BLUE LAKES AREA, CALIF: Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station (530-694-2930): Saturday, the weather was miserable.
CAPLES LAKE, CALIF: Dave Kirby reported that it got at least 20 inches of new snow from the weekend storm, so if you're going ice fishing up there, be sure to take a snow shovel.
FRENCHMAN RESERVOIR, CALIF: Wiggin's Trading Post at Chilcoot, Calif. (530-993-4683): Ice is breaking up. there is some open water at the dam, but you can not cast out from shore. Ice is no longer safe for ice fishing.
FT. CHURCHILL COOLING PONDS (on the Mason Valley Wildlife Management Area): Elmer Bull of Yerington reported: Fishing was very slow on Opening Day. We saw lots of fishermen, but only saw one bass and a few catfish being caught.
HINKSON SLOUGH, NEV (on the Mason Valley Wildlife Management Area): Elmer Bull reported: The fishing was real good. In about an hour of fishing, we caught three trout about 14 inches. We saw quite a few fish caught and everybody seemed pretty happy. We caught our fish on Vibrax spinners and Panther/Martin lures.
The fly fishermen were using brass bead heads and they were doing well. A fly fishing club was there and I could hear them talking back and forth and they were all doing pretty good.
HINKSON SOUGH, NEV: Nate Johnston of Douglas County reported: Got there at 7:30 a.m. (Saturday), and fished from shore and my pontoon until 3 p.m.
Lots of people catching few fish. I did well all day with a little Mayfly Nymph that I tie (3 fish), and a big wire-bodied Midge Pupa (red, Beadhead, size 10) (6 fish). Only one of the fish was a dink, the rest were bright and chunky (13-16 inches).
MASON VALLEY WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA, NEV: Bass and Crappie Ponds still had an ice cover on Opening Day.
NORTH POND (on the Mason Valley Wildlife Management Area): Elmer Bull reported that he did not see any fishermen on the Opening Day.
PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Linda at Crosby's Lodge at (775) 476-0400 reported: Our two-weekend derby has had a huge turn-out. We have 433 fishermen signed up (Monday), and we will hit 500 for sure by next weekend.
Saturday, we had rain but no wind and everyone was fishing.
The current derby leaders are: Peter Thompson of Reno with an 11-pound, 15 ounce Cutthroat. He is a fly fisherman who fishes at the North Nets. In second place is Eric Self of Reno with an 11-pound, 5-ounce Cutt.
In addition, we have three 10-pounders, five 8-pounders and eight 7-pounders.
PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: George Molino of the Pyramid Lake Store at (775) 476-0555 reported: We are in the derby but not doing much. We caught fish but nothing big. We caught and released 16 which included a couple of 23-inchers, but that was it. We talked to some other boats, and they reported the same.
PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Chris and Jeri Grellman of Sparks of Hog Charters (358-5199): We are entered in Crosby's derby but I think that all we did was each pay $75 for a hat. We fished hard on Saturday, caught and released 9 fish but nothing bigger than 21 inches. Sunday, we caught and released 13 with the biggest being 22 inches. We were marking a lot of big fish on the fish finder but no bites.
SQUAW CREEK RESERVOIR, NEV: Andy at The Gilly Sporting Goods Store: A fisherman told me that the reservoir is ice free on one side. He caught 10 fish in 4 hours with a Woolly Bugger fly.
LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:
Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters and Tahoe Trophy Trout at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (530-544-6552): Fishing has been good to excellent dependent on the day. We have been trolling at 150-300 feet with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows in a "Figure Eight" pattern. I've been fishing mostly at Cal-Neva Point and Dollar Point. I've been locating the fish by starting shallow and then going deeper. Be patient and you'll catch fish. We are catching 4-9 fish per trip.
John Harper of Sacramento caught a 17 pound (36 inch) Mack at Agate Bay. Bill Mattlock of Reno caught a 15 pound (34 inch) Mack at Sugar Pine Point. Emmett Bishop of Carson City caught a 12-pound (31 inch) Mack at Dollar Point.
LAKE TAHOE - South Shore: Gene St. Denis: Fishing has been slow to good. I've been trolling at Ski Run Shelf at 150-280 feet with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows. The jiggers are jigging in water 160 feet deep with Crippled Herring Jigs, tipped with a live minnow.
LAKE TAHOE - East Shore: Gene St. Denis: Toplining with Rapala lures has been good to excellent, dependent on the day, for mostly rainbows and some Macks (2-6 pounds) at Deadman's Point, Logal Shoals and Zephyr Cove. Shore fishermen at Cave Rock have been having good action for 10-20 inch rainbows with worms, Power Bait or live minnows.
TOPAZ LAKE: Chuck Fields at the Topaz Lake Marina (775) 266-3550 reported: The lake just opened up this last weekend. There is still a little ice left, but it is mostly open. Our Marina is now open to launch boats.
The weather was bad over the weekend, so we did not have any fishermen out here.
There are a couple of boats out there today (Monday), but they haven't come back in yet.
TRUCKEE RIVER, NEV: Andy at The Gilly Sporting Goods Store: I had a report of a big brown caught on a spinner and that a couple of fly fishermen did very well, but no details.
WILDHORSE RESERVOIR, NEV: Mark at the Wild Horse Resort (775) 758-6472: We still have more than 2 feet of ice. In fact, there were two Toyota pickups out on the ice yesterday (Sunday). The fishing has been excellent and there have been a lot of ice fishermen. They are catching lots of Perch and a few trout. The perch are down on the bottom (18-25 feet) and the trout are shallow (about 4-8 feet under the ice). The best place is still by the island in front of the state boat ramp. The biggest Perch have been 11 inches, and the rainbows are running 14-20 inches.
Fish with small Kastmaster lures or small, white-colored, lead-head jigs with a plastic tail, together with a tiny piece of worm, mealworm or cocktail shrimp on the hook. Drop that combination down to the bottom, bring it up about 1-2 turns on the reel handle and slowly jig, up and down.