Flows have come up recently and this is a great gift.  I’ll post more on this soon, but before I do I thought it would be helpful to remind us all what we have just been through.

These are a few pictures from the days that transitioned our beloved river from Nevada’s own “Miracle Mile” to a “Troubled Trickle”.  It’s important to me to remember not only the glory but also the turning point of where awful water management precipitation transformed this treasure we know as the Truckee River.  I believe it also significant and essential that we remember that as fly fishermen, we are but one very small part of the equation.

Pictured above, is the last brown I netted before I began my own personal “hoot owl closure“.  When I first passed this lifeless critter pictured below, I noticed a low hiss.  It was only upon further inspection that I realized the hiss was coming from inisde…the carcass was absolutely teeming with active maggots.  Something about finding a river predator a full 100 yards from the water’s edge with a belly full of flesh eating larvae was a evocative picture of how interwoven the ecosystem is, and how far reaching the effects of low flows are.

I’ll wrote more on this soon, but I believe that the river has been ecologically reset by recent events.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the trout population has already dropped by 25%-40%.  No one can tell for sure, and I am convinced after a few trips out with electroshock backpacks and the NDOW and California Fish and Game that no one can actually give a real account for what’s happened.  Those blasted things are about as helpful as taking a census in the dorms during spring break.

I’ll finish by saying this: the river is not what she once was, and won’t be for some time.