The Ants!...The Ants!...Truckee

With this warming weather the Winged Black Ants have made an appearance in Truckee...in substantial numbers. How long they'll be here is anyone's guess; they're unpredictable. They can make an intense 2-3 day appearance and quickly fade. Or, not as intense, but spread-out over about 10 days...then gone.

These huge ants (#10-12's) are the first of the Truckee's "Big Bugs of June" to make an appearance locally. Now we're looking for the other two Big Bugs; Western Green Drakes and Golden Stoneflies. Both adults can be "phantoms"; most especially the Drakes.

June is an angler's first chance of "searching" the water and hooking a large trout at the surface.

All the stream occupants are aware of and on the look-out for the Big Bugs, and the opportunity to ambush such high-caloric meals. The Truckee's out-sized trout in the 18"-25" range, are known to leave the bottom and eat aggressively on top...most of the time. A client once had the rare exception of a subtle take; on the flat-water of the LT's Bluff Slick. A perfectly dead-drifted #8 Green Drake Quigley-Cripple simply disappeared, sucked-down and absolutely no water displacement.

Historically, the Ants always proceed the Drakes and the Goldens. The Green Drakes and Golden Stonefly adults are seldom observed in great numbers; but the trout are aware of their presence in the top-water-column where they haphazardly land on the water's surface.  Toss your big dries along cut-banks, under overhanging stream-side vegetation, in riffles and boulder fields. You are prospecting for an opportunistic feeder.

And since I've mentioned a "water-column", rest assured, dislodged large nymphs of both of the Golden and the  Drake are ALWAYS eaten. Remember the Goldens have a 2-3 life cycle; making them readily available during their progressive instar-growth up to a size 4. Fishing the Drake nymphs (#'s 6-10) are most productive prior to their emergence since most of them migrate towards the shallows and quiet water in lieu of clinging to the bottom in heavy water. As for the huge Black  ant (winged or wingless); fish it dry or sunk (HINT).

Attractor/impressionistic patterns of all three Big Bugs are sufficient to dupe the trout.

Honoring the Fallen in Truckee

     Honoring War Dead In Old Town Truckee. 

Less we forget, many have made the "ultimate sacrifice" with their lives; preserving the freedoms we have in the US.

I may have unintentionally ruffled some feathers today when I innocently made a comment on FaceBook to clarify who is honored on Memorial Day. Today is the day for  those who literally lost their lives while in foreign combat zones. This is a very special day for them and their families. It is not a "Happy Memorial Day!" salutation that our tone-deaf chief of state intoned today. All of us military veterans, some who lost friends and served "right or wrong" are honored on Veterans Day in November... not Memorial Day in late May.

Guiding on Tahoe National Forest

AS OF May 7, 2020:

 NO GUIDING

ON THE TAHOE NATIONAL FOREST 

An e-note excerpt to Special Use Permit holders from the Truckee Ranger District:

"This message is to clarify that all outfitter guide and recreation event permits are still in non-use status.

 Regarding Governor Newsom’s press conference today:

Governor Newsom announced that county officials can decide the pace of moving into Stage 2 of reopening. The Truckee/Sierraville Ranger Districts will be relying on updates from State/County Officials to determine when guiding and recreation event permits can re-enter use status.  

The expectation is that when the permits re-enter use status, there will be operating restrictions such as social distancing measures and the use of PPE. In the meantime you can start to develop a modified operating plan that will describe how you will employ these operating restrictions..."

Fish "The Drop" in Truckee

Let'em Breathe!

I've been reviewing the flow charts as they pertain to the Truckee watershed.  The peak snow-melt and corresponding run-off is subsiding. There is a downward trend-line in the peaks of the  "peaks & troughs" on the water flow charts. As I mentioned in my last post "...fish the drop" in the smaller streams and progressively the larger rivers...AND do not dismiss the stream inflows into the local still-waters. IMO, we're still about 3 weeks plus/minus from the start of the optimum conditions at moving waters in the region.

Unquestionably until that time, the most productive method will be sub-surface fishing. So now is the time to continue probing the depths with big/little searching rigs. As of yesterday there are few consistent bug emergences and their corresponding top-water, feeding

 Wet flies displayed at last season's Devin Olsen's Euro-Nymphing clinic

Thus far there has not been a profusion of wildflowers; even those ubiquitous ones imaged below have not yet made a noticeable appearance. I've been reminded of a small hard-bound book in my fly fishing library which is about "a method of meeting and matching the super hatches of the West" This 1995 book is entitled  THE PHENOLOGICAL FLY

 

Our state flower...sparse here but dense on the Sierra west-slope hills & valleys

The Mule Ear, at this elevation it is as prolific as the California Poppy found on the lower

 elevations 

Camus Lily...profuse in the "wet lands"