Pride was the next sin, as I thought about the small claim to fame known as a 'lake record' when one angler is recognized for having caught the biggest fish in a given lake. I actually have the record for nearby Silver Lake, where I caught a 22 pound mackinaw two years ago, but that was not enough for me. I was just so proud of myself for catching that fish that I thought I deserved more, and rather than being happy with my past accomplishments, I then manifested a wave of Greed; unable to content myself with just one lake record. This obsession became so great that I could categorize it as Lust, which is an inordinate desire for pleasures of the flesh. Those of you fortunate enough to have experienced the adrenaline rush that comes from battling huge trout on light line know what I'm talking about- it's right up there with that other fun activity the writers of the Old Testament had in mind when they added lust to the list.

The only deadly sin I can honestly say I avoided was Sloth, as I rose at 4:00 a.m. on the morning of May nineteenth and found that the weather forecast finally called for a day without howling wind. Arriving at Caples just as a purple, pre-dawn glow spread over the eastern sky, I beat back the sin of laziness even further by carrying my canoe, electric motor, deep-cycle batteries and gear down the face of the dam. This was not just to atone for my other transgressions, but because the sloths at Caples Lake Resort have been opening the boat ramp only on weekends, at the lazy hour of 7:00 a.m.

The weather report for Tahoe had called for light winds in the morning, but Caples is considerably higher in elevation and sits along an exposed ridgeline, so a morning breeze is to be expected, and I launched into a decent headwind and small waves. Turning on my Fishin' Buddy portable depth finder, I heard one electronic 'chirp', then the screen went blank. Damn! A quick check of the unit told me that I just needed to replace the batteries, but when I searched my tackle bag I found I'd somehow forgotten to bring spares. This caused a moment of panic where I actually almost turned back. There I was with all sorts of plans for precision trolling, including the use of lead core line and heavy, sinking lures, and without my 'underwater eye' this would be nearly impossible. I nearly succumbed to that great sin of modern fishing, overdependence on high-tech gadgetry, before I decided to make the best of the situation. Heck, I know this lake pretty well, I thought, and I'll just fish shallow with floating plugs the whole time. I guess I'm living proof that everything happens for a reason and God can work through even the greatest of sinners, because less than an hour later, as I fast-trolled along the shoreline, my rod tip bounced repeatedly as I steered a bit too shallow and my lure tapped bottom. When the rod then bent over hard and stayed down, I was sure I'd hooked bottom.

When I picked it up out of the rod holder though, it bucked hard in my hand as line peeled rapidly off the reel. I've been writing trout-fishing articles for several years now, and I've probably used up every possible descriptive phrase in depicting the task of reeling in a big one, so let me just say that after ten minutes of give-and-take on eight-pound test fluorocarbon line, where I alternately bullied and finessed my fish, I brought it to the surface and slipped my long-handled net beneath a huge mackinaw! Just how huge was the question; it looked to me like this fish just might beat the recent lake record, so I brought it into the canoe and laid it flat, then took out my tape measure. My hands literally shook with excitement, and the canoe bounced on growing waves, so it was hard to be sure of my measurement, but the mackinaw seemed to be just over 38 inches, the length of the record fish. NO! Could it be? Could I have actually caught a new Caples Lake record? My digital scale told me the fish weighed just under three-pounds; so much for another high-tech gadget.

"I'm done!" I shouted to myself. "I need to go find a good scale and weigh this thing!" As I traveled at high speed back to the dam from the back end of the lake, I kept one lure trolling behind me, and just a few minutes later, this time over deeper water, I hooked another monster! By the time I had this one in the net, I felt like having a cigarette, and I don't even smoke! It looked as big as my first fish! Impossible, I thought, so after taking a quick photo of it hanging in my net, I brought it into the canoe and briefly laid it alongside the other fish, where I could see that it was in fact two or three inches shorter.

The one sin I have not yet mentioned is Gluttony, and I'm sure some would accuse me of this for killing and eating even one giant trout, but I believe I retained some measure of virtue when I released my second fish. When removing the lure from its face, I couldn't find my needle-nose pliers, and I foolishly placed my hand too close to its toothy maw. As I yanked the hooks free, the darn thing actually bit me hard, and gave me several deep scratches for my trouble. Seriously- here's a photo (When Mackinaw Attack- Tonight On Fox! hehe).

You can be sure I then kept a trolling line out for the rest of the trip back to the dam, but lightning didn't strike a third time, and once on shore I couldn't find a single soul to lend me a scale or listen to me brag. There was not another car-top boat on the lake, nobody shore fishing, and although there was a generator running and a couple of vehicles parked at the resort, I couldn't find anyone there either, so I took my big catch back to South Lake Tahoe, where I had it weighed at The Sportsman tackle shop. It was only twenty pounds, according to their scale, but I refused to accept that I was not the holder of the new lake record, so I drove to Safeway, where I made the butcher weigh it again on his certified meat scale. Twenty, even, and when I measured it again, this time it came up thirty-seven inches. My pride and ego were finally deflated, but only a little. This meant that the fish I'd released was a good fifteen pounds, and between the two, I'd just had one of the best fishing days of my life. Since I couldn't find anyone to take my picture at Caples, I dragged my wife out of work to take a picture of me with my fish in front of Lake Tahoe, which was a bit more scenic than the Safeway meat department.

Wait a minute! How did I get to the end of my story without revealing what I caught these fish on? Well, if you had a secret lure for catching giant lakers, wouldn't you want to keep it that way? So goodbye for now dear readers, and.... Aw hell, I just couldn't do that to you. The secret is actually well known among trophy trout anglers; big trout eat little trout, and both of these lunkers were caught on large rainbow-trout pattern plugs. The twenty-pounder struck an AC Hatchery Trout plug, and his little brother ate a jointed Bomber Long A. While the Bomber can be found at numerous retailers in California, AC Plugs are handmade by Allan Cole and the model I used is only available through his website, acplugs.com. These unique swim baits are famous for catching huge game fish, from largemouth bass to brown trout, and I've been field testing them for the company for the past year, with some spectacular results, as you can see. Thanks Allan, for another big one!

Thanks also to Phil Pirone of Pro-Cure for letting me join his pro-staff team and field test his great line of fish-attractants. I used 'Trophy Trout Bait Butter' on both lures; this thick, paste-type attractant is made from ground-up Tui chubs, a major food source for big trout. A tip for anglers seeking an edge through the use of scented lures is that the Bait Butter line from Pro-Cure disperses best in water temperatures over fifty degrees. Caples Lake is still in the low forties, so I thinned the Trophy Trout Butter with Trophy Trout Bait Sauce, a viscous liquid form of the same attractant, then for good measure gave both lures a squirt of one of my favorite scents for Tahoe mackinaw, Pro-Cure Sardine Bait Sauce. Call me stinky, but the stuff works!

As you can imagine, canoe trips on Caples are highly weather dependent- but I also offer on-the-water seminars on Caples, Tahoe, and a number of other area lakes, where I come aboard your boat for the morning and show you the secrets of high sierra trout fishing. Also, now that I've caught your attention with a big fish story, let me ask for your help in supporting an important bill currently moving through the California senate. AB2280 is a bill to keep in place funding for trout and salmon hatcheries, which are in danger of severe cutbacks due to the state's ongoing budget crisis. If passed, this bill would simply allocate a larger portion of the proceeds from the sale of fishing licenses to hatchery operations, which of course makes perfect sense, a rare occurrence in government. Although mackinaw spawn naturally in Caples, they were first stocked through hatchery operations, and mackinaw fingerlings are periodically added to augment natural reproduction. Brown, brook and rainbow trout are also stocked (why do you think I caught my big fish on a 'hatchery trout' imitation?), and this lake is only one of many great fishing spots in California that will be impacted by budget cuts if this bill doesn't pass. Please visit www.stormsource.org/ab2280/ to find out more about the bill and to lend your support by sending an electronic letter to your legislators through the website.

Until next time,
Mark (never stand in a canoe) Wiza
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