I've been catching mackinaw on every trip for the last several weeks, pulling lures along the Nevada shoreline. These fish have averaged three to five pounds, with a few in the six to seven pound range. The majority have come in low-light conditions early and late in the day, over rocky bottoms 20 to 30 feet deep. A dodger and minnow has been the most consistent offering, slow trolled on a long line so that the metal attractor blade digs deep. The best areas are in close proximity to a drop-off to deeper water; in general, mackinaw seem even in cold weather not to reside all day in the shallows, but to move in to ambush minnows and crayfish when in an active feeding mode, then drop back into their preferred deepwater zone when resting.

I say 'in general', because I've experienced many exceptions to this rule. One recent morning I hooked a 24 inch mackinaw near Cave Rock, on a # 9 Rapala Jointed plug running only eight feet deep, at least a quarter mile from the closest deepwater structure. My largest shallow water mackinaw ever from Lake Tahoe also defied expectations, and nearly gave me a heart attack, when it struck a half-nightcrawler trolled on a # 10 hook, at mid-day in sunny, calm conditions in April of 2000. The eleven-pound fish hit in less than 20 feet of water, right off the front lawn of an East shore mansion, then in one massive run stripped my spool of line down to the last few wraps, forcing me turn my canoe around and chase it with my electric motor on the highest speed. The only normal mackinaw behavior this fish exhibited was when it took me several hundred yards offshore into deep water, where it hugged the bottom for half an hour before I was able to pull it up on six-pound line.

Any trout or even bass lure has the potential to attract mackinaw, but my favorite offerings for shallow water action on Tahoe are fast-trolled minnow plugs, and slow-trolled minnows or nightcrawlers behind flashers or dodgers. I prefer light line on the reel, six to ten pound test, both for the sport and because the thinner diameter allows lures to run deeper. My leaders are generally six or eight pound fluorocarbon; thicker line will draw less strikes from wary trout in the lake's crystal clear water, especially in the shallows. Artificial lures tend to work best at dawn and dusk, when the sun is off the water, while well-presented bait rigs will take fish all day.

Trolling lines should be long here, again because of the clear water and spooky fish, and also because Tahoe in winter is practically deserted, with so few boats that you run very little risk of having others run over your line. A 'short' Tahoe troll is 40 or 50 yards out; I'll run this much when trolling complex bottom structure that requires a lot of tight turning to stay over the rocks and preferred depth. For areas where a longer line is practical, it is not uncommon for topliners here to run as much of 150 yards of line behind the boat.

Fishing over a rocky, irregular bottom will bring the best shallow water action, with mackinaw also at times relating to man-made structure such as docks and piers. Flat, sandy bottoms will produce very few bites, unless immediately adjacent to boulders, gravel, or steep drops. Any part of the lake with these requirements can produce mackinaw at this time of year, while rainbow trout action is especially hot on the Nevada shoreline. Wild rainbows are found throughout the lake, but California doesn't currently stock them, while the Nevada Division of Fish and Wildlife plants large numbers of 10 to 12 inch hatchery fish each year at Cave Rock and Sand Harbor State Parks, as well as fingerlings in Incline and Third Creeks. Some of these are Eagle Lake strain fish, but interestingly, a large portion are Tahoe strain, raised from eggs and milt taken from wild, spawning fish captured in Tahoe tributaries. A good percentage of these fish hold over and grow to trophy size, augmenting the wild population.

More elusive are Tahoe brown trout; neither state stocks them on a regular basis, and the resident wild fish are notoriously adept at avoiding the sting of anglers' hooks. The unsuccessful claim there are just not many of them in the lake, but testings made with nets have disclosed a ratio of 15 catchable browns for every wild rainbow! John Rousch, author of the essential if awkwardly titled "Enjoying Fishing Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake", gives tables in the book that list which sections of the lake have produced the winning trout in annual fishing contests for an eight year period, and most large brown trout came from the Southeast and Southwest portions. My own experience is that they are fairly scarce along East shore in late fall and early winter, as breeding-size fish migrate to South and West shore creeks for their spawning runs. Come spring, they again roam the lake and excellent action can be found in the Cave Rock area, but for those seeking browns at this time, I'd advise trolling the rocky shallows north and south of Emerald Bay.

Shore fishing is always spotty at Lake Tahoe, but the cold months produce some surprisingly big trout at times. Mackinaw are the least likely to be caught from shore, but it does happen; a Nevada State Park Ranger told me last week that a decent mack was caught by a kid off the parking lot at Cave Rock. Natural baits such as nightcrawlers or minnows will outfish Powerbait, and long casts with Kastmaster spoons or Rapala Countdown plugs can trigger fish, especially in stormy, choppy conditions.

As I share stories of cold-weather canoe trips on the big lake, let me reiterate my warning to all small craft operators of the dangers inherent on such outings. Tahoe has a long history of killing boaters, both those caught in high wind and waves, and those even in calm conditions who in a careless moment simply fall in and suffer hypothermia, paralyzed by the frigid water. I had a scary episode myself recently, when I ignored my own common sense and the weather report in my obsessive desire to go fishing. I consult the local forecast online at weather.com and wundergound.com before every trip, and find these frequently-updated reports to be quite accurate, allowing me to plan or scrub an outing according to predicted conditions. So, with a big storm approaching in early November, I fired up my computer before dawn on a scheduled fishing day to find that winds of 15 to 30 miles per hour predicted. "Fine, I'll sleep in." But when I woke again several hours later, there was no wind at all, and when I drove down Highway 50 on errands and saw the lake glass-flat as well, I couldn't resist. It was as if I had never heard the phrase "calm before the storm". I launched at Sand Harbor telling myself I'd stay close to the boat ramp in case conditions changed, but the rainbows were on a fantastic bite, and it seemed like they were getting bigger the further I traveled. I was in the northeast corner of the lake, and winds were predicted to build from the southwest- I reasoned that this would give me the most fishing time before the coming front traveled 25 miles or so diagonally across the water , and that if it came I would see the dark, distinct windline approaching, as I had many times before, from several miles away in the clear mountain air. The air was not clear, though, but in fact quite smoky due to a controlled burn of dead wood conducted by the Forest Service, and I didn't factor this in until it was too late. In a five minute period, Lake Tahoe went from dead-calm to four foot, whitecapped waves (see photo). With all my experience I had actually picked the worst possible place to be on the entire lake; as any big-water boater knows, the further wind travels over open water, the bigger the waves grow.

I thought for a moment that I might be able to hold my course at high speed and make it back to my launch spot at Sand Harbor, but a breaker that threw several gallons of water into my vessel changed my mind and I turned hard for shore, ditching at a rocky point and dragging the canoe up onto the boulders, luckily getting only my feet wet in the process. Things happened so quickly that I still had my trolling lines out, and of course had what would have been the best fish of the day bend my rod over hard as I was fully occupied with saving my own skin. One lost fish and two dodgers broken off in the rocks was a small price to pay. I had landed below a scenic overlook with a path down to the point from the parking area on Highway 28, and a woman and her children were atop the boulders watching me.

"Are you okay?" she shouted as I struggled to scrape my loaded canoe up onto the rocks. "Do you need help? You looked like you were in trouble out there!"

I held up my hand with index finger and thumb a hair's breadth apart and said "Close. Thank you very much for checking on me." She offered me the help of her 12 and 14 year old sons to carry my canoe and gear up the steep path, and a ride in her vehicle back to my truck at Sand Harbor, but I politely declined- "I need to do it all myself as a reminder never to have to do it again." Did this incident scare me sufficiently to keep me off Tahoe? Of course not, but I'll never again try and outrun a storm to catch a trout.

With so few boats and shoreline hikers out at this time of year, had things been any worse I would have been very fortunate to be spotted when in need of help. If you're out on the lake this winter, please keep a look out for anyone who might be 'in over his head' so to speak, and render assistance. I was pleased to find that of the half-dozen boats I've seen on the lake on recent trips, two were operated by Fishsniffer readers, who recognized my red canoe and came over to say hello. Pat off Sand Point, and Chris north of Glenbrook, who also snapped a photo of my catch of big rainbows when we met again later in the day back at Cave Rock. Thanks Chris, and nice to meet both you guys.

I was able to maintain my reputation by having good fish on the stringer in both meetings, and this brings me to a comment on catch-and-release. Yes, it is an excellent and much needed conservation practice, but I've been eating quite a lot of fish lately, because Tahoe trout are delicious, a good mackinaw or rainbow feeds my family of five, and because I'm financially strapped. My wife injured her leg and was out of work for eight months this year, it's now the slow season for my part-time guiding business, and my real job as a teacher at Lake Tahoe Child Development Center, well... let's just say all you parents out there ought to thank your child's teacher next chance you get, because we don't do it for the money. There are those that say if you can't afford the sport, you shouldn't engage in it, but then we'd only have rich snobs on the water, and in this fabulous resort community, fishing is about the only activity left that's not overrun by rich snobs.

This brings me to my final point, DONATE TO THE SITE! For every donation made in my name, I will release one trout unharmed. I'm holding the rest hostage though, so pony up people, and help maintain the Tahoe area fish population. What's more, for every donation over 100 dollars, I'll post a picture of my wife in lingerie, holding a fish of course.

Yes, running a website like a public television station is somewhat unconventional, but these are tough times. My current pay for bringing you light-tackle adventure stories barely covers the cost of film, developing and Internet service; likewise the guide service basically just allows me to put gas in the truck and deduct nightcrawlers as a business expense. As with all the Fishsniffer staff, I do it for the love of fishing, and we really do provide a unique service. Not only do you get all the best features of the Sniffer newspaper here, you get great stories and accurate information that are only available on this site from myself, Tom Loe, Richard and Deborah Alves, and a number of other excellent anglers and writers. What's more, you get a great forum for discussion in our message boards, with Deborah working hard to keep them clean and positive, which is more than I can say for the foul-mouthed mudslinging I've seen on less well-monitored sites.

Did you know there are several professional guides and accomplished trophy-trout anglers who regularly share dynamite tips and secrets on the trout board alone? I know some of them personally, and when you read a message from 'Keith' or 'BS' about the current fishing conditions, you're getting a free seminar online.

Correction: In my last article I related how I stuck my truck in the mud at Stampede Reservoir and was saved by Deputies Mike Fisher and Nora Prince. I erroneously wrote that they were with the Placer County Sheriff's Department, when in fact they patrol Sierra County. Just wanted to give credit where it was due- thanks again, officers!

Until next time, remember, never stand in a canoe!
Mark Wiza
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