Good To Be Back In The Mountains

After tying flys at the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show and staying in San Francisco where by the way everyone has a horn on their car and knows how to use it, yes, it's good to be back home on the Truckee River. The Pleasanton Show was a great opportunity to network and meet lots of great people. Not to mention getting reacquainted with lots of old ones as well. Thanks for coming by to say hi, I hope the koozie was worth it.

I'm excited about this spring and if you've never fished the Truckee before we are coming into some good trout fishing months. The Truckee River on the Nevada side is fishing good now and will continue fishing good all spring. The California side should start fishing in a few weeks as the days get longer. Here's a few shots from today over on the Nevada side. This brown ate my Conehead Living Dead Streamer in tan, which will be available at finer fly shops this spring.

Pleasanton Show This Weekend

I'll be heading to the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show this weekend. If you've never been it's actually a pretty cool show to go check out. It's an all fly fishing show unlike the ISE show in Sacramento and other sportsmen type shows. This year it looks like most all of the major fly fishing vendors will be back. You'll be able to book a trip to some far away destination, attend a seminar from top fly fishing personalities, or come by and watch me tie flies and get a free beer koozie. It will be nice to get off the mountain for a awhile. It's cold up here in Truckee and another big storm is on the way. This is a few shots from today.

One Month Till Spring

One Month until Spring and thank god for that. It seems like when it snows around here anymore it comes down in feet. It's hard to keep up with all the snow sometimes, shoveling etc, but we need it, and the Truckee River basin snowpack is now way above avergage again. Sugar Bowl Ski Resort is reporting 107" inches from this last week and it didn't start snowing until late Tuesday night. All this snow means one thing, the fishing will be epic this summer. This photo is of Billy from Chicago who braved the elements the last few days and ended up with a few nice fish over on the Nevada side of the Truckee River.

Blue Wings

They're here, Blue Wing Olives that is, on the Lower Truckee River. They are a true size #16 and you'll see an armada of them floating down the river daily, mid-day. The trick is to look for the bigger snouts poking there heads up through the film. Weed out the smaller fish to get to the bigger ones. The hatch will just get better in the next few months, especially on those nasty stormy days. The hatch can be pretty intense when it's cloudy. Some of the best dry fly fishing in the West? could be. Nymphing is good too now. I'll start with my black baetis nymph sz #18 in the mornings and as the hatch progresses work my way up in size to a #16 nymph. I'll eventually throw on my baetis emerger (my homey) #16, and nymph with it or throw it off the back of a dry. These are some client fish caught in the last few days on the Nevada side of the Truckee River.

You Should Get Cut

Untitled from Gilligans Guide Service on Vimeo.

You should never show up late for fishing. I don't like to wait on people, and I sure don't like to wait on people unless they arrive with lunch and a nice IPA or two. This guy ate my flex floss midge #18 somewhere along the Truckee River today with just Elliot watching.

Building Yourself A Database

Every day you spend on the river, though you may not know it, you learn something. I know I do, learn something that is, and I spend most every day on the river. If you're new to fly fishing, regardless of whether or not you catch fish in a given day, you start building a database so to speak. You can scout new areas to fish, try some different flies, or try to figure out the bugs that are hatching. I can't tell you how many folks don't know the difference between a stonefly and a caddisfly. For myself, if I encounter a fish that is difficult to catch, selective, whether I'm out fishing or guiding, I have a huge knowledge base to access. I'll know how to catch that fish because I've been in that situation before. Maybe I'll use a trick I used five years ago, or ten, or twenty. There are no Michael Jordans in fly fishing. You are not born with some god given fly fishing talent. It just takes a lot of practice and time on the water. Try to go out and fish as much as you can, that's the only way you get better. If you don't have the time, get some money together and hire a knowledgeable local guide. A good guide will help increase your learning curve. This is a clent photo from the other day on the Nevada side of the Truckee River, a run I have fished hundreds of times over the years.

It's A Midge Game

That title is an inside joke, but February on the Truckee River is midge time. When you see a blanket hatch of midges and no fish on the surface you can bet for certain they're eating the pupa below. Nothing beats a zebra midge, period. I like my flex-floss zebra midge in black. I fish mine a little bigger than some in size #16-18. They have to be able to see your fly amongst the hundreds of real pupa floating by. When the midges get all balled up and clustered that's when the fun begins. That might happen by next week if we're lucky. I got this pretty male just a short walk from my house today. In another month he'll be all colored up and like most males he will have one thing on his mind.