Fly Fish Nevada

This is my favorite time of year on the East Walker.  The water is cool and usually offers lower flows, the weather is generally mild and the fishing is fantastic.  Last Friday the river was a little high at 140 CFS and the fish were a little finicky because the flows were being jacked up and down on a daily basis.  However, the flows dropped on Monday to about 85 CFS and then again on Tuesday to 79 CFS.  That’s  about 48 hours of fairly stable and highly fishable flows by Wednesday, so off I went.

Mallards on the East Walker.

It is surprising how little 60 CFS actually changes the way the river looks.  I wasn’t sure that the flows hadn’t gone back up when I arrived at the Elbow, but when I waded in I could already tell the flows were down.  I hit the same run I fished on Friday with my friend John L’Etoile.  I know that section holds a lot of fish and I wanted a little revenge.  I was rewarded with some good fishing on a variety of rigs.  I began fishing with the tight line nymphing set up I still had strung up on the rod.  I caught a half dozen or so rainbows, but felt like a hopper-dropper set-up might be more effective.

I don’t know if it was more effective, but I managed to catch about the same number of fish only this time I hooked a nice 15 inch rainbow.  It was a planter, but not a recent one.  It was decidedly darker in color than the wild fish.  Next I caught a small brown, my first of the day.  I got a few strikes on the hopper, but from smaller fish.  I then switched to a streamer and caught a couple more fish including another 15 inch planted rainbow.  It really slowed down after that, so I decided to move on.

A nice 15 inch 'bow. Its a planter, but it has been in the river a while.

My first brown of the day. These fish are as pretty as any trout, even goldens.

I drove to the other side of the Elbow and fished the hole I wasn’t able to on Friday because another fisherman was working his way towards it.  Even though the hole was a few hundred yards upstream, I figured it was his to fish.  I mention this for a reason, read on.  Anyway, I fished the hole, which has some wicked currents.  Behind the big rock in the middle the water actually flows backwards.  It can be hard to get a good drift, but it’s not impossible.  I caught a small brown and then a rainbow on my first two casts, then it shut down.  Another 15 minutes of fishing didn’t produce anything so I decided to head to California.

It may not look like it, but the current in front of that rock actually flows backwards for about 20 feet.

I parked below the dam and ate lunch and then walked down to the river at about 3:30.  As I approached I saw a bunch of small fish scatter, but they were to pudgy to be trout.  After some investigation, I determined they were baby carp.  I tried to catch one, and even had one on for a second, to get a picture but couldn’t.  Then my biorhythms must have hit a trough.  I tried to retrieve the hopper-dropper rig I had rolled up and tucked into a leader packet, but it tangled beyond belief.  I mean unrolling leaders always has the potential for a little tangle, but this was incredible.  I decided to sit down on the bank and retie.

Baby carp. I guess carp have to be babies too.

I couldn’t get my knots to hold, I lost my shot…twice.  It took me like 20 minutes.  Finally I finished and I waded in, flipped my flied out to strip some line from the real and an 8 inch brown took the nymph as it hit the water.  Cool, maybe my luck was changing.  I fished the riffle for a while with no luck.  And then a couple of fishermen waded in about 100 yards up stream.  No biggie.  Then another dude waded in about 25 yards up stream right into the head of the riffle I was fishing.  C’mon, really?  I tried to ignore him, but I wasn’t catching fish and he was kind of irritating me, so I decided to leave.  When he asked me if I had any luck as I exited, I was tempted to give him an earful, but I decided discretion is the better part of valor and replied I got a couple as I walked away.

You never fish upstream of another fisherman within about 100 yards. Even downstream you should ask and there was a few hundred yards of good water behind me.

As it turns out, I am glad I left.  I hit a section just below the bridge and caught one small fish on the hopper-dropper, then decided it was time to fish a dry.  Not that their were any fish rising, but I had a feeling.  I switched then noticed a couple of fish rise, but they looked small.  I made a few casts and finally got the drift I wanted over the spot I saw one of the rises, just inches from the bank.  Bam!  I had a fish and it wasn’t small.  I fought the fish for about 5 minutes as it made runs and just sat on the bottom.  Even though the water was cold I decided to horse it in, but that wasn’t easy.  I finally got the big brown to the net and it measured out at just over 15 inches.  Nice fish!  Healthy and strong.  I revived it carefully and it swam off.

Beautiful, healthy and strong wild brown trout.

Wow.  That was the fish of the day.  I almost left, figuring that couldn’t be topped, but decided to stay and on my next cast I caught it’s twin!  I didn’t play this one as long, because the last one had taken a while to revive.  The net showed it was about 14 inches, maybe a little more.  This one had a malformed jaw that made it look like it was smiling.  It didn’t seem to affect the fish.  It was as healthy as the first.  I managed one small brown after than, but it got really slow as the sun was setting.  I moved again.

The fish in the East Walker are so happy they are learning to smile.

I drove a quarter mile upstream to the flat water above the bridge.  I immediately saw several large fish feeding on the surface, their fins cutting through the water like sharks.  They were on the opposite side of the river, but I had to wade in even with them.  I managed a few casts and they were interested, even chasing my fly as I stripped it away to recast creating big wakes.  Then they were gone.  I got out, found a better way to approach them from behind, but they never returned and it was getting dark.

Big trout live here.

An epic day.  I had good stretches and bad stretches, but overall it was one of the better days on the river.  I fished both Nevada and California and caught both a a lot of fish and some bigger fish.  It can only get better over the next month.  If my readers are sick of the East Walker, you’re going to be disappointed.  I will be there a lot over then next few weeks.

Filed under: On the Water Tagged: | brown trout, East Walker River, Elbow, hopper-dropper, Miracle Mile, rainbow trout, streamer