The opening day was 'busy' at Ft. Churchill and Hinkson

By Don Quilici

• BLUE LAKES, CALIF. AREA: Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station (530-694-2930) said, "We had a nice weekend, even though it was windy on Sunday.

A guy went into Lower Blue last week on a snowmobile. He caught a limit of rainbows on worms. He said that there are about 3.5-4 feet of ice on the lake."

• CAPLES LAKE, CALIF: Dave Kirby reported a lot of guys went there, armed with worms and jigs, but no one reported back.

• FT. CHURCHILL COOLING PONDS, NEV: The season opened Feb. 12.

Elmer Bull of the Nevada Department of Wildlife said that there were a "ton" of people busy fishing on Saturday (the opening day), not very many on Sunday but no fishing success was reported back to him.

• FRENCHMAN RESERVOIR, CALIF: Wiggin's Trading Post at Chilcoot, Calif. (530-993-4683): Fishing last weekend was fair to good through the ice. Weather has warmed so use caution on ice.

• HINKSON SLOUGH, NEV: The season opened Feb. 12.

Elmer Bull reported a lot of fishermen on Saturday who were doing fairly well.

They were catching, mostly, the recently-planted, 9-inch rainbow trout.

• INDIAN CREEK RESERVOIR. CALIF: Doug Busey of Douglas County said that he and Steve Lightfoot drove into the reservoir from the Diamond Valley side on Sunday.

He said that you need four-wheel drive as the road is very muddy and slippery, but plowed to the reservoir.

The paved road from the airport is not plowed.

There are about 3-5 inches of ice on the water and you should not venture out onto the ice, as it is too dangerous.

• LAHONTAN RESERVOIR, NEV: Missy Swain at Burke's Market at Silver Springs (775-577-2750) reported: "There has been a bunch of people fishing but no one has come back to tell us how they did.

We had a great weekend, selling lots of worms.

The reservoir is still coming up and there is no problem launching boats.

You can always call State Parks at (775) 577-2226 to be sure.

My kids went down to Fisherman's Point and got skunked."

• PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Doug Ouellette at the Gilly Sporting Goods Store in Sparks (358-6113) reported: "It has started to pick up a little bit. The fishing is still on the slow side and it is day to day.

The water is still cold but the fishing should be getting better in the near future.

The fly fishermen are using purple or black Woolly Bugger, Woolly Worm or foam Beetle flies.

The spincasters are using the usual TOR-P-DO type lures.

The boaters are trolling with Lyman or U-20 lures.

The jiggers are jigging with Gibb's Minnows or Maribou Jigs.

One fly fisherman caught an 9-pounder last week.

There have been a number of "two-footers" (24-inches long) caught, but nothing big."

• PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Andy Moore of Carson City said that "It was slow, slow, slow on Saturday and Sunday on the west side."

• RED LAKE CALIF: Doug Busey reported that his party of ice fishermen caught a total of six brook trout on either Kastmaster lures or nightcrawlers. There are about 3-feet of ice on the lake.

• SACRAMENTO RIVER, CALIF: Kirk Portocarrero of Outdoor Adventures Sport Fishing, Redding, Calif. (800-670-4448) said: "I spent the week at the Reno Boat, Sport and RV Show.

Redding to Anderson: Water release is 3,700 CFS.

As weather allows, fly fishing for rainbows is producing some nice catch and release trout in the Redding to Anderson area.

PT's, and Micro May Fly patterns have been working well.

Opening day of King Salmon fishing will be July 16.

• SMITH RIVER, CALIF: Kirk Portocarrero reported that he spent the week at the Reno Boat, Sport, RV Show.

They have been fishing for nice bright Steelhead trout, 8-12 pounds.

Averaging 2-5 fish hookups per day. Some days are better than others.

Fishing from the Forks of The Smith down to Social.

Using Sparrone Steelhead eggs, first in the morning.

Also bouncing roe.

• LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:

Mickey Daniels of Mickey's Big Mack Charters (800-877-1462) said: "Yesterday (Monday), we had a great fishing day.

We had five rods working and had fish on every one, all at the same time.

We ended up keeping six Macks (5-6 pounds).

Sunday was kind of slow, it was windy and we caught about 10 fish.

Nora and I are going to Las Vegas for President's Day weekend.

We've been catching our Mackinaw trout early in the morning and tagging and releasing the smaller ones.

We're catching nice fish but we're not catching anything super big.

I troll in the deep-water area in front of Carnelian Bay and King's Beach with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades with live minnows or large Apex lures."

LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:

Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters and Tahoe Trophy Trout at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (530-544-6552): " Cal Neva Point has been good for Mackinaw trout.

We are trolling with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows at depths of 90-260 feet, along the edges of the drop-offs.

In the early mornings, we are using white or frog- pattern Flatfish lures."

LAKE TAHOE - South Shore: Gene St. Denis: "Ski Run Shelf and Camp Richardson have both been good for Macks.

We are trolling with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows at a depth of 160-280 feet.

Ski Run Mound has also been good for jigging with 2-ounce White Star or Squid Jigs tipped with a minnow, early in the morning."

LAKE TAHOE - East Shore: Gene St. Denis: "The local guys are toplining at the Cave Rock Shelf for Macks and rainbows. They are trolling in 20-40 feet of water with silver/black, No. 11 Rapala lures or No. 9 Count Down Rapala lures.

Fishing as been good for Macks 2-7 pounds, when trolling silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows at a depth of 150-240 feet."

• TOPAZ LAKE: Chuck Fields at Topaz Lake Marina (775) 266-3550 reported, "It's rainy and very overcast today (Tuesday).

Nothing really new to report since last week.

There are not a lot of people out fishing, but there are a lot of fish being caught, mainly out of boats.

The boaters are mostly trolling with gold-colored Needlefish, Kastmaster and Jake's Spinner lures, plus black/gold Rapala lures.

There have been some 2-pounders reported but nothing really big.

The shore fishing has been slow. Some of the shore fishermen have been renting boats.

The best action has been toward the other side, off the rocks."

• WILDHORSE RESERVOIR NEV: Mike at the Wild Horse Resort (775) 758-6472 said, "We got slammed with business this last weekend.

We have been jam-packed almost every weekend this winter.

Our big trout derby is this coming weekend.

There are 20 inches of ice on the reservoir, and there was even a guy driving around on the ice with his pickup.

We got about 4 inches of fresh snow last night (Sunday).

We had about 70-80 fishermen out on the ice and they were catching some nice rainbow trout and perch.

There were about 7-8 rainbows caught in the 4-5 pound class.

Lots of perch were caught, but you have to get through the small ones to get to the bigger ones.

The fishermen were jigging for the perch with white-colored, Crappie jigs with the hook tipped with a small piece of worm.

They were using nightcrawlers for the rainbows.

The best fishing is just off the island by the State boat ramp, but they were catching the fish everywhere.

If you want a great recipe for cooking perch fillets, call me here at the resort."