Tahoe & Donner Lakes, Sat-Sun Sept 29-30

I'm staying with friends that live at Donner Lake this coming weekend... never kayak fished up there but it should be a decent time of year for jigging for macs and/or kokes, at least that's what the Internet leads me to believe.  If anybody has any tips, I'm all ears... I'm planning to find the fish with the FF and then drop a Gibbs Minnow or Depth Charge down on top of 'em. 

Thanks for any advice!  Backcountry

On donner lake... For jigging macs, consider a 2-3oz hopkins spoon. I have only fished the small bay on the south east side and the boat launch area on the north west side for macs. For koke's downriggers or verticle jigging. Whatever the lure, tip it with corn. For trout, trolling the stream inlet on the west side is good but watch the depth because there are some shallow areas which eat trolling lures. You may want to check the trout plants and reports to see if worth targeting. If you have a downrigger, I would bring it. For Tahoe, I would PM some of the locals. The wind and swell can get really nasty on Tahoe so local advice and company is good. Good luck!

scott

Just talked to one of the guys here at the college who went to Donner last week.  Said he caught 40 trout in the 10-14" range fishing from the shore.  Might be worth a look!  Busy lake for yaks though.

Busy lake for yaks though.

Yeah, I'm hoping that since school is back in session and the nights are now getting down into the 30's that most of the yahoos will be long gone... that and I'm planning a stealthy dawn patrol attack (barring getting high-centered at a casino!).

Thanks for the tips so far!!!

I just came home from Donner.  been fishing itfor the last 5 months, but when I woke up last Thursday with 3 inches of snow in my yak it was time for a break.  Last week my FF pickedup good fish around 20 ft & 10 ft, about 100 yards off the Tahoe-Donner boat ramp..  I jigged with crocodiles & castmasters.  They worked..  Late afternoon was good but the wind was pretty good around 5:00 PM.  Trolling the state park along the ledge  was good for rainbows..  Lookout for the weeds off dog beach..

I just came home from Donner.  been fishing itfor the last 5 months, but when I woke up last Thursday with 3 inches of snow in my yak it was time for a break.  Last week my FF pickedup good fish around 20 ft & 10 ft, about 100 yards off the Tahoe-Donner boat ramp..  I jigged with crocodiles & castmasters.  They worked..  Late afternoon was good but the wind was pretty good around 5:00 PM.  Trolling the state park along the ledge  was good for rainbows..  Lookout for the weeds off dog beach..

I have also had good luck jigging around the boat ramp and trolling the state park near the China Cove area. . I forgot to mention that right after a trout plant the macs will sometimes come up relatively shallow and you can hook them trolling rapala CD14's and other deep diving stick baits. I fished Donner in March and woke up to find my yak surrounded by 1-2 inches of ice. The first time I ever had to break ice with my yak.

A friend of mine used to fish the bottom of Donner bouncing a quick fish with very good results on the big maks.

Thanks for the advice everyone!  Hope to capitalize on all the tips!

My friends I'm staying with actually live in the State Park (both are State Parks employees, one is a land-use hydrogeologist, the other a GIS engineer), so I'll be accessing the lake from the east end... probably focus on the ledge along the State Park side and the China Cove area... if that ends up sucking I'll cruise over towards the boat ramp area...

I'm getting stoked to attempt to catch my first koke and/or first mac!

   Backcountry (aka John)

Thanks for the advice everyone!  Hope to capitalize on all the tips!

My friends I'm staying with actually live in the State Park (both are State Parks employees, one is a land-use hydrogeologist, the other a GIS engineer), so I'll be accessing the lake from the east end... probably focus on the ledge along the State Park side and the China Cove area... if that ends up sucking I'll cruise over towards the boat ramp area...

I'm getting stoked to attempt to catch my first koke and/or first mac!

   Backcountry (aka John)

John -

Good luck. bring a bag of ice or ice chest to put the kokes in since they spoil quickly after death.

Scott

BC how was donner? Post up some pics if you got any.

Well, it ended up sucking really bad... at least that's what I am consoling myself with, because the fiance and I came down with awful colds last Thursday and we ended up not going... I was (and still am) seriously bummed (I'm still sick too)!  Hopefully I'll make it up there some time in the next couple months, but deer season and bear season is in full swing and I'm spending more time right now slinging arrows and bullets than casting a line...

So much to kill and eat, so little time!