Serene Lakes 9/3/06

My ocean fishing adventures have put a serious dent in my WAF so I spent the weekend with my wife and another couple in Soda Springs which is about 20 miles west of Truckee just off of highway 80. Serene Lakes are small natural lakes about the size of Lafayette reservior located only 2-3 miles from highway 80 in Soda Springs. There is a boat launch area (free) at the north west end of the lake with the Serene Lakes Lodge and beach area at the south east end of the lake. I started fishing at 7 AM using Mooch's trout slayer technique (jointed size 7 Rapala in the rainbow trout pattern and size 5 deep diving shad rap in the silver shad pattern). I had paddled for more than 30 ft when the jointed rapala was hit by a 14 inch stocked rainbow trout. Within 1 hour I had caught 6 trout from 10-14 inches. I was back at the cabin before my wife had finished her second cup of coffee. If you are in the Tahoe area, Serene Lakes are a good place to take kids, wives, or newbies to get introduced to kayak fishing. The lodge also has a nice beach you can go swimming and a nice selection of draft beer. Check it out!

Scott

Nice work ! Any pics? Never fished there (yet) But I'm sure the lake had some great scenery - besides the great fishing

Mooch -

Sorry I left the camera at home. The lake is quite scenic and a great family location. Thanks for the trout fishing tips, your article was very helpful. I still haven't found a good way to target trout at 20-50 FOW. I have used a Deep 6 but it puts a significant amount of drag on the boat. Any thoughts?

Scott

Scott,

If the trout are that deep, I'd rather jig a spoon or drift and mooch with live bait (night crawlers, crawdads or baitfish). I rather not deal with the fancy downriggers = drag sucks I'd rather fight a trout "clean" with nothing else on the line but the lure 

IMO: a banana weight and a lure of choice is the next best option if you want to fish deeper - and it's easier to pull because it's streamline.

...just my 2 cents

I use banana weights currently to target deep trolled trout.

Spectra mainline (thin) banana weight, dodgers if desired, and shock tippet thingy (forget what they are called, the surgical tube covered stretchythingy) and then a few feet and the bait.

MolBasser

shock tippet thingy (forget what they are called, the surgical tube covered stretchythingy)

snubber

Way to"hit your targeted fish" Mooch is the Man"on the trout!I owe him BIG for that dpdvr-shad rap tip it got my"Biggest"Trout and"First" Yak'ed Fish! The descrition of this lake sounds sweet and quiet,I'm looking for a close-new spot?I copied this from earlier so skip the Smallies and add:Is the water-temp COLD? The wife and I are trying to plan a 1 or 2 nite camp near water and this sounds like good!I want to catch the Smallies and put a pole in the wifes hand too.I've got floattubes,any area you know of that might fullfill any of these fantasies? 
Thanks for any and all replies   

Adam -

The lake is at 7,000 feet but so it gets pretty cool at night. The lakes are 50% shallow 3-6 ft deep and 50% 10-30 ft deep. I did not fish the shallow part for bass or trout since it is very weedy and I only brought trout lures. Since it ices over in the winter and they only stock trout, I think bass would be less likely. There are some campgrounds in the area. There is a sign near the launch site that encourages CNR, however I was the only one releasing any fish that I saw, and after all they certainly weren't native trout. There were some rising trout in the morning, so you may want to bring a fly rod and some dry flies and streamers. Your wife will love the place. Don't buy the food at the lodge, it was rediculously expensive but the sand beach is cool. The locals leave their kayaks and canoes locked up on the ground at the launch site so it is hard to miss.

Scott

Scott,Thanks for the details! I got to put all up the flag pole and let the wife pick a spot.Thanks again!