Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss nice day on water

i was so fixated on catching "good" trout or kokes that day, but yeah i had revelation hineysight on that as well. though i do have the rest of this spring and three different RT swimbaits in the tackle box....

minor issue is pardee doesnt allow fishing within a couple hundred foot radius of the launch ramp, its all marked w/ buoys so you'd have to camp out a while on the outside of buoy line til the trout made it out that far.

its been too long since the last one, but yup, i just have to share another nice day on water....

been buried in work the last few weeks, so not checking forum much..but did get to play hookey last friday, on beautiful Lake Tahoe....

We met our guide (Gene) at Cave Rock on Friday for an afternoon trip. Talk about a blue bird day. No wind, 80+ degree weather, it was perfect for one of my objectives, which was to give my Mom a celebratory mothers day “cruise” on the lake, her first time on the water in over 50 years of going up to Tahoe, and of course my other objective, scratching the itch for some deep water Tahoe Macks……..

We loaded into the PT-109 and headed off to one of Gene’s favorite spots. Gene reported the bite had been REALLY tough the last few days. If you dont know how to fish Tahoe (which i dont......yet) you'l likely never see fish. these macks lurk in water to depths of over 300 feet, and you need to go after them w/ some pretty specialized stuff. I learned a bunch and really respected how hard our guide worked to get us on fish. i'm happy to plug Blue Ribbon Charters for any of you who might get to Tahoe one day.

Here are some pics to share the rest of the story, enjoy……..

I forgot how stunning the blue water is:


This pic is not altered…….it was really this blue……”lake of the sky”


Evidence that my Mom had fun


The gracious Cap’n makin sure his crew don’t get sunburned……


Riggin up…..


Poles out……..


Fish on……


Unfortunately it didn’t happen quite that fast……it was a tough bite, but no skunks here.

Fish in and in the box…….a nice eatin size ~17”



We were marking a lot of fish, we had several other hits but really no takers, none were committing, just barely nipping. It was a “reaction nip” type of bite My wife did have a good one on at one point, but it ended up being “the one that got away………” it would have been big fish of day. We stayed a while longer at the first spot, then moved south to another spot and again marked a ton of fish, but no one was hungry. We went down from 4 to 2 rods……..maybe all that flash w/ 4 rods was a bit much for them.

At least took advantage of slim action and took a few nice pics:


First time ever captured on film……..Gene St. Denis puttin the mojo on………


Watchin and waitin…


The water was like glass all day……


Just before we were deciding to call it a day, we got hit. A very decent fish (~25-inches....~6-7 lbs)


The fishes stomachs were absolutely crammed w/ shrimp…..part of the reason for such a tough bite. when the macks go on the feed again, one could get into 30 fish days w/ hogs over 10 pounds. the lake record is north of 40 lbs.

Besides the stomach full of shrimp, can anybody guess what's goin on w/ that fishes abdomen?

We kept our two keepers on ice until we got home Sunday night, filleted, a little lowrys marinade ..baked in foil………AWESOME tasting fish…..yum yum.

Hope y’all enjoyed the story…I know my Mom and wife had a great time, one to remember even if the fish werent jumpin the boat.

For those as lost as I was wrt Inner-Left Coast fishing:
The Lake Trout or Mackinaw

DIED - Thanks for my first ever glimpse of Lake Tahoe and of a Laker that swallowed a volleyball. Amazing - can't believe you got any strikes with forage as abundant as those shrimp must be.

PS: How did you summon Papa Hemmingway from the grave to guide your trip?

TJ

You brought him up from deep water and the pressure differential made his air bladder fill up?

thanks theo, here i just assumed everyone knew what a "mack" was. great link. i've heard true what it says about the macks dominating the fishery and wiping out the rest of the "indigenous" cutthroats back around 1900. the cutthroats first suffered uncontrolled fishing combined with impacts from clear cutting the region in the late 1800's, then came the macks and mysis shrimp which changed the whole ecosystem. its a heck of a lake trout fishery now though, and rainbows and browns are in there as well. bows and browns well over 10 lbs are occassionally caught by the few anglers that now how.

teehjaeh57, yer welcome...it was only my second time to fish tahoe. i have a ways to go before i could be productive by myself up there. the color and clarity of that water is truly stunning. the light bites translate into a very distinct almost undetectable motion on the rod. all the bites we had were mere nibbles, VERY TOUGH to identify over the motion translated by the large dodgers, occassional bottom bumping, and kicker motor vibration.

mr. hemmingway is a tahoe native and has been running guide service for nearly 30 years, and he is a REAL character. the type of guy that straps on snow shoes, hikes 10 miles back into remote high country lakes just to go ice fishin for an afternoon. sleeps overnight in a snow shelter and hikes back out the next day.

you got it bruce.

the limit on macks is 2/day. from what i've heard, in the past when doing C&R, the guides would puncture the air sack w/ a needle prior to releasing figuring it would heal and fish were fine, but some recent studies showed high morts as a result of this. some new methods use the downrigger to slowly put the fish back down to depth w/out the pithing. so i guess its good i only caught 2 cause i prefer to eat em anyways

Everybody else probably knew, but I didn't know squawt.

Condello, OTOH, probably has the Lake Tahoe light tackle Mack record.

My, you certainly run into the celebs out there in Sunny California - Ernest Hemingway, Tom Cruise, Santa Claus. I seem to recall (from tree topping pictures) that your nephews are Eddie & Alex Van Halen. I expect to see the likes of Bette Midler or Zsa Zsa in your future posts.

Looks like you had a great time Dave. Tahoe is a beautiful lake. Does the scenery look much different since the fires?

Theo, when you're on a first name basis with Santa, everyone wants to be your friend, even celebrities.

this has gone too far......hey, i am tryin to downplay the whole santa thing, can you guys please put a lid on it? i had to run the papparazzi out of here this morning, they were trying to sneak pics of me in my undershorts drinkin a cup of coffee in my front yard.

jeff, you can see the tahoe (angora) fire scars, but its greening up pretty well.....the sierras heal fast. the overall view from the lake is still breathtaking.

Did ya see this DIED?

On July 26, 2008, Dave's Tahoe guide caught two monster Mackinaw Trout - - one weighed 29 pounds 8 ounces.



Here's the story:


Monster trout caught at Lake Tahoe

10-4 good buddy. he's also gotten into a couple double digit browns this season. i beleive one was 14 lbs. as i said, anybody who visits tahoe and wants to fish it should look gene up, they will have a great day.

these were posted up on my other forum to follow up on JHAPs story....capped off w/ the BIG BEAUTIFUL BROWN........man now THAT GUY knows how to fish........

enjoy:

Sheesh!

Lordy what are those fish feeding on, small children? Flop-eared rabbits?

Sooner or later my idea of using flop-eared rabbits as a forage base will catch on. Then you guys will be sorry for doubting me.

Well, now I know why those Cal bass get so durn big. Those suckers are a mouthful.

once the macks reach a certain size, their preferred diet consists of kokanee salmon (landlocked cohos (or silvers as they are also known)).

to my (limited) knowledge, round here, there are no substantial bass populations in the same waters as macks. if there were, its pretty clear who'd win that one. for all practical purposes, those big macks are freshwater sharks.

i'd put this is in the fishin 2010 thread, but its not from my pond unfortunately, so for you homeys in fly over country and back east, here are some Lassen strain RT shots from camanche lake, plus some bonus bald eagle shots all from yesterday.

DIED did you guys have some earth action today ?

Something is rumbling up there, I read there has been 3 above 5.0 since Thursday.

DIED may have lost his power hence why he is not responding.

6.5 quake strikes off California coast

There are reports of power outages and damage Saturday in the aftermath of a 6.5-magnitude earthquake that struck off California's northern coast.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/09/california.earthquake/index.html

Several smaller events nearer DIED in the last couple days. If he was up by Lassen (Lassen RT) he may have been closer. Lassen is a volcano and IIRC is still classified as active

Steamed trout anyone?

A real pressure cooker.

Hey DIED looks like some amazing Fishing. I am just taking a guess but is that a Hewes Craft boat in some of the pictures?

Looks like a great trip DIED. How about more details?