Lake Almanor Report 4.20.24
RECAP OF THE DAY:
As ya’ll know by now the Truckee River is a little high right now during the spring run off. Don’t get me wrong the river doesn’t fish that bad during high water depending on how high the CFS is. If I really wanted to fish the river and I had to choose an area during this time of the year, I would most likely head up towards the Glenshire area on the California section. This section will offer lower flows with clearer water. The Nevada side during the run off is a bit messy, high turbidity and stained water really turns some of these fish off. If your fishing the Truckee during the high water I would target the soft pieces of water near structure or near the banks. Streamers are of coarse my go to for this type of water while using a high sticking/jigging presentation in these softer pieces of water. I suppose I’ll break down and fish the Truckee here before too long, I enjoy still-water but the river is where its at for me. Be careful and don’t take risks!
Over the weekend the family and I took a trip up to Lake Almanor which is know for the Hexagenia hatch in June and July. This lake offers some monstrous browns, and I know that the chironomid hatch is most likely in full throttle as spring fly fishing picks up on lakes in the area. As I was putting the raft in the water at about 9:30am, I’m noticing a pretty good hatch coming off the surface with some casings in the water. As I punch out on the raft keeping my eye on the fish finder I’m trying to seek out water that’s somewhere between 20'-30’ deep preferably with a nice little drop off on the bottom. After some time and moving around I anchored up in about 25’ of water targeting a shelf that sat about 20’. With the slip indicator setup I had a grey chironomid on the bottom, and a wine chironomid on top. Fortunately for me I was able to see results pretty quickly. Both of these gorgeous browns took the grey chironomid off the bottom. The trout were pretty active, I had some other good fish on that didn’t see my net as well. I’m sure I will be back to this lake soon before the spring ends.
CONDITIONS & HIGHLIGHTS:
Water temp low 50’s
Air temp 72 degrees, partly cloudy
Water was clear
FLIES OF THE DAY:
Grey chironomid with black bead #14
Wine chironomid with brass bead #14
Black and blue balanced leech #10
