Mother Nature has finally decided to smile on the competitors in the 2003 Great Outdoor Games fly fishing competition.

After an alarmingly dry winter in the northern Sierra Nevada range — punctuated by one of the driest Marches in recent memory — the Reno/Tahoe area soaked up several inches of new snow in April, boosting snowpack in the surrounding mountains and adding some much-needed moisture to local reservoirs.

More importantly to the 12-angler Great Outdoor Games fly fishing field; April's amped-up snowfall will likely translate into improved summer conditions on the Truckee River, site of the one-fish competition.

"We've had a huge April," Truckee River Outfitters' Tim Haddon said in late April. "We're at 180 percent of normal precipitation, and we're expecting another foot of snow tonight. I've been keeping my skis waxed and my flyrod in the tube, man."

The recent spike in precipitation came as good news to local fly anglers, who were nervously eyeing the shrinking water level in massive Lake Tahoe, which provides the bulk of the Truckee's water. Standing at 5 feet below its rim in late April, a continued dry spell in the Tahoe Basin could have potentially turned the July competition into a game of rock-hopping for a dozen competitors scouring the drainage below the town of Truckee in search of cool, fishable water.

"I'm not going to say that we're saved yet - the river is still going to be lower than normal, but I don't think we'll be at an emergency low by the time the competition is held in July," said Rob Anderson at Reno Fly Shop. "With the added snowpack, (water managers) will be able to release water from Tahoe through the summer. It won't be at a free-flow level, but it'll be enough to keep the river running through town."

Ample snowpack is especially crucial on the Truckee from Trout Creek to Prosser Creek, roughly four miles below the town of Truckee. This section is almost completely dependent on flows from Tahoe, and is typically some of the first water to suffer from decreased oxygen and increased temperatures in the heat of summer.

The Truckee between Prosser Creek and the state line is boosted by releases from Boca, Stampede and Prosser reservoirs, and several feeder creeks, so it's faster, deeper and less dependent on releases from the Tahoe City Dam.

"The Wild Trout section (just below Truckee) can be pretty thin in the summer," Haddon said. "There's a lot more water available below Boca, because they'll release from all three reservoirs to keep it going. The water level coming out of the dam can be minimal, but you can always go downriver and find the flow you're looking for."

A lighter summer flow on the Truckee could ultimately be a boon to the competitors, who, in normal precipitation years, would be stocking their gear bags with more pieces of lead than caddis and mayfly imitations. On a river that's summer fishery is typically defined by massive flows, smaller water is definitely better water.

"The Truckee is a tough river to fish at normal summer levels," Anderson said. "It's usually pumping between 350 and 500 cubic feet per second in July. You have to use a lot of weight, and you really have to fish it hard. That time of year, only the very best guys out there catch fish. This year it could be at 250 cfs in July, which is an excellent flow on this river. The lower water level, for the short term of the competition, should actually be better."