Season, timing right for native mountain white fish
By Jill Oberly, Reno Gazette-Journal
Cast. Reel. Repeat. The motions of fly fishing on the Truckee River have a rhythm.
Until the moment a line goes taught, and you discover an unusual-looking fish on the end of your line.
It’s the bottom-feeding mountain whitefish, and it’s about as local as a fish in these parts gets.
Unlike rainbow or brown trout, the mountain whitefish is native to the Truckee River and the Lahontan Basin, as well as Carson and Walker Rivers.
“I hear all the time, people catch them and throw them on the banks thinking they are a trash fish, but they’re not,” said Kim Tisdale, western regions fishery supervisor for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
The fish often is discarded by anglers. But it is native to the Silver State, and Nevada Department of Wildlife experts said fly fishing for the whitefish, a fall spawner, is about to hit its peak.
