High Sierra Trout
Winter Angling
This past weekend was a warm and sunny one here on the Truckee River, so of course I went fishing. Friday afternoon I got out for two hours in between school and work, I fished the stretch of water just upstream from downtown. I tied on a two nymph rig, with a stonefly nymph on top and a red Copper John dropper. Exactly one hour after I started fishing I hooked a strong rainbow on the stonefly (pictured below). He jumped twice and then ran downstream about 30 yards, after about five minutes of fighting I beached him.
Winter rainbow
He was about 15” long, beautifully colored and very healthy. I fished for another hour, but had no more action. Ryan drove up late that night from San Francisco for a weekend of skiing and trout fishing. We went to Northstar Saturday morning and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day on the slopes. Due to my sore back it has been a few weeks since I have been skiing, and it felt great to get back out on the hill. Sunday morning we fished a couple of spots east of downtown, the morning started off chilly with air temps in the low forties and water temps in the high thirties. At about noon I finally hooked a fish on a size 16 Psycho Prince in a long, deep run (pictured below and at top of page). This fish was a fatty, and he fought me long and hard with a few jumps and lots of short runs.
Fatty
After that we headed up to the Big Fish Hole, where we met Rich. By this time the temperature had climbed into the low fifties and it was a beautiful day to be on the water. Right away Rich hooked a nice rainbow that took off downstream and took a long time to land (pictured below). He hooked this fish on a Prince nymph which is a good fly for all seasons on the Truckee.
Nice one Rich!
I missed one strike in the money slot, but there was no other action to be had, so we hiked out and headed downstream to another good stretch of pocket water. Rich caught a feisty fourteen incher on the same Prince nymph, but was too far downstream for me to get a photo. I briefly hooked a big fish on a Psycho Prince that showed himself to me with a nice flash before he spit the hook. Ryan came up to where I was fishing and quickly hooked a beast from the same drift. The fish rocketed out of the water and then shook the hook with an explosion of water. All in all it was a pretty good day of mid-winter fishing on the Truckee, five fish hooked and three landed. It is supposed to stay warm all week long, so I’ll probably fish for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon.
Monday, February 11, 2008
