Monday, March 21, 2011

Truckee Fly Angling Update

As for fly fishing in the immediate Truckee area...it is wishful thinking. We received heavy snow yesterday (Sunday, March 20) and the minimal access points that were available on both the BT and LT are officially declared closed by CyberFly!!

The grapevine has this season's snowfall as the heaviest in 25 years. My recollection is that the most famous recorded snow-falls to date were the winters of '51, 83 and '92.

Suddenly the sky has cleared & the sun is peaking through. I'm sure it is a temporary aberration because there are forecasts for the next 5-6 days of snow! Is there such a notion as TOO MUCH SNOW...from a fly angling perspective?

SOME NUMBERS:

Truckee measurement Site #2 @ 6509'---217% of normal snow-pack. It is the highest % of pack as of this date in the Truckee Basin; the lowest % being at Mt Rose site (8800') at 116%

Basin-wide average is now at 147% of normal...good stuff! I haven't even mentioned water-content, which is more critical than snow-pack as it relates to run-off/melt and our precious fly fishing. Let's assume a minimum of 130% of normal water-content (which is a conservative guess), thus 147 X 1.30=191% of average water-content. Hey, we may not be able to see our first consistent dry fly fishing until the end of July...at the earliest. Sub-surface fishing this year will account for 99.9% of the trout fooled...a very liberal guess.



2 comments:

  1. I was living in Soda Springs back in '92. Lot's of snow and whiskey that winter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt---Yeah, as you well know Soda Springs is our local Artic Circle.

    The winter of '92/93 was the one that broke the '86-'92 drought. The heaviest snow-fall prior '92 that was '82/'83 winter; bigger than '92.

    During the '83 winter decks were collapsing and there were about 4-5 house explosions; a couple creating huge craters in the ground. The reason for the blasts was because the snow that fell off the roofs was severing propane gas lines to the houses. When that uncontained propane-gas located a pilot light of a floor heater or water-heater...KABOOM!

    As a result the county buidling department started requiring shields above the outdoor propane tank connection to the house so that the connection was not broken.

    PS---Congrats on your flies being produced by Ray.

    ReplyDelete