East Fork in California: Markleeville and Hangman's Bridge
The East Fork Carson rises below Sonora Peak in Alpine County, California and runs north past Markleeville, where California 89 and Hangman's Bridge on Highway 4 give the best access to the wild-trout canyon. Above Hangman's Bridge the river is a designated Wild Trout water with wild rainbows and browns; below the bridge to the Nevada line it is stocked heavily by CDFW and Alpine County. A California license is required on this side, and the upper river is open only from the last Saturday in April through November 15, with a winter catch-and-release, barbless season.
East Fork in Nevada: Carson Valley
Below the state line the East Fork runs 21 miles through Douglas County to its junction with the West Fork near Genoa. The upper part down to Gardnerville borders Forest Service land; the rest crosses private ranches and Washoe Tribal land, and while Nevada owns the channel, access is limited to public parcels and bridges. NDOW manages this as a put-and-take fishery and stocks rainbows and browns at Ruhenstroth Dam (the Broken Dam) above Gardnerville and at Centerville Bridge in town; fingerling browns go in higher up near the state line. The gauge on this page is the USGS station near Gardnerville on this reach.
Carson River at Carson City
The forks join in Carson Valley and the main stem flows past Carson City, where NDOW stocks rainbows and browns through the year and the river is reached from the city's river access areas east of town. Downstream the Carson is dammed at Lahontan Reservoir and ends in the Carson Sink near Fallon; the river below Lahontan is warmwater and irrigation water, not a trout stream.
Rainbow trout
In Nevada the rainbows are mostly hatchery fish caught near the stocking sites, close to the size they were planted; NDOW's 2026 stocking records show plants in March, May and June. In the California canyon above Hangman's Bridge they are wild fish that feed on the summer golden stone, PMD, yellow sally and caddis hatches once runoff clears.
Brown trout
Browns are stocked as fingerlings in the remote Nevada water above Ruhenstroth Dam and as catchables in Carson City, and hold over in the deeper pools; the wild browns of the California canyon are the larger, harder fish. Fall is their season, on streamers and on the caddis that carry into October.
Season and regulations
Nevada's season is year-round and the Carson has no special gear rules in the Nevada reaches; check the current NDOW regulations for the trout limit and for tribal-land boundaries in Carson Valley. On the California East Fork above Hangman's Bridge the general season runs from the last Saturday in April through November 15 with a 5-trout limit, then November 16 through the Friday before the last Saturday in April is zero-limit, artificial lures with barbless hooks only.
Runoff pushes the East Fork past 1,000 cfs in spring, and NDOW says the Nevada reach is usually not wadeable until it settles to roughly 50 to 150 cfs in summer, the range this page uses. The Markleeville gauge (10308200) is the one to watch for the California canyon.