Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters Blog

Fall is here.  The days are getting shorter and colder, the water temps are back to normal, and the fishing is fantastic.  This time of year is by far the best time to fish in our area.  We have been seeing consistent mayfly hatches along with our usual caddis hatch including some October Caddis starting to show up.  The action has been great all day on the surface as well as below.  We have had success with stimulators and hopper patterns, tricos, pmd and evening duns, flashback pt’s, and caddis poopah patterns.  Look for fish in the faster riffles, and on the seams in the head and tail outs of the runs.  Big fish have been starting to show up again.  This is a great sign because they all seemed to have been missing for most of the summer.  We have had big fish actively chasing streamers.  Try swinging them across the current with an upstream

Derek Rust  TFFO

It is halfway through October and the fishing in the Tahoe are could not be better. If the weather holds out the fishing could remain great all the way through November. We have guides available at the shop year round and with the California catch and release sections of the Truckee, East Carson, and East Walker rivers open year round, the next few months are a great time to experience some late fall, early winter guided fly fishing. Recently the fishing on the East Carson has been amazing. Bigger fish are showing up below and above Hangmans bridge and they can be taken using a variety of methods. Hopper/dropper rigs are still working great, as well as streamers, dries, and nymphs. Now is a great time to throw large stimulators and october caddis patterns. Blue wing olives and tricos have been hatching mid day and the fish are eager to take these patterns as well. Nymphing with brassies, copper johns, and pheasant tails is also working great. While fishing the deeper pools try stripping large streamers for some of the bigger fish.  Good luck!

Mike O’dell TFFO

I fished the Rosachi Ranch section with fellow guide Brendan Burnside yesterday and saw some pretty interesting things.  First of all, we witnessed at least 4 large brown trout in spawning mode on a huge redd.  It was surprising to see this activity on the section of the river we were fishing.  We were able to enjoy watching these huge fish work in their environment.  Remember, don’t try and catch these spawning fish and be careful of the redds when crossing the river.  Secondly, there was an incredible baetis hatch that started around noon and the fish were actively feeding on the adults for the rest of the afternoon.  We could never remember seeing more surface activity on this river.  We were able to catch quite a few fish on dry flies and some of these fish were big.  A size 18 to 20 BWO will do the trick.  I also like a  Cutter’s BiVisible Dun in the same sizes.  The nymph fishing was a bit frustrating due to the vegetation in the water but a dry/dropper set up fished in the shallower slower moving water should work well and require a lot less cleaning of your fly.  Go with a larger size 12 dry fly and a size 18 or 20 bead head baetis pattern as you dropper. Fish this set up as the water warms and the fish start getting active.  The streamer fishing was also very slow as we tried a variety of streamer patterns without much success. One of the great things about fall fishing is you do not have to get there at the crack of dawn.  Water temps were extremely cold in the morning up until noon.  Flows are low and will continue to be that way or become even lower but right now the fishing is really good.  Good luck out there.

Rick McGuire guide/instructor TFFO