Nevada's fly fishing is concentrated along its western edge, where the Sierra Nevada spills the Truckee, Carson and Walker rivers into the Great Basin and they die in desert lakes with no outlet. That geography produced the fish Nevada is known for: the Lahontan cutthroat, a giant lake-dwelling cutthroat native to Pyramid and Walker lakes and the rivers that feed them. Pyramid Lake is the reason most fly anglers come to Nevada, and it fishes in winter. The rivers are a spring and fall proposition, and the rest of the state, which is most of it, is a thin scattering of small creeks in isolated ranges and a lot of warmwater reservoirs.
Pyramid Lake and the Lahontan cutthroat
Pyramid Lake, on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation north of Reno, is a vast, alkaline desert lake where anglers stand on ladders in the shallows and cast toward deep water for Lahontan cutthroat that can run to sizes no river trout reaches. The fish feed on tui chub, and the fishing is streamers and midges: black or white Woolly Buggers and Tui Chub imitations stripped on a shooting head, or chironomid pupae under an indicator, in cold months from late fall into spring when the fish come into the shallows. Tribal permits are required and the season is set by the tribe, not the state. Walker Lake, the other terminal lake to the south, once held the same cutthroat, and its decline from water diversion is one of the West's cautionary stories; it fishes in winter and spring when it fishes at all.
The Truckee through Reno
The Truckee River flows out of Lake Tahoe, across the state line, and through the middle of Reno before ending at Pyramid Lake. The Nevada reach from Verdi through Wingfield Park in downtown Reno to Sparks is an urban trout river with rainbows, browns and the occasional Lahontan cutthroat returned by the restoration program. Midges and Blue-Winged Olives carry the cold months, caddis take over from March into July, and Pale Morning Duns show in June and July. Flows of 100 to 1,500 cfs on gauge 10346000 are fishable; the river warms in August. Best months are April, May, September and October, with Zebra Midges, RS2s, X-Caddis and PMD Comparaduns in #14 to #22.
The East Walker below Bridgeport Reservoir
The East Walker River is a tailwater that begins in California below Bridgeport Reservoir and crosses into Nevada near the Highway 338 crossings, where the brown trout fishing is the best moving-water fishing in the state. It is a small, sage-country river at 30 to 600 cfs, with midges and Blue-Winged Olives from fall through spring, caddis and Pale Morning Duns in late spring and summer, and a streamer bite for large browns in October. The main Walker River below the forks, through Smith Valley toward Walker Lake, is a freestone with rainbows and browns in its upper Nevada reaches, best in May, June, September and October. The West Walker, gauged, is the other fork.
The Carson River and the Carson Valley
The Carson River enters Nevada from the East Fork near Markleeville and runs through the Carson Valley past Genoa, the state's oldest settlement, with rainbows and browns in a Sierra freestone that peaks in May and June after runoff and again in September and October. Caddis from March through July, Pale Morning Duns and Golden Stones in June and July, and Blue-Winged Olives in fall are the hatches; Yellow Stimulators and Elk Hair Caddis in #10 to #16 cover most days. The river warms and drops through the valley in summer, and the best trout water is the upper reach near the state line.
The Ruby Mountains, the Humboldt and the far north
Northern and eastern Nevada are mostly sagebrush basins, but the isolated ranges hold small trout streams. Lamoille Creek in the Ruby Mountains south of Elko is the best known, a gauged canyon creek with brook trout and rainbows in a setting that looks like the Alps. The Humboldt River and its forks are warmwater through most of their length, with trout in the headwater creeks; the Jarbidge, Bruneau and Owyhee rivers in the far north are gauged redband trout canyon streams that drain toward Idaho. Salmon Falls Creek and Marys River are similar. None of these have guide pages yet. Rainbow trout, brook trout, brown trout and cutthroat are all recorded in the state, along with bull trout in the Jarbidge drainage and mountain whitefish.
Before you go
Pyramid Lake operates on tribal regulations and permits, Walker Lake's status changes with the water level, and the Truckee and East Walker both carry special rules on some reaches. Check the Nevada Department of Wildlife for state waters and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe for the lake. Runoff on the Truckee, Carson and Walker peaks in May and June and the tailwater East Walker is the fallback. See the Nevada fishing hub for every gauged water in the state and the Nevada trout page for trout detail.