ll settle down fast. Who knows what the end of the month and March will bring weather wise. My opinion is it will be warm and wet. We’ll see.      
  • Truckee River Fly Fishing Report January 24 2024
    Mild weather in the Hirsch on the Truckee River. We’ve had precip most of the week, but the storms have been warm. It’s snowing where it counts though. The kids had one good sledding week here at our house, that’s it. Now we just have a few inches on the ground-El Niño. Honestly, I love when it snows up top and not down here. Less work for this old timer. The fishing this Winter has been good. Flows have been pretty stable and volume wise, perfect. We’ve made it past our 2 coldest months, so it’s all gravy until Spring. The dry fly fishing out East on the lower river is starting to turn on. You’ll get midges in the morning. When they cluster up the fish are on them. Later in the day the blue wings come out. Big fat size #16’s. Most of the fish will be on the smaller side, but occasionally you’ll get a big fish rising. Warm cloudy days are the best. Even on the sunny days you should get some fish looking up. Fun to head hunt. With the warmer Winter, I haven’t spent all my time down on the Nevada side. The fishing is descent here on the Ca side too.        
  • Truckee River Fly Fishing Report January 6 2024
    Winter has arrived on the Truckee River. Gonna be a cold week with snow and wind. Probably not the best for fishing. Maybe down on the Nevada side, but here in Hirschdale, we’ll be in the single digits at night, and won’t make it out of the 20’s during the day. Too much ice in the guides for me. After this week, for now, it’s looking like El Niño may kick in. That means bigger warmer storms, which is good for the fishing. Last week got a few days of solid streamer fishing in. It was warm and cloudy. So, I’ll probably chill and build some rods this week. My Shopify store will be up soon. http://www.truckeespeedrods.com
  • Truckee River Fly Fishing Report December 27 2023
    Mild is the word on the Truckee River. 63 degrees when I got off the river in Reno today. Crazy. That’s like April weather.  Hopefully we end up getting some kind of Winter. Good for fishing though. I knew with El Nino we would have a mild Winter which bodes well for fishing, The whole darn river is fishing pretty well. Flows are perfect for Winter. I’d fish the frog water and maybe the riffles as the water warms up, on warmer days. Look for that dry fly fishing in the desert to start up in about 2-3 weeks. It gets super good down there on a cloudy day. So look, the skiing sucks, might as well come out and fish with me.