Let's face it, I am stuck on the central coast of California. While the weather is awesome and the saltwater fishing is great, the trout fishing is virtually non existent. So, I have to get creative with my schedule to pull trout trips off.
Tahoe is one of the places I like to hit several times a year now. I like hanging with guys like Mark Wiza and Mike Nielson and there is always that shot at a nice brown. So, it was with a lot of excitement that I packed up my gear and headed off on another fishing adventure.
8 hours later I dropped down the hill and was greeted with the awesome view of Lake Tahoe. It is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful trout lakes in the nation. I was scheduled to meet Mike Nielson that night for some prime time toplining. When I pulled into Tahoe Keys the boat was gassed and ready to run. Mike had been getting into some nice fish of late so the anticipation was high.
Mike ran some of his favorite lures and I ran the new AC StickBait in the 5" rainbow flavor. We hadn't had the lines out for more than 10 minutes when Mike's drag started smoking. "Feels good", Mike said. The fish stayed down and didn't show himself for quite a while. We were thinking 6 pounder until we saw the fish for the first time. It was a gill-plate hooked 4 pounder that had the fighting spirit of a much larger fish. We got the fish into the net and reset the lines.
That fish had hit exactly where it was supposed to, right in the meaty part of the run. We knew it was on and got ready for anything. With the building chop and slight overcast it was only a matter of time. Suddenly Mike got shellacked! He tried to hand the rod to me but I was like hey, I don't take handed off rods. But he forced it into my hands and I begrudgingly started to fight the fish. As the heavy fish continued to pull drag, I forgot all about the rod being handed off and went into "Oh Crap this fish is big" mode. Suddenly I felt the fish get into rocks. Immediately after that I felt the line go slack. "He cut me off" I stated. Dang!
I reeled the line up and there were the tell tale frays from rubbing on submerged rocks. We will never know how big that fish actually was. I chalked that one on the "there was nothing I could have done differently" list of lost big 'uns.
Suddenly as quickly as the wind had come up, it was gone. Glassy water is the enemy of Tahoe brown trout anglers and we knew it was going to get tough. We pounded it until dark for only one more grab...this time on my rod.
Day 2 was explore day for me. There were several streams and lakes that I had been wanting to check out for some time so off I went. I saw some beautiful sites and made some notes for the future. I decided to end the day float tubing one of my favorite spots on Lake Tahoe in hopes for another good hook up. I pounded it for 4 freezing my butt off hours. I ended up with 2 rainbows and one brown. I cranked the heater and headed over to Mark Wiza's house.
I warmed my hands as Dr. Juice strung line and mixed scent cocktails. We checked out the ACs that I had stockpiled for the trips and talked strategy. 3:30AM came way to quickly and I felt like CRAP as I pulled on my gear the next morning. I wasn't going to let Weez know I felt sucky so I popped a dayquill on they sly after pounding my bowl of cereal. We were the first boat in the water and had the lines in by legal.
I put out a 5" AC Stickbait in the rainbow flavor. Tahoe has a lot of red side shiners in that size and color range. We hadn't gone too far when I got a good hit. The fish came to the boat easily and then showed its colors with a 4 leap show ten feet from the boat. "Decent rainbow" were the words that came out of my mouth as I grabbed for the net. After a quick video shoot I got him back into the water and he swam off no worse for wear.
We pounded it for another hour or so before Wiza's rod went off. He was running a larger AC Skinny and we immediately thought mack. After an impressive fight a nice 7 pound mack came to the boat. We were after browns but it was a nice fish nonetheless.
We continued to pound the shorelines in hopes of the elusive brown trout. We had a slight ripple come on and off which kept our hopes high. As our lures passed of a nice looking point I had a huge hit. I looked back 350' and saw a big fish come straight up out of the water. "Big fish" I
yelled to Wiza. He came up for a second time and thrashed the surface white. He then headed down and away and my drag began to peel out. Suddenly, he was gone. I reeled in my line and dang it if it wasn't frayed for 10' or so above where my lure had been. Light line, shallow water and sharp granite boulders do not mix well! This fish was in the 28" range and would haunt me the entire rest of the day and 8 hour drive home.
Mark picked up one more mack on the larger lures on the way back to the launch around 4 pounds. With that fish released we decided to call it a day. We had hooked the one we were after...but didn't get it in. We had put a few decent fish in the boat though...and I felt good about the chances we had given ourselves.
We got the boat put up and our gear stowed and headed back. After a quick goodbye I jumped into my rig and headed on out. I had a long trip back home and wouldn't pull in until late that night. Another trip in the books...and many more to come!
