This afternoon I fished the Truckee River at various spots in and around Reno.  I started out way down river at a new spot east of Sparks that I have had my eye on for a while.  The water looked great, lots of well-oxygenated pocket water with good looking runs and riffles.  The only problem was that the water was all brown from last night’s rain, and visibility was only about 10 inches.  I tried nymphing a few runs, but judging the depth was impossible and I kept snagging the bottom.  I quickly gave up and headed back upstream towards town to look for some clearer water.  When I arrived at the next spot a spin fisher was chucking a six inch long Rapala in the hole I wanted to fish, so I sat on the bank and waited patiently for him to leave.  After he left I managed to catch one little guy about ten inches long and that was it.  I fished a couple of other spots a little upstream without any luck, then headed back to the car to head to the next spot.  I decided to head to my dry fly spot so see if there were any risers, when I arrived the mayflies were out and there were lots on the water.  I changed my rig to a dry fly set up with AK’s parachute Callibaetis quill, and sat down to wait for the rise.  After about ten minutes two fish began to rise in some slow, shallow water 20 feet downstream from me. They were noodling around, never coming up in the same place twice in a row.  I covered them with a couple of less than perfect drifts, and they immediately stopped rising.  Soon another fish began to rise a little upstream from me in some faster water.  It took a few casts to get the drift right, but when I did he hammered my fly and we were off to the races.  He fought with powerful runs about thirty feet long for about five minutes.  Every time I got him in close he would come to the surface, slap his tail and then take off on another run.  I got several good looks at him before he finally spit the hook; he was a very fat, beautifully colored rainbow of about 18”.  While I replaced the kinked up 6X tippet and put on a fresh fly I noticed another fish rising about 50 yards downstream.  When I got down there I saw that it was a nice rainbow rising steadily in about 12 inches of water.  I watched him for a few minutes to get a sense of his rhythm, then laid out a perfect cast right in his feeding lane.  When my fly got to within three feet of his position he charged forward and confidently ate it.  He was a beautiful fish about 15” long, and he put up a great fight (pictured below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        

                              Pretty rainbow

 

 

After that I headed downstream to a section I haven’t fished for about six weeks to look for more risers.  I didn’t find any, so I re-rigged with an Indi-Caddis and a Fox Squirrel nymph with a green Hotwire Prince dropper.  This section is a long, swift run with a series of little breakwaters formed by rip-rap jutting out from the far bank.  I started at the bottom and worked my way up, fishing the current seam between the fast current and the slack water formed by the breakwater.  I caught three nice rainbows in the 15-17” range (pictured below) and one little six inch dink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                  

                                   Three good ones

 

 

All of the fish took the Hotwire Prince, and they all jumped and took out lots of line.  The Hotwire Prince has been a very effective fly of late, and I owe a big thanks to whoever invented it.  I hooked one other big fish that spit the hook after a brief fight, and then the sun went down and the bite turned off.  I only caught six fish today, but four were good ones in great shape.  The bigger fish have been very active lately, and the river is virtually empty.  That lure chucker I saw today was one of the very few fisherman I’ve seen on the water in weeks, it’s like my own personal river!  I may fish for a little while tomorrow morning, but I probably won’t get out again until Thursday.  Hopefully the weather will hold for a few more weeks because the action has been awesome and I’m not quite ready for winter yet.