High Sierra Trout
Good Afternoon
Yesterday afternoon I fished the Truckee River at a park here in Reno. It was a very windy afternoon, which made casting difficult, but I just got a new fly line for my birthday which made it easier. I went back to the Scientific Anglers WF GPX line, my last line was the Rio multi-tip and I didn’t like it very much. It was expensive, the loop connection for the tip always got caught in the rod guides and it started to crack and come apart after only 1.5 seasons. I also got a new fishing pack, the Fishpond Shooting Star, and it is awesome! I had been using the Fishpond Glacier and it had some design flaws that made it very uncomfortable to wear when it was fully loaded. The new pack distributes weight very well and is very comfortable to wear. My past few fishing outings have started off with me hooking fish right away, but yesterday was different. I started out fishing some pocket water that usually produces a few nice ones, but didn’t hook anything in the whole stretch. I moved up to a nice pool, and immediately hooked a fatty on a Prince nymph that came loose at the end of the fight. A few casts later I hooked a smaller fish on a golden stone nymph that stayed hooked (pictured below).
Nice rainbow
My camera batteries were dead, so the photo was taken with my phone by a fly fisherman who was watching from the nearby bike path. His name was Doug and we started chatting about the fishing and the rainbow spawn that had just ended. He took me upstream to check out some redds that he’d located, he said last week he’d seen about 20 rainbows actively spawning over the gravel beds. He was a super nice guy and we ended up hanging out for the rest of the afternoon. I went back to the pool and immediately got a strike on a sweet Skwala stone nymph that Doug tied, but didn’t hook the fish. Doug went to his truck to suit up, meanwhile I hooked another nice one on the golden stone. Doug got back just in time to take a picture with his camera, thanks Doug!
Fish #2
The picture has an amber tint to it because Doug just had his Pentax Optio fitted with an amber polarized lens so he could take pictures of the spawning trout. I waded back out and started drifting my rig along the far bank, I hooked a beast that shook his big head once and broke me off. Just then some jackass with a golden retriever came down to the river and started tossing a tennis ball for his dog. He started off tossing it a respectful distance downstream, but then started throwing it directly over my head! The dog jumped in and swam right through my drift, ruining any prospects for another fish. I’ve never witnessed such rude behavior, and Doug let the idiot know that his actions weren’t cool at all. I got out of the river to retie my rig and ended up chatting with Doug for about 30 minutes while we waited for the inconsiderate asshole to leave. Doug has been fishing the Truckee for many years, and is an accomplished angler. He shared some of his knowledge and techniques with me, which include using water balloons for indicators. He also showed me some photos of fish he’d recently caught and some cool insect pictures (pictured below and at top of page).
Truckee River Skwala stone (D. Oullette photo)
After a while I headed upstream and hooked a nice 18” rainbow that shook the hook after a brief fight, then headed home. Doug emailed me some photos last night and he said he’d landed a nice 18” rainbow out of the hole after I left. Below are two pictures of Doug and some fatty Truckee River fish he recently caught.
My friend Matt just returned from a trip to Chile with a few hundred photos and some good stories. I’m in the process of going through them and I’ll post some of them soon.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
