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Home › Waters › California › Prosser Creek
Tailwater · Nevada County Sierra, the reach below Prosser Creek Dam near Truckee running to the Truckee River at Hirschdale · California

Prosser Creek Fishing Guides

A short, cold tailwater below Prosser Creek Dam near Truckee, fished for browns and rainbows and for the fall kokanee that run up from the Truckee.

A concrete dam releasing water into the river below it
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Prosser Creek

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About the Prosser Creek

Prosser Creek below the dam is a small piece of water with an outsized reputation among Truckee-area anglers. The reach runs only a few miles from the base of Prosser Creek Dam down to the Truckee River near Hirschdale, dropping through pine and willow in a shallow canyon just off Highway 89. It is a genuine tailwater: releases from Prosser Creek Reservoir set the flow and the temperature, so the creek behaves nothing like the freestone tributaries around it and holds fishable, cold water through summer weeks when the smaller Sierra streams have gone thin and warm.

The fish are the reason to come. Rainbows and browns move up out of the Truckee into this reach and hold in it, and the browns in particular can run considerably larger than a creek this size has any business producing. Mountain whitefish are common and are decent sport on light gear. The fall kokanee run is the local event: landlocked salmon push up from the Truckee and into the lower creek in autumn, turning red and drawing a crowd for a few short weeks. The water is small enough that it fishes best with a careful approach, short casts and light tippet, and it rewards anglers willing to walk away from the crossings rather than fish the obvious pools by the road.

The gauge below the dam is the number to check before driving out, and on a tailwater it means something different than it does on a freestone stream. What you are reading is a release schedule, not a rainfall response. Reclamation adjusts Prosser releases for storage and downstream demand, and a change can take the creek from wadeable to pushy within an hour with a clear sky overhead. Look at the last day or two of the trace rather than a single instantaneous value, and treat a step change as a decision made upstream. There is no temperature sensor at this site.

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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 Prosser Creek.

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.

Access

Highway 89 pullouts north of Truckee - the main roadside access along the reach.
Prosser Creek Dam outflow area - walk-in access at the top of the tailwater.
Prosser Creek Campground - developed access near the reservoir.
Hirschdale Road - access to the lower creek near the Truckee confluence.
Tahoe National Forest roads east of Highway 89 - dispersed walk-in access.
Truckee River confluence at Hirschdale - access to the mainstem at the mouth.
Boca-Stampede Road crossings - alternate access to the lower reach.

Seasons

Spring: high, cold releases and runoff, with fishing improving as flows steady.
Summer: the best season, with cold releases holding the creek fishable when other Sierra water is not.
Fall: the kokanee run and strong brown trout fishing as fish move up from the Truckee.
Winter: cold, often snowbound access, and largely a locals-only proposition.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Prosser Creek?

As of Sep 17, 5:00 am, the USGS gauge PROSSER C BL PROSSER C DAM NR TRUCKEE CA reads 43 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Prosser Creek?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Kokanee Salmon, Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Prosser Creek in California.

Where can you access the Prosser Creek?

Highway 89 pullouts north of Truckee - the main roadside access along the reach. Prosser Creek Dam outflow area - walk-in access at the top of the tailwater. Prosser Creek Campground - developed access near the reservoir. Hirschdale Road - access to the lower creek near the Truckee confluence. Tahoe National Forest roads east of Highway 89 - dispersed walk-in access. Truckee River confluence at Hirschdale - access to the mainstem at the mouth. Boca-Stampede Road crossings - alternate access to the lower reach.

When is the best time to fish the Prosser Creek?

Spring: high, cold releases and runoff, with fishing improving as flows steady. Summer: the best season, with cold releases holding the creek fishable when other Sierra water is not. Fall: the kokanee run and strong brown trout fishing as fish move up from the Truckee. Winter: cold, often snowbound access, and largely a locals-only proposition.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Prosser Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the California agency site: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regulations