12/20 Donner Lake RPT

Finally broke the dry streak.

Launched out of the northwest corner of the lake at 7:30 with no wind or snow. Paddled to the south shore and began the hunt down to the east end. Marked a fish here and there on the fish finder and dropped the jig onto them only occasionally because I knew that they were likely moving and it takes a long time to drop 1/4 oz of lead down 80 ft.  Bald eagle was eating a fish on the shore, flew away when I tried to get closer.

Made it to "The Cove" at the far end off the lake.  The Cove has a couple steep drop offs where I've seen Mackinaw stacked up before. Nobody was home that day. The 15 mph (and much heavier gusts) westerly wind and snow began to pick up after a couple of hours, making it difficult to jig vertically. Headed to the shelter of the north shore.

Dropped my heavier trolling gear and trolled a Cleo about 55ft down in 60 - 100 feet of water.  Started marking large schools of Kokanee. Switched up to a 1/8 oz Kastmaster and dropped down to 60 ft and vertically jigged with my right arm while paddling against the wind with my left arm. Was able to get one Kokanee to bite; didn't play the fish and all, just pulled it straight up to the surface. The little Kokanee was just under 10", but I didn't care because it was the first fish I had caught during the 3 trips i've made out in the past 5 weeks.  Tied the heavier 1/2 oz Cloe back on and tried jigging below the school of Kokanee to see if there was anything bigger hunting them.  No luck before the wind really picked up and made it impossible to maintain position.

On the road home at 1.

Sounds like an adventure.  How do you keep your feet warm?

Glad you got the skunk off your back    Thanks for the report and pictures Andrew.

Thanks for the report. looks cold. burr..

Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate the report.  I am rigging the yak now to visit Donner/Tahoe when the air gets a little warmer to troll for Mackinaw.