Outdoors with Don Q: Sigh, so-called 'Man's Favorite Sport' belongs to Elaine

Last Thursday, Elaine and I spent an enjoyable morning (as usual) fishing for Mackinaw (Lake) Trout at Lake Tahoe with our longtime friend and sport fishing guide, Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters at South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

"Gino" has fished Tahoe for some 30 years and is one of the top, if not the top, fishing guides at that lake.
Sigh, and as usual on that day, Man's Favorite Sport belonged to Elaine for the fourth straight year!

We arrived at 8:00 a.m. at the Cave Rock Landing on the Nevada side of the lake, parked our Four Runner and walked to the boat launch where Gene was busy getting ready to launch his boat (“The PT-109”).

We hopped on board with our munchies, cameras and extra clothing and were ready to enjoy a morning of fishing at “The Lake in the Sky.” As we left the dock, I asked Gino where we were going to fish that day.
He said, “You told me that you want to catch a big fish, so we are going across the lake to fish at the Tahoe City Shelf."

It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine, no clouds, no waves, no other boats and the surface of the lake looked like a mirror. It looked like it was going to be a great day for fishing.

The run across the lake takes about 45 minutes and we spent that time catching up on events in our lives while happily munching on fresh-baked apple fritters and chocolate bars from "Donuts To Go" in Carson City.
We arrived at the Tahoe City Shelf and Gino quickly rigged up our two poles with flasher blades and live minnows, attached our lines to two downriggers (one on each side of the boat), dropped everything to a depth of 120 feet and we began to slowly troll in small "Figure Eight" patterns.

As we trolled, the weather was beautiful, the company was great, the munchies were tasty, but there was one fly in the ointment: No action. Gino had told us that this area usually produces large Mackinaw, but, as it turned out, not on this particular morning.

We started fishing at about 9:00 a.m. and two hours later, no matter what Gino tried or where he tried: Nada, Nil, Zip, Zero. We were getting skunked. To compound the skunk job, Elaine and I had to be back at Cave Rock Landing, by no later than 1:00 p.m., so we could hurry home.

Once at home, Elaine had to cook a large amount of dressing for a big, annual Thanksgiving dinner at her Mom's Autumn Village complex (for senior citizens) that was scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m.
About 11:00, Gino said, "OK Gang, we are going to move to another location and hope that the fish are in that deeper water.

We shifted to "The Tavern Hole," also on the west side of Tahoe, and began to troll at much deeper depths: 200+ feet. As soon as we began to troll, I had a hit on my minnow and the first fish of the day, a 5.5-pounder, was soon in the boat. It wasn't a trophy but we were not skunked any more.

Then a short time later, Elaine lost a huge fish, while trying to reel it in. Gino told us it was a trophy fish that looked huge on the fish finder screen. He put a new minnow on her hook, dropped her line down to 260 feet, we began to slowly troll again, hoping to catch that trophy, and: Bam! We had a double hook-up! Elaine had a fish on and so did I.

Double hook-ups are rare at Tahoe but we had scored a double. Yahoo! When the two Macks were finally safely in the boat, we each had an 8-pounder to add to my 5.5-pounder in the fish tank. All of a sudden, it was a great day of Mackinaw fishing at Tahoe!

I told Gino (with tongue cheek), "Geez, Gino, I take back some of the bad things that I was going to write about you." He sighed and said, "Heck, Don, I've known you too long, and you probably will still write something bad about me no matter what kind of fishing success we have today."
At 12:00 noon, Elaine had a big hit on her minnow, and you could tell it was a very nice Mack by the way it was fighting, while she was reeling.

Finally, when she had reeled the fish close to the boat, he said, “Holy cow, Elaine, I can see it now and it is a nice fish.” She continued to reel until the fish was at the back of the boat, Gino reached over with the large net, scooped that large Mackinaw into the net and lifted it into the boat. Elaine had hit the jackpot, again.
Her Mackinaw Trout weighed 11-pounds, 8-ounces, measured 31.50 inches in length and was caught at a depth of 263 feet.

We had limited out, one more time, while fishing with Gino. A great day at Lake Tahoe with a great fishing guide.
As you can probably guess, there were many photos taken of Elaine with her large Mackinaw by both Gene and I.
And, as a possible extra bonus, Elaine's catch is now the current leader in the Mackinaw Trout category in the Ormsby Sportsmen's Association (OSA) annual fishing contest. If she does win that category, it will be the fourth year in a row for her. Well done to an awesome fisherwoman and to an awesome fishing guide.

Finally:
If you are a fisherman and would like to experience a Lake Tahoe fishing trip like ours, be sure to contact Gene St. Denis at (530) 544-6552.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you about the biggest Mackinaw trout that I have ever caught at Lake Tahoe.
If he grins and says, ‘It was many years ago, and Don caught a 15-pound Mackinaw on flasher blades and a minnow, being trolled at a depth of 550 feet in front of King’s Beach,” he might have been on that same boat.

— Writer Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for South Tahoe Now and www.CarsonNow.org. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com