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Home › Waters › Nevada › Truckee River below Derby Dam
Tailwater · Lower Truckee and the Pyramid Lake Corridor, Nevada · Nevada

Truckee River below Derby Dam Fishing Guides

The lower Truckee below Derby Dam - a desert tailwater running the last stretch to Pyramid Lake, and the corridor Lahontan cutthroat use to get there.

The Colorado River curving below sandstone walls at Horseshoe Bend, Arizona
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Truckee River below Derby Dam

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About the Truckee River below Derby Dam

Derby Dam sits east of Sparks and diverts Truckee River water into the Truckee Canal for the Newlands Project. The USGS gauge immediately below it watches roughly one thousand six hundred and seventy-six square miles and reports discharge, stage and a live water temperature series. That temperature reading matters here more than on most rivers, because this reach runs through high desert in summer and the difference between a fishable morning and an unfishable afternoon is measurable on the gauge.

What defines this water is what happens below it. The lower Truckee runs from Derby Dam through Wadsworth and across the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation to Pyramid Lake, and that corridor is the spawning route for Lahontan cutthroat trout. Derby Dam was for most of a century a complete barrier, and it is a central piece of one of the better-known native fish recovery efforts in the West – fish passage work at the dam has been aimed at reopening the river to cutthroat moving up from the lake. Rainbow and brown trout hold through the reach as well, with mountain whitefish in the faster runs.

Flows here are entirely operational. The diversion means the river below the dam can be running well or running thin depending on how much water is going down the canal, and the seasonal irrigation calendar drives the hydrograph more than snowmelt does at this point. Reading the gauge before committing to the drive is not optional on this reach.

Access is the other constraint and it is a serious one. Substantial portions of the lower river are on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, where fishing requires a tribal permit and tribal regulations apply rather than Nevada’s. Anglers should sort out which authority governs the specific stretch they intend to fish before going.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Truckee River below Derby Dam.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Truckee River below Derby Dam cfs

Now: 264 cfs, read 12:35 am CDT, Thu Oct 22, 2026 (USGS 10351600, TRUCKEE RV BLW DERBY DAM NR WADSWORTH, NV).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Derby Dam and gauge - the flow, stage and temperature reference for the lower river.
Wadsworth area river access - the main town on the lower reach.
Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation water - tribal permit required; separate regulations apply.
Interstate 80 corridor pullouts - roadside access between the dam and Wadsworth.
Numana area - lower-river access approaching the lake.
Pyramid Lake delta - where the river enters the lake and cutthroat stage.
Truckee Canal headworks - the diversion that governs downstream flow.

Seasons

Spring: the key window; cutthroat move upriver from Pyramid Lake and flows are strongest.
Summer: diversion pulls flows down and desert heat pushes temperatures up; fish early.
Fall: flows recover as irrigation season ends and the fishing improves markedly.
Winter: cold and low but fishable, with the best water clarity of the year.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Truckee River below Derby Dam?

As of Oct 22, 12:35 am, the USGS gauge TRUCKEE RV BLW DERBY DAM NR WADSWORTH, NV reads 264 cfs, with water temperature 55.9 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Truckee River below Derby Dam?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Truckee River below Derby Dam in Nevada.

Where can you access the Truckee River below Derby Dam?

Derby Dam and gauge - the flow, stage and temperature reference for the lower river. Wadsworth area river access - the main town on the lower reach. Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation water - tribal permit required; separate regulations apply. Interstate 80 corridor pullouts - roadside access between the dam and Wadsworth. Numana area - lower-river access approaching the lake. Pyramid Lake delta - where the river enters the lake and cutthroat stage. Truckee Canal headworks - the diversion that governs downstream flow.

When is the best time to fish the Truckee River below Derby Dam?

Spring: the key window; cutthroat move upriver from Pyramid Lake and flows are strongest. Summer: diversion pulls flows down and desert heat pushes temperatures up; fish early. Fall: flows recover as irrigation season ends and the fishing improves markedly. Winter: cold and low but fishable, with the best water clarity of the year.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Truckee River below Derby Dam?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Nevada agency site: https://www.ndow.org/rules-regulations/