Fishing report for week of 01/09

Another large Mackinaw caught at Cave Rock

LAKE ALMANOR: No report.

-- LAKE ALPINE: Ebbett's Pass is closed for the winter.

BLUE LAKES (UPPER AND LOWER): No report.

BOCA RESERVOIR: No report.

BURNSIDE LAKE: No report.

CAPLES LAKE: No report.

CRATER LAKE (Near Kit Carson Pass): No report.

DAVIS LAKE: No report.

-- FRENCHMAN RESERVOIR: Wiggin's Trading Post (530-993-4683) reported, "Quite a few people have come out to try their luck this past week. Some areas are iced over but there is still plenty of open water to the left of the dam. There is open water to the right of the dam, but you'll have to hike down to it.

Most people are bank fishing. They are floating their worms off the bottom or using Power Bait.

There have a been a few float tubbers out as well.

We do not recommend going out on the ice.

The road around the lake is still in pretty bad shape. It is accessible only with a snowmobile or with a 4WD vehicle with chains. Conditions this time of the year are ever-changing, so come prepared for anything. Call ahead for current information."

FROG LAKE: No report.

-- INDIAN CREEK RESERVOIR: Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station (530-694-2930) reported that there is lots of open water by the dam and with the current warm weather, there should be lots more each day. The bait fishermen are catching limits of nice sized rainbows. They are catching them with Power Bait, floated just off the bottom. There were two, 4-pound rainbows caught over the weekend. The road is plowed to the reservoir.

-- KINNEY RESERVOIR: Ebbett's Pass is closed for the winter.

LAHONTAN RESERVOIR: No report.

NORTH POND: Closed.

PYRAMID LAKE: No report.

-- RED LAKE: Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station said that the ice fishing at Red Lake has been good with a number of limits taken this last weekend. The fishermen are catching mostly Eastern brook trout with some rainbows and cutthroat. The fish are being caught on Power Bait or by jigging small lures. The ice is more than 8 inches thick and there are plenty of holes already dug. One angler limited out with all brookies on Sunday. Kirby also reported that he has the 2002 California sport fishing licenses for sale if anyone needs one.

-- SACRAMENTO RIVER: Kirk Portocarrero of Outdoor Adventures Sport Fishing in Redding, Calif. (800) 670-4448 checked in with this report:

Anderson to Red Bluff: "The water flows are at 11,000 C.F.S. The king salmon fishing is coming to an end on Jan. 14. The water is too muddy to fish now and the many days of hard rain have put things on hold. We were seeing bright salmon with a few limits, sizes ranging 20-50 pounds. Anglers have been finishing the season, using mostly large, T-55 Flatfish lures."

Redding to Anderson: Fishing for rainbow trout has been fair. The water is too muddy to fish right now. As it clears up, we'll see more and better action. We have been fishing with spinning gear, Flatfish lures and Glo Bugs from the Posse Grounds to Anderson River Park.

SILVER LAKE: No report.

SHASTA LAKE: No report.

STAMPEDE RESERVOIR: No report.

LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:

-- Mickey Daniels of Mickey's Big Mack Charters (800-877-1462) reported, "Same report as last week. When we can get out, the fishing has been good. We've been catching 10-12 Mackinaws per trip. Most of the Macks are small (3-5 pounds) with the biggest checking in at about 6-9 pounds. I'm tagging and releasing the smaller ones. Still doing best in the first two hours of daylight, trolling 250-550 feet deep, right in front of the Carnelian Bay-King's Beach area. We are trolling silver Herring Dodger flasher blades with live minnows or pearl colored Apex lures."

-- Gene St. Denis of Tahoe Trophy Trout at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (530-544-6552): "The Mackinaw fishing is excellent when the weather will let us get up to that end of the lake. We are trolling deep (150-300 feet) at Cal-Neva Point. We were up there three times last week and caught 13-19 Macks per trip. The largest fish last week was 7.5 pounds. Our best action has been with silver Herring Dodger blades with live minnows."

-- LAKE TAHOE - South Shore: Gene St. Denis said: "Yesterday (Monday), we caught 2 German browns, 2 rainbows and a bunch of Mackinaw at Eagle Flat, in front of Emerald Bay, and also in Emerald Bay, itself. We were toplining with No. 11 or No. 13 silver/black Rapala lures. The Eldorado Boat Launch is closed due to weeds and low water."

-- LAKE TAHOE -- East Shore: Gene St. Denis said: " We just netted (Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m.) a 20 pounder (39 inches), right in front of Cave Rock Landing. It was caught by Julie Edwards of Bossier City, Louisiana. Her husband, Ralph, had caught a 7.5 pounder earlier. This is their first trip to Tahoe and are they excited! We're trolling at a depth of 190 feet with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades with live minnows. the fishing has tapered off a little but the fish that we are catching are all big fish."

-- TOPAZ LAKE: Chuck Fields of the Topaz Marina (775-266-3550) checked in with his first report of the year and said: "Our opener on New Year's Day was the best opener in a number of years. The shore fishermen have been using Power Bait or nightcrawlers and they have been catching limits of nice, planter-sized rainbows.

The boat trollers have been catching many, easy limits of rainbows. They are trolling about 300-400 feet off shore with Fire Tiger or black/gold or black/silver Rapala lures in about 20 feet of water. The weather has been super, with no wind and lots of sunshine. Come on out for some great fishing. We have not had any German browns or Tiger Trout turned in yet.

-- WALKER LAKE: Don Quilici, Norm Budden and Bob "Slick" McCulloch, all of Carson City, fished at Walker on Monday. It was cold and windy. all morning, alternating between being choppy and white-capped, until they got blown off by the wind at 11:30. They trolled at a depth of 40 feet between Sand Point and Sportsman's Beach with their best success being just in front of Rocky Point. They were using silver Apex, frog colored Flatfish and white/red dot TOR-P-DO lures to catch cutthroat trout, up to 15 inches.

WALKER RIVERS (EAST-WEST-LITTLE):

East Walker (Nev.): No report.

West Walker (Nev.): No report.

WASHOE LAKE: No report.

WEBER RESERVOIR: No report.

-- WILDHORSE RESERVOIR: Dennis Dunn of the Wildhorse Resort (775-758-6472) gave this report: "It's Tuesday morning, we've got about 1 1/2 feet of snow on the ground at the resort and the snow is rock hard. It got down to 15 degrees last night. If you are coming up, bring a snowmobile or quad runner to get around. There are 12-14 inches of ice on the reservoir and the fishing continues to be good. They have been catching some very nice rainbows and lots of perch. The best action for rainbows is on a worm with a kernel of corn or a worm with salmon eggs. We had 2 rainbows caught over the weekend that weighed 4 pounds. The best action for perch is on white jigs/red eye with a piece of worm."

WINNEMUCCA LAKE: No report.