Truckee River

Nice Snowy Truckee May Day

The last time I fished the Truckee River in April the banks were blanketed with 2-3ft of snow. Naturally as the warmer weather arrived the majority of the snow has melted leaving only the highest peaks with plenty of powder. Nevertheless California continues to get rain and even snow in May. The more the merrier.

The flows I fished were at 1100CFS with a 200CFS difference from my last visit. There was a subtle noticeable difference that forced me to rethink the spots that I had previously found fish in. I found that the flows were just at that level where a lot of the boulders in the middle of the river would be better holding spots than the edges. This made fishing difficult as it was both near impossible to get a good presentation into the sweet spots and land fish without them racing downstream.

Most of the fish I hooked were caught in long soft runs or soft seams. I didn’t find nearly as many fish fishing the edges as I had done in April. Most of the fish I landed where smaller however I did hook into a few good ones that I lost to the fast current. The fish were only taking mayfly nymphs primarily BWOs and March Browns. There was an epic BWO hatch in an area where I saw tons of birds flying around and picking off flies however I didn’t see a single fish rise.

I covered quite a bit of water and explored some new spots which made up for the slow fishing. I have a good feeling that a lot of rivers and streams will start fishing really good as soon as we get some stable warm weather. Until then the Truckee River remains as a high flow decent to good fly fishing favorite.

Feather River

More Rain & Incoming Shad

It looks like California is going to be getting more rain this year with a series of three atmospheric storms. Snow is predicted at the higher elevations though I believe that it’ll mostly be rain. Rivers and streams will continue to run high perhaps even higher with the predicted rain melting the snow. A quick look at the capacity percentages of reservoirs in California show that a majority of lakes are at or near capacity putting California’s water supply in excellent shape for this year.

I’ve read a lot of fishing reports of the American Shad run being in town. I took the time to explore the Feather River one evening and was lucky enough to hook and land my first shad this year. The rain started soon after I released my catch and the bite turned off (not that it was on by any means). Cold fronts tend to put the shad down as flows fluctuate from rain or water release; these are migrating anadromous fish after all. During these difficult times try fishing the opposite of what you would on a hot summer shad filled day; fish during mid-day when temperatures are at their warmest and cover lots of water or get a boat.

It’s going to be a tough season for wade-in anglers as the flows are going to be too high to safely position in the areas where the shad like to hold. I’m going to try and explore a few new places to fish for shad but will most likely be spending my time fishing elsewhere.

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