This report is in honor of Whit, Sixshooter, Catfishhoge, Steinfishski, and many other angler friends who expressed an interest in the fishing situation out here.
Finally, some fishing. This morning I went on a charter fishing trip out of Cave Rock S.P., on the east side of the lake. We motored up to Cal-Neva Point on the north side of the lake at 6 AM, and the captain dropped lines in 300+ fow. Tahoe has millions of resident lake trout - planted here in 1894 from the Great Lakes - in addition to browns, rainbows, and kokanee, a small, stunted salmon. We landed five lakers in quick succession, then picked up a sixth just before pulling lines at 11 AM. Half the fish had bloated air bladders from being pulled from 300 foot depths; all were between 4 and 7 pounds.
The captain used only 2 rods off downriggers, baited with dead minnows smeared with a foul-smelling paste that he makes in his spare time.
The minnows ran behind cowbells attached ten feet behind the pancake cannonballs. Basically the drill was to run the rigs just off bottom, changing speed and depth to trigger strikes. The bite was light - a small twitch was the only indication that a fish was there - and they never actually pulled the line out of the pinch pads. I'm sure you all know this already, after all, how many times have you towed a laker on your downriggers without knowing it?
As I mentioned, we only ran two rods. The captain was a believer in stealth and felt that too many lures in the water spooked the fish. He had a high opinion of lake trout intelligence and aggressiveness, and thought that older lakers had the intellect of German Shepherds. He also expressed a belief that they were delicious table fare. I figured that his opinions were formed due to the fact that his livelihood depended on laker fishing, and had a hard time believing that they sometimes break water ala steelhead, which he also claimed.
His boat was a bit small, but tidy.
He gutted the catch before we left, allowing the entrails to sink to the bottom. I believe this is illegal in Michigan, but he claimed that the offal would be eaten by fish, shrimp, etc. I'm not so sure.
Overall, I was disappointed with the trip. The captain was opinionated and tended not to listen, which meant we were subjected to several needless "witty" monologues. He was rude to the ten year-old girl onboard, raising his voice at her when she didn't reel properly on her first fish. He tended to be intolerant; when another boat got within 200 yards he assumed they had seen us catch a fish and began shouting insults across the water, and pulled a charade pretending to catch a fish (which we had already landed) out of spite for them. I thought his behavior was childish, perhaps a result of having chartered too long. I've heard of boorish charter captain behavior on the Great Lakes, so rest assured it's not a monopoly over there.
Did we catch fish? Yes. Was it an enjoyable time. No. This guy considered himself THE resident expert on "Mackinaw" fishing, although he did admit that he got skunked on occasion. I didn't even bother to mention that other methods such as wire, copper, dipseys, etc., might put fish in the boat on days when the riggers were ice cold, as I knew he wouldn't listen. Why waste my breath?
Finally, check out the photos I took at 6 AM and 11 AM - what a difference sunlight makes. Tahoe is 1600 feet deep at its deepest, and is 6200 feet above sea level. I've been told that many scuba divers have lost their lives in these waters after presuming that the air mix in their tanks that they used in the ocean was OK. Sounds dangerous.
Lake Tahoe Report
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