Newsletter of the Truckee River Flyfishers TRF Mission Statement We are dedicated to: improving and promoting the sport of fly fishing in Nevada. Promote and encourage the conservation of game fish, especially wild trout, through the betterment of the streams and lakes everywhere. Encourage and assist our youth to become fly fishers and true sportspersons. Inside this issue: Healing Waters Lahontan Tui Chub Annual Banquet Facts Pilot Peak LCT Pilot Peak LCT March Prospects Membership Form Upcoming Events: March 16 th Annual Banquet 21 st Healing Waters No general meeting in March April 4 th BOD Meeting 18 th Healing Waters 20 th Pyramid Fish out No general meeting in April p.2 p.3 p.3 p.4 p.5 p.6 p.7 President s Message The Banquet March 16, 2013 5:00 pm Holiday Inn, Sparks By Wes Ong Tickets are available at Cabela s, Sportsman s Warehouse, and Orvis. Or call me, 530 0725. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have helped me with all the activities that the club has had over the last seven years. There have been many. Looking back I was Vice President from 2006 with Tom Smith as President, 2007 with Lisa Shea as President, and 2008 and 2009 with Tillie Arizmendi as President. Finally the last three years as President, and I could not have functioned efficiently without the support and help of the Board of Directors. I also want to thank the local businesses that have supported our club, the Reno Fly Shop, Cabela s, Orvis, Sportsman s, Hendrix, Patagonia, and the gaming community who have been more than generous. And finally, I want to thank all of our members who have donated unselfishly with your talent and time. As we go forward from here, I urge you to support our new President and Board of Directors with the same, if not more enthusiasm, as you have in the past for me. God be with you all. The tug is the drug. Wes March 2013
The Anglers Line Page 2 Healing Waters by Charles Lorang This month our volunteers introduced a new fly to the participants at the VA hospital. Instead of the standard Wooly Buggers we have been tying we brought some Bucktails and a new recipe for Blacknosed Daces. Some colorful streamers were tied but the real breakthrough happened when Steve, with Richard and Mike s help produced a Pheasant Tail nymph. It was the first fly other than a streamer any of our Vets has tried and the results were spectacular. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the volunteers who give their time, so generously, to our program. Richard, Mike, Harry, Joe and Reva were on hand in February and did a great job. Also, thanks go out to Bud, Bob and Calvada Flyfishing for their generous contributions of materials to our program. I know that it seems early in the year but now is the time for us to try and arrange for a day on the water for the disabled Vets we have had the pleasure of helping. I am looking for one or two volunteers who can help schedule, coordinate and arrange this. It will involve making phone calls, sending emails and a minimal amount of paperwork. If you feel up to the challenge please step up and help create a memorable experience for these deserving men and women. Those interested can contact Charles at 815 7426 or drifly@charter.net. Get Your Newsletter Earlier Would you like to get your copy of The Angler s Line in color and a week earlier? If so, just send an email to the newsletter editor with send it by email in the subject line. Board of Directors & TRF Officers President: Wes Ong 775 530 0725 weswinnot@aol.com Vice President: Mark Warren 775 972 5942 markeraw@charter.net Secretary: Tom Smith 775 741 8825 edsontiger@aol.com Treasurer: Cheri Pierce 775 329 7627 fufupierce@aol.com Conservation: Joe Cendagorta 775 747 7858 jlcendagorta@gmail.com Web Master: Curt Kamada 775 376 9453 fishncurt@hotmail.com Biologist on Staff: Mark Warren 775 972 5942 markeraw@charter.net Project Healing Waters: Charles Lorang 775 815 7426 drifly@charter.net Newsletter Editor: Alex Penney 775 376 8909 alexpenney1@gmail.com Board Member Bill McCready 775 747 8829 capitol@ventureplan.com Board Members Needed: We have open positions
The Angler s Line Page 3 The Lahontan Tui Chub by Mark Warren The Lahontan tui chub or Gila bicolor is a native minnow (cyprinid) to Nevada and found in such lakes as Pyramid, Tahoe, Spooner and Walker. As the primary food source for the Lahontan cutthroat trout, chubs can reach up to 16 inches in length. This spring, Ralph Phenix and I were indicator fishing off the rocks at Pelican and schools of thousands of 2 to 3 inch chub would swim by. This made me think there was a cutthroat near by that we might be able to catch, but no such luck. The sheer number of fish though pointed to a healthy ecosystem that might produce some large cutthroat, which appears to be the case. As a student I never took Spanish, only German, so when I saw the genus and species for chub, Gila bicolor, I naturally pronounced it Gee la by color. Since biologist usually never use the scientific pronunciation, I went for years pronouncing it wrong in my head. Finally, having a discussion with another biologist I blurted out, Tui chub, you know Gee la by color. He looked at me and said something like, No, stupid, it s Hee la, it s Spanish. I was embarrassed to say the least, but I learned something. Chubs are an unprotected species no season or limit. They spawn in the spring between April and June in vegetation and rocks along the shore. Chubs are generally deep olive in color on the top and an off white underneath, which may appear gold or coppery at times (hint to you great fly tiers). They also lack an adipose fin (that fin in back of the dorsal fish) which trout have. Chubs will eat most anything including algae, vegetation, zooplankton and small fish. They are also fun to catch on lighter tackle and small nymphs such as a pheasant tail or hare s ear. Years ago Mike Sevon and I spent several evenings (following a long day gillnetting cutthroat) at Walker Lake fishing from shore with floating lines and catching chub after chub and I m sure that anyone that has fished Spooner has tied into a chub or two. Truckee River Flyfishers 23 rd Annual Banquet At A Glance Where: Holiday Inn, 55 East Nugget Avenue, Sparks Nevada When: March 16 th, 2013 5:00 PM No Host Cocktail 7:00 PM Buffet Dinner Cost: $45 in advance, $50 at the door Guest Speaker: Brian O Keefe Raffle and Silent Auction: Credit cards accepted. Tickets Available at: Cabela s Fly Shop, Sportsmans Warehouse, All club functions
The Angler s Line Page 4 What Can We Expect from the Pilot Peak LCT in Pyramid Lake? By Mike Sevon Most fly fisherman and other anglers who have fished Pyramid Lake all of their lives have a goal of catching a big Lahontan Cutthroat trout (LCT). This fish typically must be 30 inches and weigh in excess of 10 pounds. This mythical fish is often called, Big Red. With the discovery of a wild LCT population near Pilot Peak on the Utah border and the development of this strain of LCT, there was a hope that Pyramid Lake would once again produce trout that weighed in excess of 20 pounds. (The famed cutthroat trout of Pyramid Lake were known to be long lived, to mature later than most trout and to reach weights in excess of 40 pounds.) During the early 1900 s, millions of cutthroat trout fry spawned from Pyramid Lake fish were distributed to waters of northern Nevada using the railroads. Many of these stockings failed or were lost when rainbow trout were stocked over the cutthroat trout and hybridized or out competed the cutthroats. The Lahontan National Fish hatchery just south of Gardnerville, initiated work on developing the Pilot Peak strain of LCT in 1995. Fish from two streams, Bettridge Creek and Donner Creek, were moved to a pond on the eastern flank of Pilot Peak and were reared to maturity. Eggs from these fish were transferred to the Lahontan National Fish hatchery and carefully maintained as family groupings for controlled brood stock development. In 2005, Mary Peacock, a genetics professor at UNR was successful in extracting DNA from museum mounts of cutthroat trout from the Truckee River drainage which matched up with the Pilot Peak cutthroat trout. This work determined that the Pilot Peak fish originated in the Truckee River drainage from Pyramid Lake stock. Trout from the Pilot Peak strain were first stocked in Pyramid Lake in 2006. In the initial year of stocking, there were only 13,197 fish planted at the south end of the lake. All of these fish were marked with yellow floy tags and had the adipose fin removed. The following year there were over 240,000 Pilot Peak strain cutthroat trout planted at the south end of Pyramid Lake. Of these, approximately 40,400 had yellow floy tags and an adipose fin clip and the remainder were adipose clipped and have a thermal internal mark. After the initial stockings, the fisheries staff at Pyramid Lake and the US Fish and Wildlife biologists waited and watched and waited. The initial returns from anglers were few and researchers doing work on the pelican colony on Anaho Island were recovering floy tags which indicated a substantial mortality of stocked cutthroat to White Pelicans. There was some thought that by 2009, mature Pilot Peak fish should begin to show up at the Sutcliffe Lake Operations spawning channel or at the Marble Bluff fish way. From 2009 to 2012 only a handful of tagged fish made a showing. Then beginning in 2012, cutthroat trout around 20 pounds started showing up in the creel. These fish were adipose clipped and had floy tags that identified them as being stocked in 2006. The trophy wall of Crosby s Lodge at Sutcliffe is full of photos of big fish caught this year that have a missing adipose fin. It is important to bear out that Pyramid Lake Fisheries stocks the lake each year with approximately 750,000 yearling cutthroat. Around 10 percent of these are marked each year by the tribe with coded wire tags and with the exception of 2010, these fish are also marked with an adipose clip. The final determination of the source of any adipose clipped fish is whether that fish has a floy tag, or an internal coded wire tag or a thermal mark in its bone structure. What s real exciting about the Pilot Peak fish for fly anglers is that these fish are being caught from shore. Ed Smith, a hard core Pyramid Lake fisherman caught the largest Pilot Peak fish to date in November at the North nets on a black wooly worm. This fish weighed over 24 lbs. Ed tells me that these fish are different from the typical Pyramid Lake cutthroat in that they will come into the shallows and feed anytime of the day. They are generally more silver in color and lack the heavier spotting of the Pyramid Lake cuts. It has been my experience, as an angler, that they fight harder and are in better body condition than the typical Pyramid Lake fish. Continued on page 5..
The Angler s Line Page 5 Pilot Peak LCT.Continued from page 4 The Lahontan National Fish Hatchery continued building up the stock of Pilot Peak fish. In 2008, 52,400 marked Pilots were stocked at Popcorn. These fish were marked with a purple or grey floy tag. In 2009, approximately 63,700 Pilots were stocked in three different locations: Popcorn, Pelican and Warrior Pt. These fish were all marked with an adipose fin clip and a purple floy tag. The year where the Pilot Peak production reached its maximum was in 2010 when over 346,000 yearling cutthroat were stocked. Of these, half were tagged with emerald colored tags. These fish were released from the Block House down to Howard s Bay. So my fishing friends, consider that the big fish we have seen so far have been the result of that initial stocking of 13,000 Pilot Peak fish. We have had an additional 705,500 Pilots stocked with the potential of getting big. You should be getting giddy with the prospect of what the future holds. Add on to that the steady production of the tribes hatcheries adding to the mix and we have a very,very bright future at Pyramid Lake. We can expect lots of fish, high catch rates and the chance for fish over 15 pounds. ( I would advise you to move up to 2x tippet). In my 30 years of working with desert terminal lakes, I found that there were years when fish growth was very high and years when there was very little growth. Those years when lake levels increased resulted in high production of tui chubs. In years of decline, tui chub production was much lower. Our last year of lake level rise at Pyramid occurred in 2010 2011. My biologist intuition tells me that the poor fishing in 2011 and the spring of 2012 was a result of lots of food for the lake s cutthroat. They simply did not need to cruise the shallows for food. It was, The year of the fish. Following that,year of the fish, we are rewarded with the biggest cutthroat we have seen at Pyramid Lake in generations. This spring we will see the benefits of good survival and growth. The year of 2013 will be a peak for anglers and we will be calling it, The year of the fisherman. You can help in collecting information on how the Pilot Peak fish are doing by being prepared to record and report your captures of tagged fish. Carry a pencil and tablet on the water and check each fish you catch for a missing adipose fin. (That s the small fleshy fin on the top of the fish between the dorsal fin and the tail fin.) When you catch a tagged fish, record the color of the tag, the tag number, the length of the fish from the head to the fork in the tail, the date, the location and whether or not you released the fish. You can leave this information at the Pyramid Lake creel stations, Crosby s or call it in to the US Fish and Wildlife s dedicated tag reporting phone line at 775) 861 6355 For photos of the big fish coming in check out these two sites on Facebook: Pyramid Lake Fishers and Pyramid Lake Fisheries.
The Angler s Line Page 6 March Prospects by Wes Ong Truckee River: Look for the slower water East of town to hold fish. Mid day should see the best bite with a possible Baetis hatch on overcast days. The Poly Wing Baetis that Ryan ties, is an excellent choice when the fish are coming up to this hatch. Little Truckee should actually be warmer due to the tailwater of Stampede, 45 degrees. Hinkson Slough: Last year we had excellent conditions and a good bite. This year we had a typical cold February day. A variety of things work here, but generally some type of midge is best. This is where Richard Dickerson developed his monster midge. Small ones work too. Look for some warmer weather and this fishery should cut loose. There are tagged fish here so wipe off the slime and record the number and the length of the fish and put it on your survey card. North Pond has been stocked with trout, also the Cooling Ponds. Squaw Creek Res: If we get some sunny weather catch rates should be in the double digits despite the fact that NDOW has not put that many fish in here. All types of presentation will work, sinking line, or floating line in the shallow water. Small light colored water boatman has done well in the past. Pyramid Lake: This month the pre spawn starts and there should be some big fish caught from shore. The discussion this year is if the Pilot Peak fish come in the shallows the way the old strain did. Last year they did not and we did not have a very good close in cruise. The fish are in good shape and may not need to bulk up before spawn and the Pilot Peak fish may not be mature enough to spawn? East Walker River: Flows have been good and steady this winter with the water dropping to the 25 cfs range only in the beginning of winter. Regardless, always check the flows before you go down to make sure they have been steady for at least a couple of days. This month there should be a stonefly hatch toward the end of the month. Use a golden stone nymph or fish the dries with a Stimulator. If that doesn t work there should be some good baetis action in the afternoons. Indian Creek Res. Why this lake yields large fish I have no clue, but the fish here run in the 3 pound range and are common. The ice has been off the lake for over a month and with a little warm weather this lake should cut loose. Other Waters: Baum Lake, Lake Amador, by Ione California or the Ruby marshes if you have the gas, time and stamina to fish in the cold. American River for steelhead, combat fishing if you go on a weekend. Bishop area, Lower Owens and Pleasant Valley Reservoir are also a good winter fishery. Don t Forget.. New License Year for Nevada!
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