Skwalla!

All year I wait impatiently for this week.
Of course, I don’t know exactly which week it’s going to be..
Skwalla (a stone fly), are the first big bug of the year.
Sometime in March or April it happens.
Every fish in the river seems to look up when it does..
Imagine, eating popcorn all winter, and them being offered a double cheeseburger.
The female Skwalla, walk out from the bank, onto the water’s surface tension, to oviposite.
A relatively helpless, large insect, struggling in shallow water, trips the fishes feeding switch.
Fish rising, trips my Fly Fishing switch.
It won’t be this good again till next year…..
Turned several dozen fish in the last three days, on dry flies.
The timing is from about 12:00 PM till 4:00 pm.
You need an accurate, buoyant, but low-riding fly, and a perfect drift.
With the low, clear water, a lighter 5x leader is a good call.
For locals, I’d say fish from Glennshire up to Trout creek.
The Truckee river above Trout creek doesn’t open for a month,
so don’t get carried away chasing the bugs upstream…..
Snowed last night a trace. That will put the chill on their emergence today.
That’s OK, because my back is sore from all the fishin’.
Gives me a chance to tye some more flies, for the next warm day…….