Last Friday-Monday, a group of four anglers from Carson City went trout fishing at Wildhorse Reservoir, way up in Northern Elko County. The four anglers consisted of Dick Biggs, Norm Budden, my son Jim and yours truly.
Wildhorse has been known for many, many years as a premier destination for the fishermen and hunters who travel to that general area. The fishermen go there to fish for its large German brown, rainbow, tiger trout, smallmouth bass, channel catfish and perch. The hunters go there to hunt for pronghorn antelope, mule deer, chukar or sagehen.
For those of you who have never been to Wildhorse, it is located along Nevada S.R. 225, about 64 miles north of Elko.
The reservoir was created in 1937 to store water to irrigate the hay meadows on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. A new dam was constructed during 1968-70 to double the capacity of that old reservoir. When full, the present impoundment contains 73,500 acre feet of water and has a surface area of 3,000 acres.
The countryside around Wild Horse Reservoir is typical, treeless, high-desert landscape. Not very attractive, but very typical Northern Nevada.
It can be downright chilly even in the summertime. While we were there, we had heavy frost every morning.
As a matter of interest, winters are extremely cold in this part of Northern Nevada. Temperatures well below zero are quite common through the first part of March. In fact, readings as low as -40 degrees have been recorded.
Last Friday, we drove to Wildhorse Reservoir in two pickups and the trip covered 364 miles (one-way).
Our destination was the Wildhorse Ranch and Resort Complex, where we had overnight reservations for three nights. The complex consists of two gas pumps (diesel fuel plus unleaded), a home-cooking style restaurant, well-stocked bar, small general store with everything from ice to fishing lures, 16 comfortable motel units and an RV park.
It is all owned and operated by Dennis and Ann Dunn, who purchased the complex about 1.5 years ago.
Dennis had fallen in love with Wildhorse based on his previous hunting and fishing trips there from Colorado. He decided that he wanted to live there permanently, so he purchased the resort.
On the first day of their operation on a frosty February morning, the temperature was -27 degrees. Wow, how's that for a cold start for a new venture!
Everyone on the resort staff is extremely helpful, informative and friendly and they go way out of their way to make you feel at home. Heck, within the first several hours of arriving there, you feel as if you have known them for years.
Dennis and Ann are the owners and their staff includes Roy Anderson, Diane Crabtree, David Delbridge, Steve Epling and Mike Morsey.
Morsey makes great tasting Manhattans and our daily cocktails were a perfect lead-in to delicious dinners.
Those dinners ranged all the way from liver and onion to chicken fried steak to prime rib. They always include homemade soup, tossed salad, entree, vegetables, hot garlic bread and dessert.
The restaurant hours are 6 a.m. until 9 p.m., seven days a week. And as a special bonus, if you would like to have a fresh-caught trout dinner, they will even cook your fish for you.
Obviously, our purpose for being at the resort was to take advantage of the first-class fishing that the reservoir offers. The weather was fabulous on Friday and Saturday, extremely windy on Sunday and we came home on Monday.
During our two days of fishing (Saturday and Sunday), the four of us caught a lot of rainbows and even some perch.
However, almost all of our fishing was on Saturday. On that day, each of us caught and released about 10 rainbow trout. My best success was with my Fire Tiger Rapala lure.
On Sunday, Jim and I had some serious boat motor trouble and we did not even begin to fish until 11 a.m. One short hour later, we got blown off the lake by a gale-force wind.
At the height of that terrible wind storm, as we were landing our two boats on the beach, Jim got his Rapala lure hopelessly tangled in his fishing net while landing a trout. After a prolonged period of trying to untangle the unholy mess in that high wind, he lost his temper and made an Olympic gold-medal toss of net and lure, far out into the lake. I snickered. It was an impressive toss but not nearly as impressive as how far he threw his folding seat, up the beach, after I snickered. That was also an Olympic gold medal throw. You should have seen Biggs and Budden. Their eyes were as big as saucers and their mouth were wide open in amazement. Fortunately for them, they were smart enough not to snicker like I did. It could have gotten real ugly, real fast!
We ended up keeping a total of 12 of the largest trout (the limit is five per fisherman). Those 12 were all very deep bodied and in the 15-18 inch class.
Our secret to success was to troll in water about 15-25 feet deep. We were successful with two different styles:
Those two styles were:
1. Silver flasher blades with worms and No. 6 hooks with pinched barbs.
2. Rapala lures. The most effective were the black/gold or the Fire Tiger versions in the floating, No. 5 size.
Budden caught the largest rainbow, which checked in at 18 inches.
Jim caught the largest perch, which checked in at 10 inches.
All in all, a great fun-filled, fall, fishing trip in Northern Nevada.
So, if you're looking for a different destination for an outstanding, late season fishing trip away from home, you might want to consider Wild Horse Reservoir.
The scenery is typical Nevada, the trout fishing is very good, the Manhattans are delicious, the food is very tasty and the accommodations are comfortable and reasonably priced.
How can you beat that combination!
For information, call Dennis Dunn at the Wildhorse Resort at (775) 758-6472.
-- Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you how a Tiger Trout is produced.
If he answers, "A Tiger Trout is a hybrid crossbreed between a male Eastern brook trout and a female German brown trout," he is a fish expert and you just lost your bet.