Photo: Mike Wier
The Truckee is Alive!
Like many of the fisheries in the Sierra, the Truckee was hit hard by the four years of drought in California. Unlike some of the other rivers in the area, the Truckee’s wild trout fishery has survived due to resilience in the system and dedication by its community of anglers.
Last fall the Truckee was on the brink of total collapse. Tahoe dropped below its natural rim and the Truckee hadn’t flowed from its main source in over a year and a half. Even the iconic Fanny Bridge fish had to be captured and relocated into the lake for survival. The few reservoir sources that can feed the river kept it alive, but just barely. Flows were non-existent in the first several miles of the river. Small trickles of water from Donner, Martis, Prosser and Boca and a few boosts from summer thunder storms kept the lower river flowing at around 100 csf down through the canyon throughout the summer and fall. Subsequently,
water temperatures reached the 70’s for much of the summer. Much of the prime
habitat in the upper reaches of the river had to be abandoned. Luckily, the fish of the Truckee River are used to utilizing the whole system and many of them were able to move down into the deep pools of the canyon where thermal refugia allowed survival.
In this state, the fish are very vulnerable to predation both by humans and other predators such as osprey, eagle, merganser, snakes, otter, raccoon, and mink. Due to these extreme conditions local anglers of the Truckee enacted a voluntary hoot owl closer the past two seasons to help protect the beloved wild trout. Anglers agreed to stop fishing the river when temperatures reached over 70 or flows dropped below 100. Many anglers stopped fishing the river all together. The population of trout took a hit, but unlike many other rivers in the area, the majority of healthy wild fish survived.
It was a pleasant sight to see the river flowing good and cold this month. When I arrived last week the flows were right around 90 csf which is a great flow for the Walker. Looking at the graph the river hasn’t gotten over 150 for the past 3 years! It looked like the old EW I used to know. I could see from the graphs though that the river had just come up recently. I knew the fish would still be near the deeper pools where they congregate at lower flows. When the water bumps up it gives them a chance to get up into the riffles and spread out into prime feeding water.
My friend Chris and I worked our way through some of our favorite pools fishing the buckets as well as the riffles leading in and out of the pools. Chris started with a dry then fished nymphs while I opted for the streamer. That’s a great combo for buddy fishing. One guy can come through with a light nymph rig or dry dropper set up and the streamer guy can run cleanup. That’s how’s we’ve done it for years. The day was sunny and warm. It was a Saturday and we only ran into two other fishermen all day so we got to choose our favorite waters.
As far as the fishing goes it was a bit slow but the fish that were caught were all very healthy and high quality. Chris got a nice brown on a small nymph down in the pocket water along the road. A buddy I ran into, who’s a guide from the East side, got a super chunky brown on a nymph as well as a couple solid rainbows.
My best shot came in a deep pool up high. I threw a large streamer in looking for a stout fish. On the second cast my line stopped and I thought I’d hooked the moss on the bottom again. I lifted up the rod tip and up came a huge brown with my streamer in his mouth. When he saw me, he just simply opened his mouth and my fly came popping out. I never had a chance to set the hook. A few casts later my line came tight again. This time I set the hook and instantly felt weight on the end of my line. When I lifted up I could see the white of what I thought was a big mouth and saw the tail of a fish. I yelled at my buddy. The fish was waving around in the current but not fighting. My buddy laughed his you know what off as I pulled in half of a dead fish. Well that was a real slap in the face from the river gods but that’s how it goes sometimes. My only hope was that the big old brown I’d seen just prior had eaten the other half of the mystery fish carcass.
If you do stop by the East Walker be sure to check out the new kiosk that was installed by CalTrout in the summer of 2014 in the parking lot just below the dam. The plaques tell about the native Lahontan Cutthroat and CalTrout’s efforts to restore the fish in parts of the Walker Basin. They feature some of my photos from being out in the field filming and photographing our restoration efforts over the past few summers in the remote tributaries to the West Walker.
Tight Lines,
Michael Wier