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3/18/13 Stampede Reservoir

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IMG_31191Today, we made our first trip to Stampede, the news traveled fast that it was open. The road was clear with only a couple patches of snow. The ramp was in good shape other than a little ice but nothing a 4×4 couldn’t handle. We launched about 6:30 AM and headed straight across from the ramp and started fishing the same are we hooked all the nice Mack’s last year.  We made a couple quick passes before quickly switching over to Rapala’s and targeting browns. We gave this a couple hours without and hits. The lake was like glass. We switched back to Pro Troll Sting Fish and worked our way back into 60’ of water. At 10:00 with still no fish in the box I was getting concerned that it was going to be one of those days. About then, we got a little breeze and a ripple on the water and that’s all it took. Before we knew it we had 5 Mack’s in the box. The biggest was 10lb.The other weighed in at 9.5 lb, 9 lb, 5 lb and one that went about 2 to 3 pounds. All these fish were caught on a size 15 Pro Troll Sting Fish fishing the bottom in 60’ of water. Three of these fish were stuffed with 6” Kokanee. The water temp started out around 37 however we found 42-degree water in the shallows behind the island.

3/15/2013 Lake Tahoe

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 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

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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

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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.

2/13/13 Lake Tahoe

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Click here to view the video Lake Tahoe 2/13/13

Pre-fishing Lake Tahoe for some upcoming trips, I asked Cal and Gene from the Fish Sniffer to join me. We launched at Lake Forest and fished around Cal Neva and then moved over to the East Shoreline. We had a great day with Mackinaw but everything else was slow. We had a great time catching fish and playing with the video cameras. Hope you enjoy this short video of Lake Tahoe Mackinaw fishing.


2/2/13 Lake Tahoe

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 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

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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!

1/17/13 Lake Berryessa’s Rainbow Trout

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Despite all the reports that Berryessa was slow, I figured, I would go see if anything has changed. When I left Grass Valley at 6:00 AM it was 33 degrees and when I got to Markley Cove it was 28. We launched on the icy ramp and headed over towards Spanish Flat. We spotted a bunch of birds working so decided to start in the middle of them. We put a Shad 4′ behind a Shark Cannonball and down 25’ and another at 30. We also ran two baits about 100’ behind the boat and one down 6’ and one down 10’. It took less than five minutes before we had a fish on the 25’ downrigger but quickly lost him. Within a minute or two we hooked and landed a very nice rainbow on the 6’ line. This action kept going for about two hours before it quit. It was like someone turned a switch off. We couldn’t buy a fish after that. The birds quit feeding as well. We then moved over to the area just outside of the Dam and targeted Kings. We fished Shad and Anchovies for about an hour before calling it a day. We ended the day with about 10 hookups landing seven of them. All these rainbows were very nice two pound plus fish and all caught on Pautzke Blue Fire Brined Shad. The water surface temp was 48 when we launched and was just below 50 when we pulled out at 2:00 PM. The bite should only get better as the water warms.

12/7/12 Lake Berryessa

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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)

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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.