The indicator dipped below the milky green waters of Northern Nevada’s Truckee River. Riley Roberts pulled hard on his 10-foot 4-weight. He looked at the water through the green mirror of his sunglasses.
“Fish? No, maybe a stick?” he wondered with a laugh. “Wait, what? What is that?”
As the line slowly lifted out of the water, a soggy camouflage trucker hat covered in thick brown algae rose to the surface, hooked by Roberts’ heavy nymph. It was the second piece of trash he’d hooked from his raft that day. The first was the crusty metal ring of an old minnow trap.
“That’s crazy,” Roberts said. “I’ve never caught two pieces of trash in a day. It’s tough on the Truckee. This stretch gets it from all directions.”
Something needed to be done
The Truckee downstream of Reno is littered with trash. Thick wads of plastic are wrapped up in the willows along the banks. Cans, bottles and old tires litter the gravel river bars. Trash comes off trucks heading to the nearby dump. It falls from the buzzing Interstate 80 that runs along the northern side, and it flows downstream from the city center.
It’s a massive problem, but Roberts is attacking it head on, pushing to make his favorite river better for everyone while also sharing his love of fly fishing with the community.
A Reno native, Roberts is a founding member of the Trash-and-Cast River Cleanup, an annual event that brings fly fishers and volunteers together to pick up trash and hold a low-key catch-and-release trout tournament on the section below Lockwood.
Now, in its fifth year, the cleanup has made a noticeable difference in their project area. Throughout the event’s history, more than 500 volunteers have participated, removing over 150 cubic yards of waste.
The idea stemmed from a simple fishing trip.
“Me, Dan [Johnson from Trout Unlimited], and my brother floated this section and realized something needed to be done,” Roberts says. “We needed to do something for the place we care about.”
With the support of Roberts’ employer Patagonia, they launched the June event with a few dozen volunteers. It grew from there, eventually topping 100 participants annually. By any measure, it’s been a successful event. But it’s not the only way Roberts has worked to build community within the fly-fishing sphere.
Landing on the Moon
Roberts graduated from Galena High School before enrolling in the University of Nevada’s mechanical engineering program. He earned his degree while working at Sportsman’s Warehouse and fishing and hunting with his family as much as possible. After college, he took a job at the Panasonic Energy Gigafactory and then moved to an employer that more closely aligned with his values: Patagonia.
Roberts is no stranger to fighting for what he believes is right. The son of two moms, one a prominent prosecutor for the Reno City Attorney’s office (now retired), Roberts advocated in front of the Nevada legislature when the state codified gay marriage. He believes wholly in showing compassion. He lost one of his moms, Gretchen Miller, three years ago. She was the first one in their family who picked up fly fishing.
“We were just always an outdoors family, always doing something fun outside,” he said.
As Roberts became more embedded in the Truckee River fly fishing scene and an active member of the region’s TU chapter, he found ways to share his passion. Roberts is a regular volunteer with Trout Unlimited’s Sierra Trout Camps and Reno Trout Camps. The one-day learning events for 10- to 12-year-olds on a local trout pond are a highlight of his year, he says.
“There’s nothing like taking a kid out who’s never fished or only fished a handful of times and catching a 19-inch trout,” Roberts said. “It’s like they landed on the moon.”
It would be easy for Roberts to hide among the Truckee’s many secluded holes and net 2-foot browns and rainbows without anyone around. But he was inspired by the way a stranger once helped him as a beginning angler. When he was a teenager learning to cast on Hat Creek, another fly fishermen approached him and shared some advice about separating his back cast and forward cast.
“Ever since that day, it was like ‘Boom!’ I was able to cast,” he said. “Was it perfect? No, but it was a defining moment for me.
“Somebody went out of their way to help me get better. That’s why I love taking people out here to do this.”
The Truckee River
Connecting two of California and Nevada’s most iconic bodies of water, the Truckee begins as the only outflow of Lake Tahoe. The 121-mile waterway flows northeast over the state line and down the east slope of the Sierra through downtown Reno and into the Nevada desert, terminating in Pyramid Lake.
The river is famous for its many recreational opportunities and hosts a bounty of solid wild rainbows and browns that keep a devoted community of anglers busy. The Truckee was once home to a massive population of spawning native Lahontan Cutthroat, which are now the focus of stocking efforts on the Nevada side of the river. Access is plentiful, but the river is one of the most popular for fishing in both states.
Through the seasons and along its descending path, the river’s character changes dramatically. From the raging spring snowmelt that often blows out the water for weeks to a calm fall trickle, flows can vary immensely. Upper sections feature crystal clear, boulder-strewn holes tucked in Ponderosa pine canyons while the lower stretch is more commonly lined with thick willows and meanders through cottonwoods and sagebrush. Each zone requires different fishing techniques, but the entire length has inspired members of the TU’s Truckee River chapter to host events, cleanups and youth trout camps.
The same free-flowing rivers that sustain trout and salmon bring clean water into our homes, give life to vibrant communities and feed a passion for angling and the outdoors.
But today our fisheries and rivers face enormous challenges. At Trout Unlimited, we are doing something about it, and we need your help. Sign up to be a champion for the rivers and fish we all love and help us unlock the unlimited power of conservation.