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This week’s rain event made the Truckee come up 100-200 CFS on various sections of the river, and it has since stabilized. While it did go “chocolate milk” for a day, the proceeding days where epic as water cleared and flows dropped. One of the beautiful things about this river system is how fast it can drop back into shape, and often once it does, the fish feed very aggressively. When the river comes up like it did last week, it does a few things; first, the increase in water volume flushes more food into the system, especially bigger meals, like stoneflies, worms and crawdads. Secondly, more times than not, the rain will cause water temps to rise, making fish more active. The third thing these rain events do is push fish to the slower eddies and tailouts, which are often along the banks of the river, making them an easier shot for shore anglers.
One of the most important factors of success right now is fishing the right water. These fish are currently sitting in “winter water” this means water that is walking speed or less, ideally along a small seam or bubble line running alongside the main current. They want the deepest water they have access to and ideally some sort of cover, be it a big boulder, cut bank or overhanging brush. Even with the decreased visibility from the rain last week, we still caught an equal number of fish on the smaller offerings, with the zebra midge in particular doing best. When fishing the slower water the fish are in right now, they have more time to inspect your presentation. A well presented smaller fly will often fish well when you are fishing an area thoroughly, where a larger attractor nymph will often produce within the first few drifts, targeting those more aggressive fish.
One very important aspect of effectively fishing the slow water right now is getting good drifts. This means high-sticking your indicator when in close and keep most, if not all, of your fly line off the water. When fishing further out, use big upstream mends to slow that bobber down and allow those flies to spend as much time in the zone as possible before they get drag. With the speed that the fish are currently sitting in, it’s not quite as important to use a whole bunch of weight, as long as you can get a good slow drift. Using less weight will make your flies drop into the zone and drift more naturally, which is important when these fish have more time to inspect it. We have been mostly using 1 BB or AB split shot and fishing 5-8 feet under our bobbers in recent weeks, but there will be a few runs on this river where a deeper presentation will be required.
