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By: Mark Wiza
Once you learn to catch fish at Silver Lake, head over to Caples for a chance at a mackinaw over twenty pounds. With similar altitude, depth, structure and water temperature, both lakes respond to the same fishing methods. Both are heavily stocked with rainbow trout, but also kick out quality browns and mackinaw. Caples is king, though, with a 23 pounder caught and released last year, and a 24 caught from shore the previous year. There are also plenty of two to five pound browns, as well as some trophy brook trout. Last fall I could see groups of brookies, from 12 to over 20 inches long, spawning near the bank in shallow water. Like mackinaw, they can successfully spawn in lakes with gravel bottoms. On May 25, I brought my friend Pete Peterson up to the 8000 foot zone to test the ice-out bite. There was a steady 10 mile per hour breeze with stronger gusts coming down the lake toward our launch area by the main dam when we arrived a half hour before sunrise. |
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The waveheights were only a few inches, though, indicating that the wind had started recently. Even on relatively calm days, high mountain lakes like Caples often get gusty and choppy right at dawn. We hoped the wind was just this "morning draw" as we brought the canoe and gear down a steep bank from the shoulder of route 88, where I had parked.
As we motored upwind and let out line on large minnow plugs in the gathering light, I noticed most of the spring thaw debris that had caused me so much trouble at Silver Lake had been blown into a dirty, foamy line along the shore. This meant trouble-free trolling, or so I thought until a gust of wind sideswiped me into shallow water, where I steered Pete's lure into the rocks and hung it up. As I reeled in furiously to clear my line so we could retrieve the Rapala, a fish slammed my 6 inch rainbow pattern Bomber plug. What I can only guess was a large brown then tailwalked and cartwheeled on the surface straight toward me, throwing slack into the line and throwing the hook. That's fishing. The wind picked up a bit as we fast trolled the northeast shoreline in 15 feet of water. When we passed the Woods Creek inlet, I had another big hit and a miss on the Bomber, and Pete brought in and shook loose a 12 inch rainbow from his 5 inch plug. We cut across the Emigrant creek arm and trolled the west shore for a while without another bite, so we changed lures. As soon as I had 100 yards of 6 pound line out and began trolling a #9 jointed clown pattern Rapala, I had another fish. By the way the rod bent over deeply and just stayed there, I knew it was a mack, and I was ready when it made the expected run for the rocks on the bottom. I motored into deeper water, steering with my elbow, while I worked him away from structure. Two weaker runs and he was boatside, twirling and thrashing. Pete volunteered to barbecue the 23 inch fish, so we kept him. Pete also hooked and released one more rainbow, 13 inches, on a gold Rapala, before the wind scoured us off the lake at nine-thirty. As on Silver Lake, I like to fast troll plugs early, then if the wind is down, slow troll flashers and a plug or a dodger and nightcrawler. Rainbow pattern plugs are great, but don't be afraid to experiment. My new hot lure, the clown pattern Rapala, looks like nothing that ever swam this lake, and the fish don't seem to mind at all. Bank anglers score with inflated nightcrawlers, and retrieving plugs with a stop-and-start action around rocky shorelines can trigger the big brown trout. Float tubers also do well, fishing woolly buggers on sinking line by the creek inlet or off either of the two dams. |
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