The brown trout spawn seems to be winding down (at least in town) on the Truckee River. We have seen quite a few redds that no longer have fish on them. Interestingly, the streamer bite seems to have turned back on with larger browns becoming players again.

Colder storms have really dropped the river temperature. Just recently the temp bottomed out at 41 degrees (Sparks Gage) while flowing at 500 CFS (Reno Gage). The fish have been in slower water in the morning and progressing into faster water by midday and beyond. We’re not seeing them in fast water as you would expect with cooler flows, but I would still try out the medium paced water from noon on.

As winter starts we will often reference an aquatic insect when making fly suggestions. Baetis, Blue Wing Olive, BWO are all referring to the same insect. Regardless of what you call this small dark mayfly that shows up every Fall/Winter on the Truckee they can be well represented with fly patterns we have here in the shop. When presenting the nymphal stage think of small dark bodied thin nymphs (#16-20) [Split Case, Galloup’s BWO Jig, Spanish Bullet, French Nymph, Micro Mayfly, etc.] For dries and cripples we will often suggest sizes in (#14-#20) [Parachute Adams, Pullover BWO, RS2, Baetis Cripple, WD-40, etc]. Look for this hatch during cloudy, drizzly days.

The streamer bite should crank back up now that the brown trout are completing their spawn. These fish will have scattered into their normal holding locations and be pretty hungry. If temps stay cool we anticipate the annual migration east (downstream) of town to begin. Please don’t fish any brown trout still on redds.

Flies we suggest: Micro Mayfly, split case BWO, Ready Baetis, Jig TNT BWO, Cray Z Emma, TJ Hooker, Olive Perdigon, Pullover BWO, Parachute Adams, Emma Stone, Articulated Trout Slider, Bank Robber, Cheech Leech, Truckee River Selection