lassen area brook trout

I got to camp on a friend's 120 acre private spread near lassen (complete with waterfall, lake w/osprey, deer, and mountain lion (based on teeth imprints into a soft water pipe that it used as a chew toy)).

it is at about 6000 feet of elevation.

some people really know how to choose their parents! 

certainly my boys did a good job of choosing their friends, as it was the parents of their friends that invited us.

since it's not my property, no pics. just my wonderful prose, 

the shallow lake (less than 10 feet), basically a flooded meadow, is full of small brook trout. and probably a much bigger brown or two.

they had an ocean kayaks kea and a couple canoes available for us to use. the kea was popular with the boys, but it was not rigged to fish at all, which was a shame.

the lake is artificials only.  probably a fly fisherman's dream with the lightest of fly rods.

we used mainly super ultra light spinning gear. a 5' rod rated 1-6lbs and a reel with 2lb line was a lot of fun there.

the brook trout are very happy to hit any sort of spinner, but we used primarily small grubs with single hooks because I wanted to see how that worked out. it works well.

while trolling, my 8 year old caught 11 of them one late afternoon, with me paddling, and him holding the rod. most came on a pink and white 1" berkely curl-tail grub on a tiny size 12 baitholder hook, preceeded by a small split shot on the 2lb line.  we nose-hooked the grub which helped with easy to release lip hookups. we did eat three of them over the weekend, and they were good of course.

I had a lot of fun trying many different small-plastics rigs.  which is kind of the main reason for this post.

one thing that was really fun was using a discontinued 2" senko (and tiny size 6 gami senko hook). Rigged it like for an 8" bass or something, skin-hooked, then trolled it through the weeds hoping for a wayward brown trout or something bigger than the average 7" brook trout. it got hit continually but never hooked anything with the senko. just too big for those little guys. determined little brook trout would hold onto the back half tenaciously and you could get them halfway to the boat before they'd let it go. I finally reeled in half a senko after a fun 30 minutes of continuous action. that thing looked great going through the water, very minnow like. it's clear that towing a 2" senko for slightly bigger trout would work great, they also cast really well on an ultralight. they should bring back that bait for use on trout. if I had rigged it with a hook hanging out the bottom of the senko it would have been a fish every cast but I was really curious to see if one of them could get enough senko in their mouths to get hooked with the standard weedless hook type rig. not quite. but if the fish were a little bigger, it would have worked great I think.

It is awesome to take your kids out for a good day catching. Did any of the brook trout make it on the breakfast table? They can be quite tasty, like anchovies.

We used to own some land up in Susanville, the seat of lassen county.  Growing roses in the tundra, heated geothermally.  That didnt turn out so well, so glad to see Lassen was good for some of us!

Cool report, John, even w/o pics!   

 

I got to camp on a friend's 120 acre private spread near lassen (complete with waterfall, lake w/osprey, deer, and mountain lion (based on teeth imprints into a soft water pipe that it used as a chew toy)).

it is at about 6000 feet of elevation.

some people really know how to choose their parents! 

certainly my boys did a good job of choosing their friends, as it was the parents of their friends that invited us.

since it's not my property, no pics. just my wonderful prose, 

the shallow lake (less than 10 feet), basically a flooded meadow, is full of small brook trout. and probably a much bigger brown or two.

they had an ocean kayaks kea and a couple canoes available for us to use. the kea was popular with the boys, but it was not rigged to fish at all, which was a shame.

the lake is artificials only.  probably a fly fisherman's dream with the lightest of fly rods.

we used mainly super ultra light spinning gear. a 5' rod rated 1-6lbs and a reel with 2lb line was a lot of fun there.

the brook trout are very happy to hit any sort of spinner, but we used primarily small grubs with single hooks because I wanted to see how that worked out. it works well.

while trolling, my 8 year old caught 11 of them one late afternoon, with me paddling, and him holding the rod. most came on a pink and white 1" berkely curl-tail grub on a tiny size 12 baitholder hook, preceeded by a small split shot on the 2lb line.  we nose-hooked the grub which helped with easy to release lip hookups. we did eat three of them over the weekend, and they were good of course.

I had a lot of fun trying many different small-plastics rigs.  which is kind of the main reason for this post.

one thing that was really fun was using a discontinued 2" senko (and tiny size 6 gami senko hook). Rigged it like for an 8" bass or something, skin-hooked, then trolled it through the weeds hoping for a wayward brown trout or something bigger than the average 7" brook trout. it got hit continually but never hooked anything with the senko. just too big for those little guys. determined little brook trout would hold onto the back half tenaciously and you could get them halfway to the boat before they'd let it go. I finally reeled in half a senko after a fun 30 minutes of continuous action. that thing looked great going through the water, very minnow like. it's clear that towing a 2" senko for slightly bigger trout would work great, they also cast really well on an ultralight. they should bring back that bait for use on trout. if I had rigged it with a hook hanging out the bottom of the senko it would have been a fish every cast but I was really curious to see if one of them could get enough senko in their mouths to get hooked with the standard weedless hook type rig. not quite. but if the fish were a little bigger, it would have worked great I think.

Nice report sounds like you all had a great time. It is always great to experiment with lures and hopefully next time you will nail that big brown or brook that must be lurking there.
I have bears that chew on my pipes here in the Yolla Bolly Wilderness.
Gene
FishinGeno

sc we did eat a few of those brookies. yep, very good!

so maybe they just have a bear not a big cat. that might be better. those teeth were pretty far apart on that pipe, and looked to be darn sharp. I figured a bear might have slightly duller canines. but really have no idea.

J

John -

Nice report. Will have to get you a camera for your birthday.  We got blown off the water last weekend by 10 AM so you didn't miss anything except for Eric's monster ling and a lot of white caps.

Scott