10 for 4 Sunday...

Well guys,

Stuie got the okay to get some fishing in today. We thought about some options and picked the craziest one. Long story short, I picked Stu up at 12:30am and drove to Tahoe. Got up there and unloaded our gear at a nice little park on the Cali side of the lake. It was kind of cold in the morning but it was looking like a great day. The conditions on the lake were fantastic.

Well guys-

I don't know what the hell I'm doing... I think that I'm just way too tired. Anyways, where was I??? The morning was great. We paddled out for the longest time for nothing. We had the hardest time finding anything fishable. Stuie marked fish here and there but nothing was biting. Finally, we lucked out... found the Tahoe honey hole and it was crazy. Stu got a hit... FISH ON!!! Opps, I spoke too soon... fish off. The fish teased Stuie and came unbuttoned. Then, he gets another hit... This fish is smaller and... gone. Stuie's rod loads up big time for a third time. Fish O O O O O O... Off! Man, he missed another one.  By now, he's screaming at me to get over there and drop down. As I'm making my way to him... I get a hit on my top water but... nothing to show for it. Finally, I get to him and... it was game on. I get down to about 190ish and BAM!!! Fish on...! This time, I set the hook hard and deep... this baby is mine. My first mac that I've ever caught in my life. It's not that slug that I was looking for, but it'll do. After fumbling with the net for a bit, it's in the boat. Stu gets another pitch... swing... miss... He was like a baseball player out there... He eventually goes 0 for 5 before he turns it on. BAM!!! Another hit... this one sticks. The water was so clear out there that I could see the fish coming up from at least 30 feet down. Stuart's first fish is on board. The skunk is off and the bite is wide open. We made short time of it, getting out limits quickly. We didn't get size but we got... I guess that's all that matters. Bottom line... no bows or browns, limits of macs. 10 hours of driving, 4 hours of fishing... I don't think that I'll be doing anything like this again... anytime soon at least.
Here's some pics that didn't get posted above. And I know that Stu will tell his story... All in all... great fishing with you Stu as always.

What beautiful fish......and scenery.........

Nice fish, great pics, and beautiful scenery.  Well done guys!   

Amazing stuff guys! Great pics and story Freddie. You guys are nuts!!

Nice Job

You guys are insane!! but what a great Idea, you only live once.  I go up there a few times a year because a buddy has cabin, what is the technique for catching Lake Tahoe Trout?

Jason

Crazy! Nice trout for the pool too...good call.  Shorts and snow on the bank...savage!!!!!

Those are small ones????????!!!!!!!!!!

Nice job guys!Looks like  BigMac for dinner

Nice fish guys great pics

Wish I would have known you guys were headed to Tahoe. I am only an hour away from there. Took me longer to get to New Hogan than it does to get to Tahoe.
What were you guys using anyway?

What a fun, sleep deprived trip.  Thanks for driving Fred.

For me, it had been a long time since I'd been back and for Fred, his first time ever wetting a line there.

Back when my dad would take me, we did really well on the macks.  I was telling Fred how we almost always got fish and even got several 5 mac limits.  Avg fish of 4-5lbs and my biggest at 13.  That was enough to get his juices flowing and he really wanted to hit it.

After a long drive, we arrive at 5:15.  We took a while gearing up and got a late start, around 6 am.

I was using my FF and Fred was blind since his has been on the blink.  We had paddled well over an hr and never dropped a line.  Finally, I found fish along some structure.  We worked this general area for quite some time for nada.  Fish were definitely there but nothing doing.  Fred decided to troll and I continued to paddle around in figure 8's and zig zags looking and looking.  At 10 am I found a steep shelf that came up 60 feet over a 50 yard drift that held fish.  FINALLY, fish on, then fish off.  
Had 3 on for 5-15 seconds each within 5 minutes time.  One of them felt like a nice ling on the run.  DAMN, that was the one that would haunt me this trip.  Had my 4th one on and of course it came unbuttoned.  WTF???  I'm beyond being pissed at this point but am super amped because it went from dead to fast action.

Fred arrives, hooks up and lands it.  Not sure waht to think. I'm 0/4 and he's 1/1?  So this is how the day is going to be???  Fred hooks ups again, gets it to color and pulls a "Stu".

Revenge is mine!!!!  In the next 15 minutes, I go 3/3.  Let the last one go and wait for Savage to fill up.  He's done and it's 11:15.  The bite is hot, but we're not sure if fish will survive the pressure change, so we decide no more macks.  Besides we have a hell of a long paddle and even longer drive home.

We hit 45 feet and decide to top line Kwik fish for bows on the way in.  I knew we missed the early AM window to topline, so I wasn't surprised that we got blanked on the rainbows.

The weather and scenery on this trip was fantastic.  The quality was smaller than I had hoped/"promised".  I think the big ones topped out at 3lbs or so.

Stuart

Jason,
We were jigging.  Essential gear here is the FF.  You will probably do more time looking, than fishing.   Locate the fish, then drop down.  Don't waste your time jigging if there's nothing below.
Also, spectra with 15 ft of topshot.  Before spectra, we used dacron line with top shot.  It wass the only way to feel the hit and get a solid hookset when fishing deep.  Way too much stretch with straight mono.

Tote,

For the macks we were jigging iron and toplining kwikfish, which have historically been good at Tahoe.

In the past, troll for rainbow's (35-45 ft) early in the am till the sun comes out.  Once the sun hits, toplining dies down and its time to drive around looking for macks in deeper water (160-240).

Stuart

Cool Trip! I'll give you 10 points, for style! 

Sounds a lot like the conditions up here on Lake Chelan: clear deep water, with scattered fish.

I'm suspecting that the macks hang in schools of ~equal sized fish (or else the big ones would eat the little ones). Might be worth looking for a different group, if the 1st ones are small. The big challenge for Polepole, Floatin Cowboy and me was just staying on top of them.