Trip Report: Truckee River (day 1)

While most of the day was spent at Milton Reservoir in my float tube, I was forced to flee the area when attacked by killer mosquitoes. I drove back to Truckee to fish the river with the same name for the remaining hours.

I only had about an hour of daylight, but I needed an ego boost. So I found a nice little pullout on Highway 80 and walked down to the river. For those of you interested in finding this same spot, after crossing the river the second time on Highway 80 going East, immediately pull onto the shoulder and watch for a turnout on the right side. Being a weekend, there were several fly fisherman here. I found an empty spot and within a few minutes, caught a nice fat 15 inch brown as a light rain began to fall. I got a few stares as some others later told me they weren't catching anything over 9 or 10 inches. Good old soft hackles. You can't go wrong!

Soft Hackles strike again!
This was the pattern that worked this evening.

Walking further downstream, I found a nice area with several seams that looked like they could hold fish. I cast in a few times and hooked a very big one. He took my soft hackle on the swing, ran down current and ripped some line off my reel. It was such a rush. I could feel me heart speed up. I tried to maneuver the guy into slower water so I could recover some line. He was at least 60 feet away from me at this time. My rod was bent over pretty good. I didn't want to apply too much pressure in fear of breaking my tippet. I was waist deep and slowly started backpedaling, after getting into shallower water I started jogging downstream in a not very graceful manner over the slippery rocks. All the while, I was reeling in excess line as fast as I could. The fish was darting from rock to rock and heading up and downstream trying to get that thing out of his mouth. I saw a glimpse of him and he was big. I fought him for more than three or four minutes and suddenly it was over. He broke himself off. I was within 15 feet when it happened and this guy was one of the bigger if not the biggest fish I've ever hooked.

I nervously laughed it off and decided to call it quits. It was dark and I had a full day of fishing tomorrow. It was a good start on the Truckee.

This is part 1 of the report. Part 2 will be of a full 14 hours exploring several Truckee River access points.