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Red Hot Kokanee Bite at Stampede Reservoir

Not many other lakes throughout California can say that 75-100 fish by late morning is the norm.  Non stop action is to be had at the beautiful gem of a reservoir nestled about 15 mins northeast of Truckee.  Currently I’m mainly fishing Stampede Reservoir due to the incredible catch ratio and the lack of heavy boating pressure.  Typically we see Bald Eagles and Ospreys diving down to grab a quick meal everyday.  And, oh yes, the fishing is spectacular!!!!  I do not update these fishing reports regularly as its much easier to report on my facebook page Tight Lines Guide Service.

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deckfull of Stampede Kokanee 6/29/19

3/15/2013 Lake Tahoe

 We launched at Lake Forest a little after 6:00 AM and headed straight over to Sand Harbor. Our plan was to fish for brown’s for a couple hours before moving out to deeper water for Mack’s. We pulled a variety of Rapala’s along with some Indilure Spoons. We were also trying out some new Abu Garcia 5500 LC reels with 30-pound Spiderwire Stealth Braid with 12-pound Trilene 100{7a4ac4d41b4460d34b281f63b723a7d44734ea67a7ce96d64bb383ade0b55738} Fluorocarbon. We worked the east shore hard until about 11:00 AM with only one fish, a Mack going about 3 lbs. We decided to switch gears and move out to deeper water off Cal Neva Point where we picked up our limits of Mack’s. The size was nothing special today with our biggest fish going about 4 pounds. We got our Mack’s down 200 to 280 feet on spoons.

Left to right
Lou Norton, Dan Wolfe, Walt Hodnett Jr. and Bill McInerney

2/16/13 Lake Tahoe

Fred Solari and Ed Noceti, both from Stockton, booked two days on Lake Tahoe, since we had such a phenomenal day catching Mackinaw on Friday, 2/15  we decided to start out fishing for Browns and Rainbows on Saturday, 2/16. We headed straight over to the East side of the lake around Sand Harbor. We were pulling F-18 Rapala’s and one Indilure spoon. Within 10 minutes we landed and released a rainbow that went about 4 pounds, he hit the F-18 Rapala. Before long we hooked another fish on the Indilure. This felt like a very nice fish, however, it got off before we could get a look at it. The next fish also took the Indilure. It was a Mack that weighed about 3 pounds. After a couple hours we headed back over towards Carnelian Bay and started fishing deeper for Mack’s. The bite was nothing like the day before. We ended up landing and releasing 11 Mackinaw. Two of the fish went just under six pounds and the rest were in the 3 to 4 pound range. The fish were taken on Glow Sep’s Secret’s and Needlefish at 260’ deep in 300’ of water.

 

2/15/13 Lake Tahoe

We had two clients that wanted to catch and release Mackinaw today. We did that for sure we hooked 33 fish and landed 20 of those. All on Glow in the Dark spoons around 260’ deep in 300’ of water. We have the same guys with us tomorrow and plan to fish the East Shore for Browns and Rainbows before going back for the deep Mackinaw. The other news of the day is the loss of a wheel bearing this morning. Thankfully we have an extra trailer at home and our son-in-law Steve willing to drop everything and bring it to me.

2/2/13 Lake Tahoe

 We fished Lake Tahoe four days this week, earlier in the week we were blown off the water early due to high winds. Fishing for Mackinaw on the East Side of the lake in 30 feet of water, with the water temperature averaging 38 to 40 degrees. The bite has been pretty consistent for the Mack’s, averaging two to five pounds and using Spoons and F16 Rapala’s. Saturday we were fishing off Dollar Point and caught some nice bright Rainbows trolling Orange and Gold Broken Back Rapala’s and Uncle Larry’s Black Perch tipped with 2” Brown Grubs.

1/22/13 Lake Tahoe 10.5 lb Brown Trout

We decided to go to Lake Tahoe for the day to get the boat inspected and pre fish for some upcoming trips. We took our granddaughter, Brooke with us. After the inspection was complete we launched at Cave Rock and immediately started fishing. We pulled a some spoons and stickbaits for a couple hours without a touch. A friend had given me a Bass Pro XTS Speed Minnow at the ISE show, he had good luck with it on some foothill lakes. I had a couple G-Loomis CR 842-2 Kokanee rods with 8 lb P-Line CXX on them sitting idle, I tied this XPS lure on, put some Pautzke Krill on it and let it our about 50 yards. Within about 15 minutes Brooke landed a 10.5 pound brown. Brooke is seven years old. She had the time of her life bringing in this fish on that light rod. Brooke was playing hooky from school that day. I need to mention that 25 years ago, our daughter Jeannie, mother of Brooke, also skipped school to go fishing with her Dad. She was seven years old, just as her daughter is. On this day Jeannie landed a trophy striped bass weighing 47 pounds in the San Joaquin Delta. There one more coincident to this story the striper Jeannie wrestled in 25 years ago was caught on P-Line CX, Brooke’s brown trout was hooked on P-Line CXX. What a great day and wonderful memories!

Stampede Continues to Produce

We left the ramp just before sun up and headed back to the area that has been producing for us. We put three StingFish in at depths of 15, 20 and 25 feet. We trolled for a couple hours without any action. The ice was starting to appear in areas again this morning, Im was glad I re-spooled my reels with 17 lb. P-Line CXX as we made our way through small areas of ice. Just after 8:00 AM two rods released from the downriggers. I knew we must have hit bottom because we had moved into some shallower water. It didnt take long to discover to my surprise we had a double. I was in disbelief when we landed a 14 and 13 lb. Mackinaw. Both fish were released after some quick photos. About 30 minutes later we landed another Mack that went around 4 pounds which was also released. We spent the next hour or so working the same area but the bite was off. At 11:00 AM sharp the famous Stampede wind came up to the point it was miserable. We decided to call it a day. The water temp is running around 37 degrees.

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