California’s Truckee River

Several years back, while I was still a fly-fishing newbie, I found myself in Ralph and Lisa Cutter’s living room in Truckee, California. Ralph was feeding his aquarium-bound pet rainbow trout various life stages of caddisflies.

First he dropped in a larva, and we watched it float unmolested to the gravel below. The larva wiggled and crawled about the bottom, before being noticed and quickly dispatched by the trout.

Next, Ralph dropped in a pupa. It sank to the bottom and then began wiggling up toward the surface. The trout—now in eating mode—darted at the pupa and gobbled it. Finally, Ralph took an adult caddis, which was a little mangled from being handled between his thumb and forefinger, and dropped it on the water’s surface. Now that we had its attention, the trout was ready and in position, and within a nanosecond, it inhaled the caddis. Ralph had created a hatch right before our eyes.

Later that day I learned about bugs, flies, holding lies, line handling, and how to use equipment. The Truckee River was nearby, the on-the-water lessons were taught on its banks, and it became the metaphor for all moving waters that we were to fish in the future. It was the beginning of a love affair with the Truckee that has lasted almost 16 years.

Truckee Trout

When the Donner Party spent the ill-fated winter of 1846-1847 along the Truckee, the only indigenous salmonids were Lahontan cutthroat trout. Later in the century, commercial fisheries in Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake (the Truckee’s terminus) began harvesting the trout to supply stores and restaurants in Reno and Virginia City.

The combination of market fishing, and the construction of the Derby Dam in 1903, brought most of the river’s Lahontans to the brink of extinction. Today, nonindigenous rainbows and browns predominate, alongside a few cutthroat, whitefish, and the occasional Kokanee salmon.

In recent years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has stocked Lahontans into the Truckee, but the fish have gained little traction competing against the river’s introduced species. As a matter of fact, heavy plantings of Lahontan cutthroat have provided an additional, ample protein source for some of the Truckee’s famously big browns.

Good cutthroat populations do exist in the headwaters upstream of Lake Tahoe, where rainbows and browns were eliminated prior to the cutthroat reintroduction. USFWS has expressed interest in ridding the lower river, between Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake, of nonindigenous fish and then replacing them with Lahontans, but economics and demanding logistics make this unlikely.

For most of its length the Truckee is a wild trout river. Hatchery fish are limited to the upper 10 miles, from the outlet at Lake Tahoe to its confluence with Trout Creek. The special regulations (wild trout) water begins below Trout Creek, at the lower end of the town of Truckee. This 20-mile stretch extends to the Nevada state line.

The private San Francisco Fly Casting Club water, located in the middle of the special regulations section, stocks hatchery fish by special permit. The fishing just upstream or downstream of the club boundaries is excellent.

Truckee Access

Access points are easy and numerous along the Truckee. Though there is private water, there is also ample public property. The upper section begins at Fanny Bridge near the Lake Tahoe outlet. Its name is derived from the view of hunched-over tourists at the bridge railing, gawking at the huge trout holding below. This upper section is beautiful, but also a popular summer rafting run, and should be avoided at midday. California 89 follows the river all the way to town, and you can park at almost any pullout and easily access the river.

From where the wild trout section starts just below town to where it ends at the California/Nevada state line, access is good, with some sections requiring short walks.

Art’s Run parallels Glenshire Drive and was named after Art Lew, a colorful longtime guide. There are several unimproved parking areas along the railroad tracks, and the river is only about 100 yards to the south. The water here consists of short, fast sections between and over boulders separated by long, sometimes shallow, flat runs.

Glenshire access is a couple of miles down Glenshire Drive at a bridge with adjacent parking. This section is heavily trafficked, but it also benefits from the San Francisco Fly Casting Club’s stocking efforts just downstream.

I’ve found the concentration of wild fish can sometimes be higher at Glenshire access soon after the club dumps its alien fish. Snorkel studies in several California waters show that wild fish leave an area once stockers are introduced, and then concentrate on the fringes of their former territories for a time before spreading out. The Glenshire section is on the fringes, so when you time it right the fishing is awesome.

Continuing down Glenshire Drive, the next access point is at Hirshdale—Truckee’s version of suburbia. There are places to park on both sides of the river. The cold Little Truckee River enters the main stream after traveling only a few hundred yards from under the dam at Boca Lake. Water stays cool in this section, and the fish l

ike it.

Downstream from Hirshdale, access gets more difficult as the Truckee rushes through a steep gorge with limited parking. A dirt trail parallels the river, but reaching the water requires dangerous slip-and-sliding down steep embankments. The canyon stretch has pocketwater and deep pools, and holds some of the Truckee’s largest browns.