Great Sierra Waters, the Eastern Slope

By: Terry Courtright

Narrated by: Terry Courtright

Great Sierra Waters, the Eastern Slope is a definitive study of the Truckee River, but also includes the Owens and the East Walker. It's a serious fly-fishing book that shows you how to fish these rivers, what to use as far as fly patterns, and how to tie them for your greatest success. In addition to the fishing information, which represents 60 years of fishing knowledge by the author, it details the plight of the Lahontan Cutthroat that has existed in the Truckee River drainage for 10 million years. This drainage runs from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake and the Cutthroats have been famous since the 1930s when fishermen flocked from all over the world to fish for them.

In the last twenty years the original strain was found in a few tributaries in the Pilot Peak range of north central Nevada. They have taken hold again in Pyramid Lake and fish in excess of 30 pounds are currently available and they're running up the Truckee to spawn. The demise of the Truckee began with the building of Derby Dam in the early 1900s. The last great spawning run occurred in 1938, and the average fish weighed 18 1/2 pounds. The last great Cutthroat trout was caught in 1949 in downtown Reno, Nevada and weighed twenty-two pounds and ten ounces.

As a boy, author Terry Courtright fished it constantly from the time he was 10 years old until he left for college. He later came back and wrote outdoor columns about fly fishing the Truckee, then moved back to Montana to fish all of the great waters in the West. As we speak, there is a great resurgence of interest in recovering this fish in this fishery and Courtright's last chapter on this book, called The Restoration of the Lahontan Cutthroat, brings to light the most sophisticated and workable fisheries plan that has ever been developed.

Great Sierra Waters is a welcome and timely addition to knowledge of the trout fisheries everywhere.

©1987 Terry Courtright (P)2025 Terry Courtright