Trolling backwards wins $880 at Topaz Lake

Topaz Lake, which is located on the Nevada-California Stateline, along U.S. 395, opened for the 2007 fishing season, one hour before sunrise on Monday, Jan. 1.

It was a perfect day for winter fishing with a temperature of 42 degrees, no wind and lots of bright sunshine, and huge crowds of fishermen, everywhere.

Linda Fields of the Topaz Lake Marina reported that the number of fishermen for the Opener was the largest since before the big flood of 1997.

The shoreline was very crowded with fishermen at the north end and the south end of the lake.

She reported more than 100 boats were launched at the Marina, with probably another 100 launched at the Douglas County boat ramp.

She said that there were lots and lots of big fish caught with at least 10 people checking in at the Marina with trout in the 4-5 pound class.

There were many, many stringers of fish in the 2-pound class.

According to her, everyone was catching fish.

There were three tagged fish worth $500 and one worth $250 that were caught on Opening Day.

One of the $500 fish was a 7-pound, 14-ounce rainbow caught by Sam Alexander of Palmdale, Calif. He caught the trout while trolling on the north end with Power Bait.

Alexander was trolling backwards because his boat motor would not go into forward gear. How about that!

In addition, Alexander also won the Topaz Lake Marina Opening Day Derby with that same fish. His win in that derby was worth another $380. There were 76 people entered in the one-day Marina derby.

That's a total of $880 in winning while trolling backwards! Unusual but highly profitable!

Another $500 winner was Louis Zeni of Gardnerville with a 7-pounder.

The other $500 winner was Clarence Cunha of Carson City with his 4-pound, 4-ounce rainbow.

In addition, Zeni's fishing partner, Ken Trumpower of Gardnerville, caught two other tagged trout: a 4-pound, 15-ounce rainbow worth $250 and a 4-pound, 15-ounce rainbow worth $50.

Richard Tucker of Wellington won $100 with a 6-pound, 88-ounce rainbow.

Phil Hoffman of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. took home $100 for his 1 pound rainbow, plus another $100 bonus for checking in the first tagged trout of the year.

All of the tagged trout are provided by the Topaz Lodge and Casino and those tagged trout, if caught, are redeemable for cash through April 15.

For information, call Chuck or Linda Fields at the Topaz Lake Marina at (775) 266-3550 or Diane at the Topaz General Store at (775) 266-3337.