Little Truckee - CA

[JohnScott]

If you were going to build a seven mile long trout stream, you could probably take a mold of the streambed of the Little Truckee tailwater below Stampede Reservoir and build off it just about anywhere there is enough cold water to support a good mix of aquatic insect life and trout. There is everything you would want, from deep pools, bends, fast riffles, deep slow runs, shallow runs, seams and slots and drops, plus instream cover in the way of wood and rocks. All you would need to add would be a couple hundred CFS of "gin clear" water, bugs and fish.

The past two days, the Little Truckee was running around 140-150 CFS. Maybe a little on the low side of what I imagined would be a really good flow in that size streambed.

Looking upstream from my first access point in the "meadows" on Tuesday.



Looking downstream from the same spot.



Another spot along the stretch that I fished yesterday.



Another spot from yesterday, with some local residents.



The local fly shop, such as it is, led me to expect a PMD hatch and maybe some green drakes starting around 10:30 a.m. and ending around 1:30 p.m. So I prepared accordingly.

In four hours on Tuesday, I actually counted five PMD's and one green drake. Never saw a fish, never saw a fish rising. The pattern I started with did bring up a couple trout - the first one, a smaller fish, hit it but didn't hook up, the second one hooked up but took his release long distance. The second fish was in the 14-15" range.

On Tuesday, I talked to a couple other fishermen. One had not seen a fish or gotten a hit. He seemed a novice and I wasn't too surprised at how he described his experience. He had talked to another fellow who had caught one fish.

Wednesday, I wanted to fish higher up, but the parking area for that access was full by the time I got there. Eight vehicles, which probably meant more than eight fishermen. The upper end probably was the better water to fish, just below the dam at Stampede, but I didn't want to go compete for water. I ended up starting below the stretch I had fished the day before and fishing up to the lower end of that piece of water. Got there a bit later, which may explain why I only saw two PMDs and no green drakes. Did see a couple caddis, literally a couple, like in two.

Didn't get anything Wednesday except some exercise and the picture of the family of ducks. Talked to a fellow who seemed to be pretty savvy. He had fished for hours and had not seen a fish nor had a hit.

So .... the fish are always right. But I have to admit, that I walked away wondering if there were any fish there to BE right ??? The conditions were less than ideal with rather low water levels and very high air temps. And I couldn't fish early or late as I would have preferred since the main point of my trip down to Truckee was to see my son and his family who were staying in Truckee for the week.

Not that I wouldn't go back, given the beauty of the place and the character of the river - but I don't think I would go out of my way to fish it unless someone I could trust told me it was fishing well.