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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!

12/7/12 Lake Berryessa

Paul Kneeland and Cal Kellogg joined us today on a little scouting trip to Berryessa. We launched at Markley Cove around 7:30 and started marking fish just outside the marina. We were marking fish from 40 to 110 feet deep. We dropped 2 rods with Shad and two with Anchovies both cured with Pautzke Fire Brine. Within a few minutes we had our first King in the boat, it was about a 2 lbs. We kept working this school but couldn’t get any others to take our presentation. We picked up and headed over to Skiers Cove and dropped in 4 rods with Shad and long lined a Grey Artic Fox fly off the back of the boat. It wasn’t long before we landed a 2.5-pound Rainbow on the fly. We continued to work this area and also work the rockslide area with the same setups. We ended up landing 6 nice rainbows before moving back to try for kings again. We ended up landing one more King making our total for the day 2 kings and 6 rainbows. Surprisingly, we found the water pretty clean given all the rain in the past week. We will be back on Berryessa for the next couple days. Watch for a more detailed report and pictures in the next Fish Sniffer.

11/24/12 Eagle Lake (Susanville)

After getting off the Delta around 4:00 PM the previous day, we put the downriggers back on the boat and headed for Eagle Lake. The trip was schedule to have a group of 18 people, organized by Bryan Roccucci. Bryan asked Cliff Spediacci to fill in and work with Ed Fisk and myself to take this group out.  In years past Ed and I have worked with Bryan on this trip. We all launched at 6:30 and worked our way towards Wildcat Point in heavy fog that was sitting on the lake and stayed until noon. The bite started off a little slow but soon picked up. Cliff and I spent most of our time between Wildcat and Shrimp Island fishing in the top 5 feet of water. We were trying to work the rocky points but it was hard due to the very limited visibility. Ed went a little farther north.  The hot ticket for all three boats was the Orange Arctic Fox Trolling Fly and an orange Sep’s Grub and Pro Cure Trophy Trout scent. We ended the day with limits for all 18 clients and also threw a few small ones back throughout the day.  The average size was around two and a half pounds with a handful going over three pounds. There’s only one month left before Eagle Lake closes.

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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