Outdoors with Don Q: Fishing for Mackinaw at Lake Tahoe

On Wednesday morning Oct. 19, Elaine and I went fishing at Lake Tahoe for Mackinaw lake trout with our longtime good friend and sport fishing guide, Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters outfitted South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
“Gino” has fished Tahoe for some thirty years (the last 13 years as a fishing guide) and is one of the top, if not the top, guides at that lake.
Elaine and I had just returned on October 13 from a six week vacation trip to Italy, Sicily and Switzerland, we had finally adjusted back from the “Jet Lag” (Italy is nine hours ahead of Nevada time) and we were looking forward to doing some trout fishing, back in familiar surroundings.

When I called Gino on Monday, Oct. 17 to set up a date, he said, “Let’s shoot for Wednesday, the weather forecast is calling for a nice day (AKA very little wind), you meet me at the Cave Rock Landing at 6:00 a.m. and we’ll get an early start.”
I told him, ‘You’re on, but this time, I would like to be the one who catches the biggest fish of the day, as Elaine has outfished me the last two times we have gone out with you.”
Gino sighed and said, “I can’t guarantee it but I’ll sure try to put you into an area where you can catch a bigger Mackinaw than her.”
On Wednesday morning promptly at 6:00 a.m. (it was pitch dark and chilly) we arrived at Cave Rock Landing on the Nevada side of Tahoe, parked our car and walked to the boat launch where Gene was busy getting ready to launch his boat (“The PT-109”).
We hopped on board with our cooler, camera and extra clothing and were ready to enjoy a day of Mackinaw fishing at “The Lake in the Sky.”
As we left the dock, I asked him where we were going to fish that day.
He said, “You told me that you want to catch a big fish, so we are going to
fish at the Tahoe City Shelf (on the northwest side of the lake), the last couple of times that I’ve been there, we have caught some nice fish.”
It was a gorgeous day with no clouds, no waves, no other boats and it looked like it was going to be a great day for fishing.
For those of you who have never been to Lake Tahoe, it is about 28 miles long, 14 miles wide, 1,600 feet deep at the deepest spot and has an eye-popping average depth of 904 feet.
The lake contains a variety of fish including Mackinaw Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Brook Trout, Kokanee Salmon, etc.
We left the dock, traveled a short distance from the landing and put out two minnow traps to catch some minnows to use for bait.
When we had caught some minnows, it was a half-hour ride across the lake to the Tahoe City Shelf, where he quickly rigged up three poles: One had large silver colored flasher blades and a live minnow for bait, the other two had two different colored, large Trophy Stick lures and we began to troll at depths of about 120-140 feet.
Elaine and I were able to fish with three poles because I have a Second Rod Stamp on both my Nevada and California fishing licenses.
We began trolling in “Figure Eight” patterns, adjusting our speed and depths while happily munching on assorted breakfast pastries that we had bought at “Doughnuts To Go” in Carson City before leaving for the lake.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous: No wind, no clouds, bright sunshine and no other boats.
The lake’s surface was like a mirror – a great day for trout fishing, boating, sailing or canoeing at Tahoe.
Shortly after we began trolling, Elaine’s minnow had a strike and after a short tussle, she brought in the first (and biggest) Mackinaw of the day, it was a very nice 8.5-pounder that measured 28 inches in length.
A half-hour later, I caught an 8.0-pounder that measured 27.5 inches.
It was close to being the biggest of the day, but no cigar!
For the morning, the two of us caught a total of five Macks, of which three were kept, one was released and one was lost at the back of the boat, as Elaine was reeling it in.
The most interesting fish was at the end of our fishing trip when Elaine had a strike and began to reel in her line.
As she was trying to reel, she said, “Gino, I can barely turn the handle of the reel, the line feels heavy and I don’t feel any tugging by the fish.”
Gino checked her reel and said, “Darn it, we have a problem, that fish has crossed the other two lines and has all three tangled together.”
He told Elaine not to reel as he and I began to reel in the other two lines.
We slowly bought them in to the back of the boat and Gino said for Elaine to give me her pole and for her to help him untangle that unholy mess of three lines, flashers and lures.
He asked me to bring in her line by hand while they worked on that mess.
So, I slowly but surely began to pull in her line, hand over hand, and surprisingly, there was little fight by the fish on the other end.
They got the other two lines, all the flashers and lures untangled, and when I finally had the trout at the back of the boat, Gino netted it.
It was a respectful 7.5-pounder that measured 27 inches.
It was the last trout of that day’s fishing, plus it was also the very first (and I hope the last) large fish that I have ever bought in by hand rather than with a reel on a fishing pole.
We kept the three Mackinaw to bring back to three different friends in Carson City, who all like to eat fresh-caught fish.
Sadly, once again, Elaine proved to be the better fisherperson (as usual) of the two of us. Yep, she had out-fished me, again.
To add insult to injury, her 8.5-pounder is also the current leader in the “Mackinaw Trout Category” in the annual Ormsby Sportsmen’s Association fishing contest.
Elaine won that same category two years ago with an eye-popping 21+ pound Mackinaw caught at the north end of Lake Tahoe.
Plus, she also won last year with a 10-pounder.
Some day, with lots of luck and/or cheating, I plan to out-fish her…I hope.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you about the biggest Mackinaw trout that I have ever caught at Lake Tahoe.
If he grins and says, ‘It was many years ago, and Don caught a 15-pound Mackinaw on flasher blades and a minnow, being trolled at a depth of 550 feet in front of King’s Beach,” he might have been on that same boat.

— Don Quilici is Outdoor editor of South Tahoe Now and Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com. Blue Ribbon Charters in South Lake Tahoe can be reached at (530-544-6552) or at www.blueribbonfishing.com.