Fish Reports

Temperatures have been soaring into the 40’s during the days this past week, but ice still remains between 12 and 20 inches over most of the reservoir. Fishing has been good for most anglers using night crawlers or mealworms.

With almost no fishing pressure this past week, reports from this Lincoln County reservoir are minimal. Ice conditions remain good and rainbow trout are on the menu. Begin fishing with your bait suspended just below the ice. Then slowly begin dropping your bait at five to 10-minute intervals until you catch a fish. That will help you find the depth where the fish are holding.

Anglers are finding some success at the upper marsh for panfish and catfish. Mealworms or night crawlers below a bobber will catch fish.

Trout fishing has been exciting below Davis Dam. PowerBait and spinners have been catching stocked rainbows as well as a few carry over fish. If one bait doesn’t work try something different. Justin Smith weighed in a 26.5-pound, 41-inch striper at Rusty’s Riviera Marina. He caught the fish while casting a Glide Swimmer from the shoreline near Rotary Park.

Due to an equipment failure in its water delivery system, and the subsequent loss of its rainbow trout stocks, the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery has suspended its recreational fish stocking program, which included weekly fish plants at Willow Beach. The hatchery did save and release approximately 11,000 trout in mid-December. Though their numbers will diminish over time, these and holdover fish from previous plants

Largemouth and smallmouth bass fishing has picked up. The coves with more aquatic plants are hiding some decent bass towards the central to south end of the lake. On the north end, striper fishing has been slow. A.C. Plugs brought in three striped bass ranging from 10 to 12 pounds out of Willow Beach. Early risers are catching these fish before 6 a.m.

Anglers are reporting that fishing is slow and live bait difficult to get. The best action for striped bass has been at depths of about 150 feet. When the live bait isn’t working try anchovies or jigging spoon. The weather should remain good with calm winds and temperatures near 70 degrees. Perhaps that will lead to some good fishing.

The flows on the Truckee are awesome. The river is flowing at its normal flow for this time of year just about all the way from Truckee through Reno. The fishing has been as good as can be expected given all the variables. The canyon section in California has been the best mainly due to a higher number of fish in this section after the

The recent high water did wonders for the river. This was the highest flow event that we have seen since July 2012 at the Farad Gage. CURRENT CONDITIONS OF THE TRUCKEE RIVER AT FARAD While the river was high this brought a great ‘flushing’ flow to the system. Fish were able to move around and had access to an abundance of new food sources that were mobilized

Construction on the reservoir is complete and the low pool area even held some water after the rains earlier in the summer. Pray for snow next winter to fill it and if this happens then NDOW will stock it with trout, largemouth bass and bluegill in the spring of 2016. It all depends on Mother Nature.

Harrison Pass is closed due to snow and anglers should plan on accessing the Refuge through Secret Pass. Secret Pass does experience drifting near the top, so take care here as well. As a general rule anglers can almost always find some open water here due to flows and the numerous springs even during very cold weather. The ditch is approximately 85% ice covered and

Wild Horse is covered with an average of about 14 inches of inches of good hard ice with a layer of slush and then a layer of one to three inches of ice on top of the slush. On top of that mess, is about six inches of snow. The top layer of ice is thin enough in places that ATV’s break through into the

Extremely low water levels with warm water make this reservoir a poor choice for fishing. Not worth the trip.

The road is 4WD only and the ice here is approximately seven to nine inches thick with a crust of snow on top. Fishing has been fair to good using the usual PowerBait, worms or corn. Snow is in the forecast for this area this weekend, so go prepared.

The road to Angel Lake is closed. There will be no further reports until late next spring or early summer depending upon snow conditions.