Fall Truckee. The stuff of magazines.

No, really! I'm not just being facetious...

I was quite surprised to see the truckee river featured on the front page of flyfisherman magazine this month. It turned to be a big article and a decent one at that, though of course it focused only on the california side of the river. But I'm very ok with that. Enough of the link spew-- it's time for:

Overdue Fish Stories:

I finally made it back out on the river on the last day of september to see if the reports (and the recent hype) are true. The reports are that the browns are getting active and streamers and nymphs are working well. I started out with the sun pretty high in the sky still but I thought that might be a good time since the nights have been downright cold and, in my experience, truckee trout like an upward gradient in water temperature. This is, of course, an assumption that turned out to be wrong due, I think, to the fact that the bugs are hatching in the evening. But I'll get to that-- first: If I have to cut down one more trot line I'm going to throw something at someone:

first catch of the day.

After untangling myself from the 20lb test trot line I got serious trying to catch fish. I threw an arsenal of nymphs at the fish and swung streamers for an hour or so before switching back to a black aggravator nymph with an october caddis (sparkle pupa) for a dropper. Finally around 5pm I stuck my first fish swinging the caddis nymph in a fast riffle in front of a big boulder. The fish felt heavy and dove deep with pulsing head shakes that told me it might be the brown trout I had hoped for. The fish made some quick strong runs but I followed downstream and put the side pressure on and netted exactly what I had hoped for:

20" fall truckee brown trout:

You have to love these colors:

I quickly got back to chucking flies and after landing a few rainbows I replaced the aggravator nymph with a #12 copper john with some split shot above it. I threw the first cast with this rig into some pocket water and as I was high sticking it in front of me my indicator made an obvious dive under the water. I set the hook hard downstream and felt a massive weight on the other end bobbing and flailing. Then it made a downstream run that kicked my arse and had me stumbling and falling down just to keep the fish from running into my backing. I immediately started getting visions of the glory I would recieve for landing this beast as it was a solid hook set and I was using 7lb flouro on both nymphs (not good for karma). I played the fish for a few minutes marveling at its strength and wondering how I would keep it out of the quarter mile of nasty whitewater below me. That's when I made the decision to horse this fish into slow water. I did it! But no, the fish darted back into the fast stuff making me sweat. Try it again? Yeah-- I did it! I saw a wide back and a full dorsal, a little bit of tail fin and.... *boink* my fly shot back over my head and I mentally punched myself in the face for being an idiot. Repeatedly. Next time I'll jump in if I have to-- this brown probably would have pushed the 8lb mark (just a guess relative to the 20"er I had just landed) and was the trophy I've been hunting for. Ah well-- these are the fish that hook fisherman and keep us hopelessly addicted.

Once the dissapointment faded a little the night ended spectacularly and I landed around a dozen or so cuttbows all in the 10"-17" range and one bigger fish that ran me downstream and promptly shook the hook. I even hooked one rainbow on a black rabbit strip streamer after the sun went down:

Fooled fish says, "this caddis has a sharp!"

The general size for the night:

This fish ate a size 4 streamer:

Note: As it's been getting cooler the fish have been moving from fast water to mid paced holes, pocket water and some pretty slow seam water. And soon, I suspect they may even begin to move towards the tail outs when the water temps are down. It's not exactly an easy time to fish this river-- I've had a few days recently where I've had to work for even just one fish but when the magic happens it's... well it's magic... just like they make it sound in the magazines.

go get 'em.