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Truckee a tough river to fish
The Truckee River can be a very humbling river to fish. I moved to Truckee in 1978 and tried to learn to fly fish by teaching myself.
Neither that method or the river were particularly good choices for a beginner. I never did master the river as a fly angler, although I was able to do well fishing with crawdad imitating plugs.
I moved to the west side of the Sierra in 1981 and I have continued to fish the Truckee and keep in contact with locals who fish it regularly. Part of the reason that the Truckee can be so difficult is the water temperature cycle through the season.
Starting opening day in April, the flows are fishable, but the water temperatures are too cold for good fishing. As the season warms and the snows melt, the river runs high and cold.
Hopper time
I put on my waders, my felt-soled boots and a fleece vest because it felt a little bit cool when I got to the Oldman River. The sky was cloudy, threatening rain. A chilly breeze was sweeping down the valley from the west. But within 20 minutes I was sweating like I was in the tropics, the breeze had stopped and the sun had popped out from behind the clouds. I should have known. Summer might be winding down, but it ain't done yet. I'd come down to the Oldman River below the Three Rivers Dam to try a bit of late-afternoon grasshopper fishing. No, not fishing for grasshoppers. I mean using big flies imitating grasshoppers to fool some trout into playing with me for a bit. It's the time of year for grasshoppers along the river banks to start leaping and flying around looking for mates.
'Big Lake' fishing remains steady
Little has changed on the 'Big Lake' this week, as limit catches of king salmon, along with an occasional lake trout and steelhead, remain common. Although a few nice catches were reported between Holland and Grand Haven, the better fishing has been near Muskegon, White Lake, Pentwater, Ludington and Manistee. Most of the fish are being taken 40-70 feet down, but with an east wind, that could quickly change. Everyone seems to have a favorite spoon or fly, but some of the more productive patterns have been the Moonshine Lures in Flounder-Pounder or Spitfire, mixed veggies, Natural Born Killer (NBK) and the blue or green dolphin. Flasher-fly combos also have been effective with Pickled Sunshine, Snow Ghost and Little Bride being popular color patterns. Downriggers have been used effectively in deep water, but lead-core, wire line and Dipsy/Slide Divers can be used when the boat traffic isn't heavy.
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