Did the title do its job and catch your interest? Will I be revealing some never-before-published trout catching tips today? Maybe, or maybe this new trout fishing is just new to you. In our constantly recycled, recyclable world, there's nothing really new. Any of you guys in your forties remember the girls wearing jeans, circa 1985, that were not only tight in the rear but super-tight around the calf and ankles, sort of an anti-bellbottom? "They're Ba-aack" - only now, the boys are wearing them. Don't even get me started about recycling in the movies- I believe Scooby Doo Meets The Flintstones is coming out this summer, in 3-D!

I grew up fishing, first with a cane-pole and a bobber for bluegill, then a tangle-prone Zebco 202 spin cast outfit, and as I learned more and explored more advanced gear and techniques, I found that there was always someone who knew more than me. If I was lucky that angler might share some secrets, hard-earned from time on the water or passed on by yet another learned fisherman, so I could add his old tricks to my new book. These days, fishing is my passion, hobby and part-time business, and I enjoy nothing more than showing a kid how to tie the trusty old Palomar knot, or teaching a guy with a brand-new fancy fish finder how to turn off the 'Fish I.D. Mode' (Where there always seems to be a school of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish under the boat), and interpret the sonar returns as arches on the screen- "There's a school of kokanee at fifty feet, and that's a big mackinaw on the dropoff!"

Alright, I lied. There's something I do enjoy more than all the selfless giving of trout fishing secrets that comes with being a fishing guide. I like catching 'em, plain and simple! Let's take a look now at how to combine the best aspects of traditional fishing with the latest innovations to catch more trout on two great Northern California fisheries, where old-school meets new. When we're done, please promise me you'll get off your computer and go wet a line.

Lake Tahoe:

My biggest trout so far in 2009, a nineteen-pound laker, came on a combination of old and new techniques on this world-class fishing hole. I caught my monster with lead core line (old school), from my canoe (really old school), in mid-January in 15-degree weather (so cold school that it's almost unheard of in California).

No, I wasn't wearing my fringed buckskins or coonskin cap, and I did draw upon several very modern techniques which helped me put my trophy in the net, starting with the Internet. I had been studying three weather websites daily and they all repeated the same thing for close to a month- "sunny, light winds". We were in an early winter drought, with a high-pressure bubble cinched so tight over the Tahoe basin it was like living in a greenhouse. Glass calm all day, slight ripple at sunset, glass calm all night, slight ripple at dawn. The reflection of the sky and mountains in this mirror made for spectacular scenery, and the smooth surface allowed easy travel and perfect boat control, for fish that weren't biting.

Okay, anglers using the ancient technique of dropping slabs of painted lead festooned with hooks (2 to 4 ounce jigging spoons, such as the Crippled Herring or Gibbs Minnow), or those employing the latest electric downrigger methods were still hooking mackinaw 200 feet deep, but at a time of year when shallow fishing for rainbow and brown trout as well as giant mackinaw should be great, most trollers were striking out. I learned this from friends and from the Internet as well, where I chatted with other anglers and looked for their reports on this website.

So why were the fish only biting deep? Though you can occasionally catch sight of a fish in the shallows on a calm day on Tahoe by peering over the side of your boat, make no mistake, they've all seen you. Not only is your boat's silhouette obvious and ominous overhead, but your Rapala plug also looks a lot more like a piece of painted wood with hooks on it, tied to a string, in these conditions. Furthermore, calm water is silent water, and every noise your motor or your tackle box makes in your boat is carried well and far, spooking the trout. Ah, my kingdom for a ripple, a slight chop to break up my profile, some small breakers to lap the shoreline rocks and cover my approach with white noise.

But it was not to be, at least for several weeks last winter. So as I prepared for yet another tough fishing trip under windless skies, I happened to be walking by the side of my house where I store my seventeen-foot canoe, and then it hit me-

"Ow!" A sap-filled, eight-inch pine cone had dropped from the tree above and bounced painfully off my shoulder, onto the upside-down canoe. With this 'sign from above', I found myself removing my fourteen-foot boat from my truck's roof rack, and replacing it with the canoe. I then stowed the noisy gas motor in the garage and grabbed my electric motor and two deep-cycle batteries. I also brought my portable electronic fish finder, and my handheld GPS unit, two modern tools that bring precision to my trolling. I use the sonar to find fish sometimes, but at all times it gives me constant feedback as to the depth of water, allowing me to troll my offerings within a few feet of the bottom. The GPS will help me get home in fog or a white-out snow squall, and it can plot out productive trolling runs or mark jigging holes, but I use it mostly as an accurate speedometer. Some days, when the fish are eager, you can vary from ideal speed quite a bit and still get bit, but when the trolling is tough, I want to be sure I'm pulling my dodger at 1.1 miles per hour, not 1.3. Yes, the devil is in the details. So are the trout.

I pulled into Cave Rock State Park around noon, stopping to fill out the day-use fee envelope, put in my hard-earned money, and push it through the slot into the metal self-pay cylinder. The tab that tells the authorities that I paid (or pretended to pay and just filled out the tab) went on the top of my dashboard, then my defrost fan promptly blew it into the corner where no one could see it. The invasive species inspector from Tahoe Resource Conservation District then began a thorough going-over of my canoe, which consisted of one quick glance with the eyeballs followed by a prolonged flapping of the gums.

"Where are you coming from?"

"South Lake Tahoe, I live here."

"When was the last time your canoe was in the water?"

"Six months ago, and it was in Lake Tahoe."

"Do you know what we're inspecting for today?"

"Anyone trying to cling to any last vestige of being able to freely access the lake? Just kidding guy, you're looking for quagga mussels, zebra mussels, European milfoil and the secret Asian clam."

I think a buzzer went off and then we entered the rapid-fire round:

"How long can the quagga mussel live out of-"

"One month!"

"What temperature water does it take to kill -"

"140 degrees Fahrenheit!"

Then he showed me a clear plastic box with shells in it and asked me to pick the harmless barnacles and semi-annoying Asian clams from the insidious quaggas. Who remembers Sesame Street? "One of these things, is not like the others, now. it's. time.to. play our game!"

So my brain had been thoroughly inspected (though my canoe and electric trolling motor could have been just caked with the damn quaggas for all the actual look-see conducted) and my prize was access to our national treasure, Lake Tahoe.

I pulled my truck to the bottom of the boat ramp to unload my canoe and gear, knowing that if I stayed until dark I would have to carry it all back to the top of the ramp and over, under or around the newly erected gate that would be locked at 4:00 pm. Not a problem, that's why I work out. Screw the new Nazi boat ramp hours.

There was actually a slight wrinkling of the glassy surface, and a hazy, partial overcast when I set out, so I trolled south with Rapala plugs at top speed on my 46 pound-thrust electric motor. Nothing. Then of course the sun burned through any trace of cloud cover and the lake glassed out again, so I slow-trolled live minnows and night crawlers, usually a surefire way to shake out any willing fish along the shoreline, from twelve inches to twelve pounds. Again, nothing.

As the sunk sank low I tied large AC Plugs onto ten-pound leader on my lead core rods, and trolled fast once again, this time a few hundred yards offshore. I zigzagged off and on a thirty-foot shelf that dropped quickly to sixty feet, tapping bottom occasionally with my lures. Nothing, nothing, nothing; I told myself I was doing everything right and that if the big fish bite failed to materialize I was putting my hours in toward the trip when it would. I also passed the time by visualizing monster mackinaw chasing and slamming my lures.

At around 20 minutes past sunset, just as the last colors were draining out of the sky, I zigged a little too shallow and as I was reeling in a color on the lead core, my rod snapped down into a deep, throbbing arc. This fish was pissed! I reduced the drag setting and let it take line as I slowed the canoe and reached over when I could to burn in line on the other rod.

After ten minutes of give-and-take I finally had the first few wraps of the 80 foot leader on my reel. I had my headlamp switched on, and after my fish made one more powerful run, I pulled it up and watched it just under the surface in the LED beam, thrashing, burping bubbles, then puking up two large, white blobs. Probably half-digested rainbow trout, and I wish my big mackinaw had kept them down, because around here trophy-trout anglers allow ourselves to count stomach contents toward fish-weight.

After a little more thrashing, I managed to slip my net under this pig on my first try, then headed straight in, in total darkness. At 36.5 inches and 19 pounds, this mackinaw had just vomited the chance for me to revisit the magical 'Tahoe Twenty' mark.

Oh well, I think I get style points for the canoe. Its slender profile and the nearly silent electric motor allowed me to sneak up on my fish, and the combination of old tricks (lead core line for added depth) and new (a realistic rainbow-trout pattern swim bait) sealed the deal.

That was a great start to my year of fishing on the big lake, and this spring we've also seen an excellent bite for Tahoe brown trout. The brownies like fast-trolled plugs, including the AC Skinny, AC Stickbait, Rapala X-Rap and Rapala Countdown. Live minnows trolled behind Sep's watermelon pattern Colorado blade flashers have also been very effective for fooling these big, wild trout with a slower presentation, and at press time, when boat traffic is light we're still catching a few browns in the shallows.

Visiting anglers should note that since June first, invasive species inspection fees are now being charged at boat ramps around the lake, in addition to launch fees. Launch hours have been extended from summer, with Cave Rock open from 5:00 am to 8:00 pm. While inspections for non-motorized vessels are free, boats under 16 feet will be charged $10 for inspection, and boats from 16 to 25 feet will be charged $30, with a $10 extra fee for boats with live wells. I was told I will now be charged $30 for my seventeen-foot canoe if I intend to 'motorize it' with my electric trolling motor. Inspected boats will be fitted with a strap where the boat connects to the trailer upon leaving, and if the strap is intact when the boat returns (showing inspectors that the boat has not been off its trailer since leaving the lake), the inspection and fee will be waived. Welcome to Lake Tahoe, please open your live well and empty your wallet.

Stampede Reservoir: To take a break from all the new restrictions on my home water, I enjoyed a camping and fishing trip with friends Brad Stout and Mark Knoc at this lake north of Truckee in late April, and we used a variety of old and new techniques to put some nice fish in the boat. We actually started our trip at Boca Reservoir, where we caught two to three-pound brown trout, but the action was slow, so after one evening and the next morning we moved the party to Stampede, where we found more and bigger fish.

We did most of our trolling from Brad's well equipped Alumaweld boat, pulling plugs with his Scotty electric downriggers. Brad used his large-screen Lowrance sonar/GPS unit to mark and repeat productive trolling runs, and we found brown trout up to over five pounds willing to bite 25 to 35 feet deep. The hot trolling lures were my black and silver AC Skinny plug, Brad's custom painted Rebel, and the new AC Stickbait. This lake also has a large population of mackinaw, and we expected to hook a few of these fish on the same trolling techniques, but we caught only two, including a trophy well over ten pounds, reeled in by Brad and netted by yours truly in high winds and white capped waves.

Brad is an expert angler and pro-staffer for several tackle manufacturers, so I should have been happy to fish in his boat for the entire trip, but I had driven up from my house in South Lake Tahoe with my cartop boat strapped to the roof of my truck for a reason. On our third morning out, we fished from pre-dawn to nine a.m. and had only scratched out a bite or two from the browns on the downriggers, so when we pulled to shore to take a break, I bid my friends goodbye and put my little vessel on the water, in search of kokanee salmon.

Stampede is a true multi-species lake, with several quality fisheries drawing anglers with different equipment and different interests. I've experienced great kokanee fishing here in past years, catching good numbers of these silver bullets averaging at least twelve to fourteen inches long even in early spring, and I thought it would be great to test some tackle and take some photos for my new sponsor, Sep's Pro Fishing. Joe 'Sep' Hendrickson makes and sells a line of flashers, dodgers and lures that are just plain deadly on the lakes I fish, and I thought it would be fun to take a break from all the precision downrigger trolling we had been doing and do a little old-school top lining for kokanee, getting some photos and stories of fish caught on Sep's gear.

So I traveled up the Sagehen Creek arm of the lake, watching fish rise in the glass-calm water ahead. The small rise-rings were over deep water and were so numerous that I figured I was moving through a school of kokanee salmon. These days the most common trolling technique for these landlocked sockeyes is to run small lures behind dodgers off downriggers, but when the fish are kissing the surface, there's not much point to clipping your line to a cannonball on a cable. On one rod I let out a tiny Rebel Wee Crawfish plug on 100 feet of six-pound line, and on the other rod, I trolled a watermelon Sep's Sidekick with a night crawler and a kernel of corn. In five minutes I caught and released two kokanee on the Rebel, but they were only around eight inches long. This lure runs only two to three feet deep, so I was connecting with the fish I had seen at the surface, which would have been tough with downriggers.

After I passed through the school and circled back once, the surface activity stopped, then I caught two more kokanee on my Sidekick and worm/corn combo, which was riding close to 15 feet deep on its own weight trolling on 150 feet of line at one mile-per-hour. Once again, no downrigger needed. These were also juvenile kokes though, a 'primary school', and I knew I had to look elsewhere for adults of the graduating class. I've caught some of my largest kokanee on Stampede in the basin in front of the main dam, so I motored over and seeing no rings or rises at the surface here, I trolled a sidekick with a worm and corn on each rod. My fish finder showed scattered arches twenty feet down, and as I curved close to the rip-rap boulders on the dam, my inside rod bounced lightly once as my lure tapped bottom, then as I throttled up slightly to keep from snagging, the rod tip bounced again, this time with the weight of a decent fish.

"You sir, are no kokanee!" By the fight and the structure from which I'd plucked it, I figured my opponent was a brown trout, and I had my confirmation when I swept the three-pound beauty up in my net. Was this just an incidental catch that could happen to any kokanee angler, or was I onto something?

I positioned my boat for another trolling run along the dam, again threading a juicy night crawler on the hook on my inside rod, skipping the kokanee corn, but as always filling the worm with a mixture of Pro-Cure bait oils using the company's injector (a squeeze bottle with a large-bore hypodermic needle) made for this purpose. Have you tried this? What's old to me may be new to you; this scent-injection not only increases my bite rate but also brings me larger fish than are typical when trolling worms. On the outside rod I replaced the night crawler with an anchovy, rigged to spin slowly behind the Sidekick on a short leader. Yes, you heard me, I troll pizza toppings! Dead, saltwater baitfish are legal to use on many California waters where live minnows are prohibited, and they catch me large trout at times on my favorite lakes.

I also let out a longer line on my outside rod, so the Sidekick would dig a bit deeper and both my lures would run close to the steeply-sloping bottom. Once again though, the rod with the night crawler bent down, and I battled then netted another brown between three and four pounds. There were several boats within sight but none were watching me or moving my way to interfere with my shallow trolling techniques, and the notorious late-morning Truckee wind had not yet kicked up, so I threaded another crawler on the hook and checked my anchovy then let my lines out and zigzagged one more time along the face of Stampede dam. I had just made it to the end of the rip-rap and turned out when the anchovy rod pulsed then hooped over hard, and a big fish shot out of the water 300 feet back!

"Yeehah!" My rebel yell was answered by some shore anglers that had just hiked down to the corner of the dam, and they watched and hollered some more as I let this hot fish peel drag off my reel, then reeled furiously as it ran straight at me. Thirty feet from the boat it launched into the air twice more, drawing a smattering of applause from the peanut gallery on shore. After a short tug-of-war, I netted yet another brown, this one a fat five-pounder. I took a quick photo of it in the net, then I held it up for the shore anglers to admire, and gently released it. I had kept one of my other fish, and I knew from brief phone calls as we went in and out of cellular reception zones that Brad and Mark had kept a brown or two for the evening meal as well. Paired with some jumbo crayfish we trapped that Brad turned into scampi, we ate like kings of the high country that night. Sorry Sep, I wasn't able to get any photos of kokanee caught on your gear, only browns!

As summer progresses, the salmon fishing becomes more consistent on Stampede, mackinaw continue to bite on deep trolling and vertical jigging techniques, and the lake's abundant brown trout population goes into hiding for all but the most experienced anglers. Plants of hatchery rainbows help beginners maintain their dignity, and there are also larger holdover and even wild rainbows, since the lake's two main tributaries, Sagehen Creek and the Little Truckee River, provide habitat and spawning gravel for browns, rainbows and kokanee. The wild card here is the smallmouth bass fishery. These illegally introduced interlopers are viewed as a nuisance by some trout purists, but I consider the smallmouth one of the hardest fighting fish in fresh water, and they can top five pounds here, a trophy in any bass angler's book. The smallmouth will bite on trout lures pulled over areas with rocky bottoms, but they go especially wild for marabou or soft plastic tube jigs cast and retrieved near shore in the same spots.

So get out there! In the Tahoe region of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, there is always a willing trout, waiting for you to try something old, or something new!

Until Next Time!
Mark (Never Stand In A Canoe) Wiza
Pro-Staff for AC Plugs and Pro-Cure Bait Scents
Pro Guide for Sep's Pro Fishing
Email Me!

Mark is a licensed fishing guide offering a small number of fun and highly educational trout-fishing trips in the Tahoe area. Call (530) 545-1475 or e-mail Mark wiza@fishsniffer.com for details.