Markleeville Monsoon
The past week has brought some much needed precipitation to the area, but a little too much in too short of time. The major news is that Markleeville got hit hard with rain, causing mudslides and road outages. It may be some time before we get to fish this river again. On brighter news, the rest of the area got some rain and cooler temps that should crank up the fishing for the next few days.
East Carson River:
One look at the flowchart from the past week and you will see why this river probably isn’t an option for at least the short term. Torrential downpour hit Markleeville hard this past week, and the recent burn scar gave way to mudslides and debris into the roads and the river. I haven’t heard many reports from the river corridor itself besides it being extremely off color. Luckily fisheries are resilient and we expect it to be fishable again once the water clears up.
Truckee River:
Probably our best river option in the area, but even with the cooler temps and precip it will remain under hoot owl conditions for the foreseeable future. The fishing will be better early morning, but also the practice of “catch and release” will be more effective when the temps are cool, so grab your rods and your thermometers and give this river a try. An effective set up is a deep hopper-dropper rig with a large grasshopper or chubby chernobyl, and 4 or 5 feet of tippet down to a heavy nymph. I have found that the absence of split shot and bobbers this time of year will get more grabs. Try small stonefly patterns, caddis patterns, and clinger mayfly type patterns for nymphs.
Little Truckee River:
With the low flows this river isn’t what I would call “firing” but there are still the usual fish in the usual holes who will feed consistently during the daytime hatches. These fish see a lot of flies and even more fly lines. The ticket to catching them is often a downstream presentation with 5.5X or 6X tippet. Try small PMD drys followed by a smaller PMD emerger, or a medium sized chubby with a bead headed PMD nymph.
East Walker River:
Get up early if you want to fish this river as temps are non lethal only between sunrise to about 10:00 AM this time of year.
Stillwater Options:
Bust out those float tubes and slip indicators as our rivers begin to slow and the lakes become our best option for all-day fishing. Strip full sinking lines or deep water midge in 20-40 feet of water. Still water is often considered boring but the fish are often bigger, have more room to run, and can still make for an awesome day of fishing. Also just like our rivers there’s often a window of dry fly fishing in the late evening so if you are looking for that dry fly fix, don’t forget about lakes.
Hot Lakes:
High Elevation Lakes - Stop by the shop for more information
Blue Lakes - Lower is fishing great
Prosser Reservoir - Trout and Smallmouth
Sawmill Lake - BOOK NOW! Private Lake with large rainbows and browns
Lake Baron -Stocked!
Bridgeport Reservoir - Carp time. Drop a line by the dam.
Silver Lake - Stocked!
Caple’s Lake- Chance at a big Lake Trout
Tahoe - Not a numbers game but when we fish Tahoe we are looking for that fish of a lifetime
