Dry Droppers

Untitled from Gilligans Guide Service on Vimeo.

I love fishing the dry dropper rigs. Actually, I'll fish two droppers off a big dry such as my skwalacator dry, which floats like a cork and has a big poly yarn post you can see. The big fish that I catch are usually all caught in five feet or less of water. Big fish like to hang in shallow water, riffles, banks, etc. That old story about Walter living at the bottom of some big hole just ain't true, big fish are always on the move. Of course big fish winter in holes, but that's another topic. I fish my dry dropper rigs upstream along banks and things, long hard casts with a 6 weight rod. You're able to cover water with a dry dropper rig that you would have otherwise thrashed around if you were using a conventional nymph rig. Learn how to cast far in the wind, big fish require stealth, like bow hunting. Don't go using a 9 foot 5x leader, cut a 7.5 4x leader down to about 6ft so you can throw some junk around in the wind. You have to be able to turn over a big dry and nymphs especially if they're heavy ones. I'll be down at the Leland Expo in Sonoma on the weekend of the 16th and 17th of April doing a presentation on dry dropper rigs and how to fish them. This brown, one of my neighbors, ate my sz #18 baetis nymph in about two feet of water today.

Going Back To Cali

Year after year, fishing the same runs, the same river, it never gets old. It's different year to year and when you walk up on a run you haven't fished in six months, but have fished hundreds of times, it's a feeling you can't explain. We had a long hard winter here in Truckee, biggest in twenty five years, shack nasties type of winter, but today with temps in the 60's it was a day only someone that's been through a hard winter can appreciate. Winter ain't easy in the mountains. I got friends in the city that complain because they can't find a place to park, please. When you do get a taste of spring it's worth all the shoveling and power outages and frankly I wouldn't trade it for nothing. It's all about Cali now on the Truckee River. Sure, it's gonna blow out at some point, but for now, it's good. This brown welcomed me back home today somewhere on the Cali section of the river.

The Flows Are Good Folks

The flows are good in Cali. We will have to wait and see what happens this week in Nevada. It was near 70 today in Reno and I wish I'd worn my summer straw hat. Today might just have been the last fishable day in Nevada for awhile. Lot's of snow melting. If it gets above 600 cubes in Reno then it gets hard to fish. If it stays below 600, it's on, I'll keep you posted. On the California side things are good though, a bit off color, but good. The river in Cali looks like what the steelheaders like, a bit green and real fishy. Bugs everywhere though down on the NV side and fish rising despite some high flows. Couldn't keep the skwalas from crawling down my neck, kinda good. They'll be marching their way up the river towards California with this warm weather. This is Dave from today.

Hopper Droppers

A few years back, my friend Colin and I took a trip to the East Walker in his old Winnebago. While on the trip, Colin came up with a drink he called the Hopper Dropper. Freeze some ice in a glass, fill with your favorite whiskey, and eventually the ice rises and the whiskey drops, hence the Hopper Dropper. If Colin's not waxing his Mercedes, or on Facebook, we do manage to get a little fishing time in when he comes down from Portlandia. I watched in awe today reminiscent of the old days as Colin handed it to some Truckee River fish. Though I'm sure he'd much rather been watching a Gwyneth Paltrow movie, we had fun, the sun was out, first time in weeks, and the Truckee River is in great shape. The flows are actually perfect right now, both states, and they look to stay good for awhile. Skwalas and blue wings are on the menu. I'll be out a lot this week and I'll let you know how it goes.

The Kids Are Alright

Finally we had a break in the weather and I managed to sneak a guide day in today. If it hasn't been the river being blown out, it's been driving snow and winds for the last two weeks. The Truckee is in great shape though, flows wise, in both states except East of Reno. With continued snow in the forecast it should stay good for awhile. If you fish the CA side there is very limited to no parking and snow shoes are a good idea. We have three more days of strong pacific storms coming, but after that fishing will be good. They say it's the biggest winter in the sierra in twenty five years. The top photo is of Frank with his first fish on a fly rod, not bad. The next is of his dad with a nice Truckee River Rainbow. It's great to see the kids fly fishing and not on those damn video games. Fishing was pretty good and fish were where they were supposed to be, eating my dubbed out prince.

They're Here

My signature flies arrived at Mountain Hardware in Truckee, not all of my patterns, but some. Flies that I've cut my teeth with over the years on the Truckee River. Blue Collar flies so to speak. Everything from March Browns, to October Caddis, to PMD nymphs. Over the years, I've only used my own flies when I fish and guide. It made me a very proficient fly tyer, but it also gave me the ability to test and tweak my patterns. All my nymphs are tied on heavy wire scud hooks with tungsten beads, so they drop in the big deep buckets of the Truckee. Drys, well, I still like deer and elk hair on my drys. If you're a wade fisherman we all know that the all-foam-flies really don't work, they sink, and if you can't see your fly, then you can't set the hook. Nothing beats the natural hollowness and buoyancy of deer, or elk hair on your dry flies. All the patterns have been refined over the years, streamlined so to speak and now they're ready for you to fish. Of course every fly is just a copy of someone else's. I didn't invent the wheel, but I tried to reinvent it a bit. They will also be available at California Fly Shop in the Bay Area and Fly Fishing Specialties in Citrus Heights shortly.

Could Be a Tough Run

Yeah, could be a tough run of it this spring on the Truckee, flows wise that is. With all this snow melting and continued storms in the forecast you're going to have to choose your days wisely. Always check the flows before you come up and fish. Snow is good, rain is bad. Along Glenshire the river is best under 300cfs, Hirschdale below 600, and in Reno below 500. We're looking at 1,200 cubes here in Hirschdale, but it looks like we got past the hump and it is lowering. It doesn't get bad until you see Noah floating down in his Ark, which I've seen a few times here. Of course you can fish the river when it's high, not this high though. We'll get some clarity back in a few days, but it will probably take five to seven days to come down to fishable levels. The river will start slowly coming down when it freezes hard for a few nights. A lot of big fish do get caught in high off colored water. Leave the sz #20 zebra midges at home along with the 5wt and throw the big and uglys at them, fish streamers, stones, and big copper johns. The fishing will be good when you can time it right, I think a lot of big fish are going to be caught this spring. They're putting on their feed bags now on all the food getting flushed through the system. The wife took a photo of this guy cruising through the yard the other evening. Apparently he likes taking naps under our Ponderosa out back.