Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss eagle lake adventure

ceadmin, turns out it was a king (chinook) so thanks....and good SWAG! that was a nice fish out of a local lake here.

bruce, i would only be guessing, but it might be spawning colors. the females tended to be silver sided w/ bluish hues on top. from all the fish we caught we saw the blue/silver and greenish silver colorations the most, the reddish colorations were not as common.

as i long windedly mentioned on the first page, these eagle lake trout (ELT) are a very special pre-historic strain of rainbow trout evolved only in eagle lake as it receded from the great ice age lake lahontan. i have not heard or seen of another fishery that routinely produces rainbows of this quality and size. its an awesome place.

JHAP, i aint got no fashion sense, sorry i didnt warn you to put sunglasses on before reading here.....and as always "safety first"

just for you trout envy pondbossers, here's a cut and paste of my report i just posted on the my OTHER forum


well, in summary, our annual fall trip to this very special place did not disappoint!

in my boat, we started out the first day with limits in just a couple hours. i felt more lucky than "skilled" to have found just the right menu favorites first thing in the morning slow trolling raps off points in the middle basin, we could barely keep rods in the water. when the rest of our group compared notes that evening, everyone was trolling raps the next morning

over the next few days we tried some different methods including slip bobber fishing and simple casting. we�d move around hunting birds and bait schools, then simply drift or anchor and cast around in relatively shallow waters of the middle and north basins. slip bobber fishing wasn�t happening for us, and it didnt take us long to abandoned that. we had some epic moments though casting from the drifting boat. one time we caught 3 fish in four casts, then a short while later 2 fish in 3 casts after experimenting w/ different lure patterns. my brother rediscovered the magic of panther martins and one of my all-time favorites produced ...an old crusty brass acme wobble right

an old and very large tui chub also found my acme wobbler edible, either that or she was protecting a nest site. my nephew has the picture of that fish, i did not take it out of the water, but carefully de-hooked her, had my nephew shoot a pic of it before releasing her back to breed some needed forage for the lake. we estimated the fish at 18 to 20-inches and 6 to 8 pounds. she was probably a very old fish maybe over 20 years old. i understand they live to over 30 years. it was my first tui chub, what a fascinating and prehistoric looking fish.

all in all we figured out some good productive patterns and stuck with them the whole week for people/boat limits every day staying in the middle and north basins. other folks in the group fished pelican, youth camp, miners point areas etc, but their reports were not as encouraging, generally catching smaller fish and working pretty hard for them, so my boat stayed north and stayed in pretty good quality fish averaging 2 to 3 pounds.

a week of no tv, no radio, awesome food and drink, great fellowship and consistent fishing. we didnt care what was going on in the world, although we did get word of the incoming storm on sunday. we kept a careful fish count for the group, and determined we could fish monday and am glad we did. in the late afternoon, the front was coming in hard, wind howling, white caps, we had banked the boat on the protected side of a point in the middle basin. my nephew says �why don�t you try orange uncle dave?���.i said good idea, it was the color that had worked well in the early mornings for us���..first cast out I hook a good one. drag zipping out, heart racing, 10 minute fight, i land the big fella, a beautiful fat buck going nearly 5 pounds on the boga. it was a beautiful gift from eagle lake in our last hour of fishing. i brought him back to the cabin to a group of envious friends. he weighed in on the group scale at 4.5, and took first place for big fish of the week. i was stoked and thankful for my life and eagle lake fishing friends, what a great week.

based on the size of the incoming storm, we pulled boats a day early on monday evening. tuesday was spent watching the howling wind and driving rain from the inside, while drinking, eating leftovers, filleting, vacuum packing, and cabin cleaning. we ended with sending everyone home on wednesday each with four precious red meated eagle lake trout and a slew of new memories to enjoy until next year.

i didnt get many pics on my camera, and am waiting for others to send me theirs, but i hope you enjoy my few for now, i'll post up some others later:

Dave,

Congrats. That looks like an awesome place! That big one was a fast grower. Small fins and tail for body size.

Have you ever fish Clear Lake? Isn't that where your state record bow came out of?

thank you cecil.

it definitely had trophy genetics, i almost didnt harvest the fish, but figured someone else would catch it so it might as well be me. we figured it might be a fairly recent brood stock plant. its tail fin appeared snipped or damaged like it had been in a pen, and its flesh was not nearly as red as the other fish. perhaps the hatchery releases a small number of broodstock from time to time as they replace them, and i was lucky to hook one.

i have never fished clear lake but i can tell you its a famous lmb/panfish fishery. i dont think there are any trout to speak of in the lake. actually the state rainbow record came out of lake natoma which is near sacramento, IIRC, it was around 27 pounds.....

It would be easy to find out if they plant broodstock fish. Just ask your fish and wildlife or the hatchery that plants them. I've seen damaged fins on fish that were planted as fingerlings so that's not necessarily a confirmation that it's a broodfish.

The white meat may be a give away though that it was recently a hatchery fish. Are any browns or brooks planted in Eagle Lake?

Still a nice fish and I'll bet he made the drag scream!

As far as releasing fish from my experience the big ones fight so hard they don't always survive a release anyway. I caught a 7 lb. bow in a local lake and when I finally landed it, it went belly up.

only eagle lake trout (ELT) are stocked in eagle. its a fragile fishery, no other common strains of trout could survive there due to the extremly high alkalinity. one of the ELTs main courses is brine shrimp.

eagle lake trout are raised and successfully stocked in other less alkaline lakes though.

my drag was screamin.......those ELTs fight like no other rainbow can, that was one of nicest fish i have ever caught.

What were you catching them on DIED?

all i would say on the internet (publically) is spoons, spinners, and raps.......the specific patterns (locations, presentations, colors) thats some top secret stuff right there....

Typical fisherman, more secretive than the KGB.

You've got that right AP. DIED is very guarded about giving away any fishing secrets. Heck every time I fish his pond he makes me wear a blind fold. The strange thing is I seem to cast better with a blind fold on.

Looks like you had a great trip, Dave! Well except for the second to last photo. I don't know who looks more po'd, you or the fish.

eagle lake is such a fragile fishery that when folks figure out what works they tend to hold it pretty close to the chest. the good thing is that its not super easy to get there and takes some effort to really figure it out. the water conditions are deplorable for a number of reasons (drought and ag dishcarge to name a couple), and that keeps folks away too. the fishery has declined in recent years. old timers talk of how 4 and 5 pound fish were average, anything under 4 was released, but those days are gone. despite increased fishing pressure, and low water conditions, it is still a premier trophy trout fishery, just several notches down from what it once was. we pray for a long wet winter, it needs it as does most of nor cal.

jhap, i hope you noticed (you cant help but notice) i wore my special lucky fishin jacket just for you. the lake showed me some love this year, i wuz just giving back a little

It is my belief that your jacket can been seen from the Space Station.

Now if you just borrowed the guys red pants from the second photo down and wore them with your jacket you'd look like a super hero....

Faster than a speeding ticket,
more powerful that a mocha latte,
able to land large fish in a single cast.

Yes, it's - "Fluorescent Man" - strange visitor from El Dorado who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal fishermen. Fluorescent Man - who can change the course of mighty ponds, play awesome guitar riffs with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Dave in El Dorado, mild mannered geologist fights the never ending battle for Truth, Justice and the Pond Boss way.

Fluorescent Man is back with a final 2009 installment.....a couple more eagle lake porn shots from my nephew's camera...


this is the rare tui chub:


Fluorescent Man's nephew:


Fluorescent Man himself:








for your entertainment.

Some neat fish...

Nice fish and great pics. I forgot that you have to wear the fishing license on the outside of your body rather than carry it in your wallet.

thanks cj and esshup.

for the sake of correctness.......the fish above i called a tui chub may actually be a Tahoe Sucker......another native fish in the Lahontan basin and Eagle Lake. the literature says they max out at ~24-inches, and we estimated that fish at ~20-inches, so either way it was a cool fish and trophy for the species...

yeah, esshup, i'm with you...IMHO that law is ridiculous.

I just submitted a fishin report for my other forum, and thought i'd also share here again this year. Two parts to fit all the pics...

Part I

Once again an awesome week was had by all at Eagle Lake. The best camaraderie one could wish for, but REALLY tough fishin, unlike years past. We usually have our trip in mid-October but people�s schedules dictated an early one this year, 9/21-9/28. On top of the sad lake levels, lowest since 1933, we knew what was coming ��full moon conditions, hot days, and hard work for stressed fish, which all turned out to be true.



Some had it pretty easy though���



The trip was not without somber but joyous overtones as we also celebrated my late brother. On Saturday we anchored up and rafted a few boats near where Mike caught his 6 � pounder a few years back, tipped his favorite � Makers Mark, and told stories and shared thoughts for a couple hours til the wind kicked up.



The group I have found myself blessed with has been coming up for 25 years, this being only my fourth. One of the �elders� put together a power point show on Saturday night full of a quarter century of memories, and had shirts made up�.pretty cool.



A shot of the melders (middle-aged elders) in their new shirts�..the elders were all on the other side of the table taking the pic.



We fished many places on the lake, its the second largest natural lake in CA at ~5,000 ft elevation (high desert). The Huge schools of Tui Chub YOY at Wildcat Point were a great pleasure to watch, but as the Pelicans, Grebes, and ELT stuffed their mouths, there were fewer each day. Some fish were also taken by our group near Pelican Point and the Youth Camp.







We sited several large but extremely spooky ELT in the middle and north basins which are much shallower than the south basin, and it was too early for the numbers up there. Even though I've never done it, site fishing in 3 feet of water with a white bottom and weed patches reminded me of Florida bonefishing shows i've seen on TV. It was surreal. A mid-September stocking yielded cookie cutter 2 pounders near Rocky Point. Where else can you catch cookie cutter 2 pounders with deep red tasty meat? In extreme stealth mode (electric trolling motor and long distance casts to structure) both my nephew and I caught nice ~3 lb holdovers over near Bucks Point, my largest for the trip (compared to 5 pounds last year). Similar to last year, I hooked a large 5+ lb tui chub on a little cleo lure of all things. I released the chub in the water, pics are on nephew�s camera. I caught that large tahoe sucker last year, seems I manage to get one prehistoric fish a trip.

As usual I didn�t get many pics on my camera, and am anxiously waiting to get copies from our group.

That said, an Eagle Lake Report wouldn�t be complete without a little fish porn��

ELT representative fish on my camera, Many sincere hours went into these guys�..

Part II

more fish porn...


















We managed to get everyone home with limits, filleted and vacuum packed ruby red ELT.



I LOVE THIS PLACE.

May She get lots of rain this winter!!

Until next year.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a life changing location/event.

What was the water clarity? It looks like you left large chunks of food out for the deer - or was someone rock hunting ?

Great report Dave. It looks like it was much warmer this year that in past years!

thanks ewest, its one of those special places from a variety of standpoints, the fishing, the geology, the high desert, the ecology, etc. etc. to spend time there and soak it all in with good friends is a blessing.

however, its sad to see it in decline, a big ag pipe continues to drain lake water, and the wet season seems to ignore it. it might end up a dinosaur.

some good info here if interested

the deer was very interested in that bag of choc. chip cookies which were saved

jhap it was hot for 5,000 feet....some days reached 90. big temp swings in the desert, as nights would reach freezing. surface water temps reached 68.....i could see lethargic trout just hanging, some actually sought out the boat for shade.

was very difficult to entice the bite on this trip.

There is a part of me that kinda misses "Fluorescent Man."

Interesting reading about the lake.

Jeez, where is the brightness adjustment on this monitor.

Great photos and beautiful fish, and looks like real good friends.