Trolling:  The water temps chilling down a bit.  We’ve been doing well using toplines and trolling flies.  Depending on the location we’ve been successful using florescent orange, fiery brown and tui chub minnow.  Everything we’ve caught has been toplining or using 1 color of leadcore in the water with 60ft of leader (this allows for sharp turns without hanging up all the lines).  Toplines running around 145ft.  Water temps hovering between 61F and 64F depending on location.  West side remains about 1F cooler than the east side (normal).  The gyre is holding 56F to 59F depending on how close to the big spring you are.   It’s been pretty slow for the average anglers out there.  From those who I have talked to, they are fishing too deep.  We have had no chubs on the surface rods at all.  Get down deep and absolutely there are chubs.  We have been working the rock piles, 5 to 12 ft deep.  I have also toplined off Pikes Pt near the marina, the jetty and out in the middle of the south basin.  Trolling flies on toplines with fiery rust Jay Fair trolling flies got the most action for us mid week but hot orange turned on Friday.  Earlier in the week we did well with Baby Simon’s in chartreuse/orange and pearl/orange. Good time to add chartreuse/pearl and yellow to the mix to cut the cloudier water, especially if we see a cloud cover in the morning. 

Seeing a few more bait balls out there now.   The west side was pretty clean, but still has some weeds. So check lines often.  Surface weeds coming and going but we’re still periodically finding weeds deeper in the water column.  . 

In spite of weather reports indicating our low temps are in the 40’s, that hasn’t been the case, we’re seeing low to mid 30’s on a regular basis.  Which will continue to keep the water cooling.

Several things are getting some attention.  Fiery rust, florescent orange, burnt orange and tui chub trolling flies on toplines have done the most damage for us.  If you are a grub user, brighten up, it can only be a matter of color.  For the lures, pearl/orange Baby Simon wobblers (chartreuce/orange when overcast), pearl/orange such as pearl bikini needlefish and Sure Catch, rainbow trout Thomas Buoyant getting a few, watermelon lures, black/white such as cop car needlefish. Yellow/red & yellow/orange combinations getting some attention, including fire tiger patterns especially under cloud cover.  Watermelon grubs have picked up a few fish this week as has root beer too (I would brighten up right now).  Good option during transition has also been chartreuse/pearl or just something in that line of color to cut through the cloudier water.  I also have a Jay Fair “All Around Best” (yellow/orange) at the ready. In a pinch flashers or dodgers generally can cut through the cloudy water this time of year too and an orange wedding ring should also be in the line up.  Remember to run short leaders up here from flashers.  The fish can come up behind a flasher so fast that with long leaders, they miss your offering and hit your flasher resulting in no hook ups but lots of bumps.  Won’t hurt to use an attractant either but be sure it is fresh and not old.  Just because it stinks, doesn’t mean it smells right to the fish.

The west side is still holding trout, for us in close and tight to the rocks. But weed check often.  We have a few right out from Merrill Campground and some have moved  into and off Pikes Pt/Pikes Cove and off the Jetty.  We still have a lot of chubs to get through, almost everywhere but there’s still trout out there, keep lines high.  The east side is also holding trout but also a ton of chubs.  I always troll in circles to find the best direction for the fish as well as changing the depth and speed of the lures.   The depth of the trout can vary every day as well as with the sun and wind pattern.  They are higher on average on the west side and can be just a little deeper on the east side. Most on the east side have either been on top, 10-12ft deep.  Rarely one caught at 21ft late in the morning/early afternoon. Regardless, the trout are scattered & that’s pretty normal during any transition of the lake.  The upper part of the south basin has very cloudy water, I have found trout at the seams but not many further into the worst of it.  However, the water is much cooler, but the visibility is reduced to about 1.2ft.

If you’re getting strikes, losing fish my advice is to sharpen your hooks.  I sharpen hooks on lures and flies right out of the package and after every fish or two landed.  I can’t stress enough about having sharp hooks on short striking fish. We’ve also been holding them with the boat rather than grabbing the rod right away.  That’s gotten more fish to the boat than setting immediately.  We pretty much know immediately when a chub hits vs a trout….big difference on the rod and the fight. One can waste a lot of time on chubs so we aren’t even stopping trolling bringing in that trash. Every fish on a topline and as low as 7ft deep has been a trout.

Most of the trout have been between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 lbs with a couple over 4lbs and some under 2 lbs.   I switch lures on one rod between bites, but I don’t generally take out what has worked and by doing so, it’s pretty much the one that will get the fish in the boat once they come on again. 

It’s been tougher catching for the average angler since the water got cloudier. As a suggestion, turn off your fish ID on your depth finder and reduce the sensitivity a little,  you’ll see a big difference regarding artifact on your depth finder screen. We can see a lot of false “fish” readings on fish ID as algae’s begin to die off and drift down.    When you see that “fish” layer 25ft thick from the bottom up, everywhere on the lake, generally that’s what it is.  Turning off ID and turning down sensitivity will clean that up and at least you’ll know what is below you.  We see a lot of diagonal lines in this layer, just remember, fish show up as arch’s not diagonal lines. 

Locations:   From The Springs to Eagle’s Nest has some fish...mostly outside the ledge but it changes daily.  Miners Pt was holding some scattered trout.  Pikes Pt has a few more trout too this week.  Weeds can shift so check it out, if its too bad, move on.  On the east side I’ve had the most success off the south edge of Miners Pt south side to just north of Eagle’s Nest to the point south of Eagle’s Nest.  The bay out from Camp Ronald McDonald is also holding some trout mixed with chubs. Just out over the depths in the middle of the lake has been good for a trout or two on toplines.  The west side has been good for us, however, mostly in close and shallow.  But we caught fish all day there.  Once getting up by Slough Pt the water color has taken a dramatic change.  Water moving south from Spalding has dirtied up the north end of the south basin big time.  In that browner water, pearl/white, yellow and chartreuse might show up better than anything else, black or dark brown can help contrast.  It won’t hurt a bit to use an attractant and leave a scent trail right now.  Not sure if big numbers of trout will move up into the brown water off the south side of Pelican Pt or the Youth Camp for a while, but we’ll be checking it.  Kind of a first for the dark brown sludge line being so thick between Slough and Pelican.

Bait under bobbers:  The bait bite really hasn’t been on hard the last few years.  If that’s what you have to do or want to do, stagger the water column.  However, with the trout rising in the water column, this is the time a free line starts working well.  Usually tending a freeline can cover a swath of the water column if the trout are scattered in depth.  I usually allow about a 5 minute free fall drift and gently reel back in to relocate.  Allow the line to sink with the weight of the worm, don’t let a twist in the line hold up the drift, feed it if you have too.  A few folks have caught a couple dunking worms, but not always filling the boat limits and getting quite a few chubs.  Consider using some orange, green or beige power bait with a smaller nightcrawler (or half of a nightcrawler or mini crawler) or just by itself.  It has been known to hold it’s own for fishing here. 

From shore: The standards are basic night crawlers, power bait or jigs under bobber’s. Even meal worms can entice these trout. For jigs, typically small ones in olive, cinnamon, orange or brown…pretty soon small minnow patterns will work. Casting lures, spinners and spoons can also be productive but more so when the trout start chasing minnows, and the minnows are boiling on the surface, casting a small spinner through the mass can be deadly (generally black-yellow dot or yellow-black or red dot).  Casting red/nickel  or red/gold Cast Masters has also been a good go to.   It won’t be long before we’ll see trout coming in closer to shore now. If I can get them in shallow water, so can you.  October is just around the corner and the water is cooling off a little earlier this year.  There are only a few places along the shoreline where one can cast to water deeper than 6-8ft deep and as time goes on and water heats up, shore fishing generally subsides and picks up again as fall begins to appear.  The point bordering the north side of Pikes Cove, which is the most southeastern point of Pikes Pt (access from Marina low water ramp parking area).  There’s a nice weed bed on the bottom there.  The ledge north of Camp Ronald McDonald that runs from about 1/2 mile north of Camp Ron McD to beyond The Springs (below the water tower).  The ledge is still accessible with a good cast from shore due to the lake remaining relatively low.  One can also traverse the steep bank below the water tank. Getting down isn’t that hard, getting back up is a bit more of a challenge.   Christie has been holding some smaller fish and few fishermen, timing isn’t predictable yet.  From the rocky point northwest of the parking area, it’s a quick drop off the end of the rocks to 24-27ft of water.  I would walk out and cast as far as possible from shore.  It’s still best to use a boat or kayak to access the deeper water.  But if that’s all you can do, by all means give it a shot! It isn’t unusual to see trout push the minnows so close to shore the minnows beach themselves.  Keep an eye on the minnows, pelicans and grebes (of which we have low numbers of so far compared to years past).

Fly Fishing:  October is coming.  The aquatics are there for the taking.  Shrimp larva has been more prolific this season.    It also depends on time of day and location.  Be prepared with a sink tip or sinking line though.  Consider a small minnow pattern too. We are seeing trout come up higher in the water column this week.  So the changes I was expecting are beginning to happen. We’ve done pretty well trolling flies in the shallow rock piles and ledges along the west side this week.  Orange has been working well.  Remember that as water temps cool down below 61F, the shrimp and scuds begin to turn orange or brassy orange for adult shrimp.  Orange is quite a natural color for this lake. 

Always prepare for the worst & accept the best regarding the weather. Thunderstorms are normal, passing showers are normal.  Cooler one day, warmer the next.  One thing that will remain a constant will be cooler overnight temperatures from here on out.   It isn’t unusual to see thunderstorms roll through even through early October before the real storms start passing through. Remember that a boat on the water is the highest point when lightening strikes.  The best thing is to just head in and get off the water.  When beaching your boat off the campgrounds, consider that the winds change the lake elevation from PM to the next morning.  Fore and aft anchors and a long rope to shore is a good idea, bow out.  Tarps are always good to bring.  So come prepared for cool mornings now. It will start getting cold before too long.   We are seeing yellow jackets and wasps increase and they aren’t happy with cold mornings…out prolifically during the day foraging.  If you’re allergic, be sure you have your medication with you. 

TUI CHUB INSIGHTS:   The chubs scope differently than the trout do and are pretty easy to determine on your screen.  Generally, they stack up and are very thick in zones of the lake that have dissolved oxygen levels too low to support trout.  When spawning in the depths in early summer, they can also form a 5ft thick layer just above the bottom in 30-40+ft of water.  Mostly, any large stacked school  or blob of fish that the top is at 7ft and the bottom is at 47f+t are NOT trout. We caught some chubs 22″ long in 2016 and again in late July 2017, my biggest in 2018 has been 21″, 2019 20″.  Huge monsters for chubs so they are doing very well….maybe too well considering the biomass and fewer trout being planted.  With a little more spawning habitat back for the chubs up north, we saw another prolific hatch of chubs up in the northern basins this year.  I believe their population density is going to bite us in the ass if it hasn’t already.  I see this becoming a very bad problem for this lake now.  People don’t come here to catch trophy tui chubs.  Catching them will become very prolific in late July and August and quite possibly through Sept. This has happened again 2019. They resist arrest quite well, but you know when you have a chub over a trout pretty quickly. Chub dive deep and fight you under the boat, are tail thusters opposed to head shakers.  Chubs don’t stay on top and cross from side to side, stay pretty much in the line straight behind the boat.  Trout will stay out and up higher, run side to side, charge the boat after figuring out that peeling out line isn’t working.  Then, once at the boat, the battle really begins.

 

Tui chubs are in 3 separate and distinct schools.  Here’s how I classify them.  Stage 1: Adult spawner’s. We have two schools.  One school spawns in the northern basins and the other doesn’t leave the south basin.  During the dry years up north, we had one year of lower spawning rates due to habitat loss & the northern spawner’s not knowing where to go to spawn in the south basin.  But the next year they had it figured out and our tui chub spawn took off with a vengeance.  We had little to no grebe nesting 2011-2016 so the tui chubs had very few predators to keep the young of the year in check for 4+ years.  These are now all in stage 2 juveniles and rarely targeted by trout, too large for a grebe and now very wary to pelicans.  Stage 2: The nursery or juvenile population. (Several years worth that are protected by sub adults I call guardians).  I have seen these “guardians” rush out of the school and slam a passing trout like a linebacker.  Which is pretty brazen for a fish with no teeth, little to nothing protecting their brain, and half the size.  But numbers count and generally there is more than one guardian rushing the trout.  Stage 3: Young of the year.  This is what the trout target.  When the adults spawn they can form a thick line protecting the beds before they disperse.  Once the young of the year complete the hatching cycle (which can last through August/September and begin in May) we can see the schools of stage 1 and 2 form walls protecting the young of the year minnows.  Generally we will see the minnows in closer to the shoreline, the nursery juveniles outside of the young of the year and the adult spawner’s outside of the nursery.  It really is something to see.  I call it “walling up” and it generally begins around late August/Sept just as there is a hint of fall in the air.  It appears to me that the walling up is the chubs way of protecting their species from the trout.  If we have chubs in those numbers, the trout either find their way into the young of the year schools, or they move on to a different food source until the chubs disperse and relax. We can literally smell the tui chubs when near massive numbers.  As they transpire, they release a gas, especially the young of the year when in dense schools.  So follow your nose come late summer and fall.  Look for pelicans in large groups as well as a boiling on the surface.  Out over the depths, the trout push the minnows up to within reach of the pelicans.  So we often follow the birds when we see that.  2017 and 2018, the pelicans are following us.

 

When fishing, I try to avoid the stacking adult tui chub as well as the nursery chub.  Generally the trout will be further away from the chubs or outside and above the chub school.  If you’re in the chubs, that’s all you’re going to catch.  Easy to determine on your line. Personally, I don’t really care what you do with them, they provide food for the trout for winter, but I think we need more trout to keep the young of the year in check. Once in the juvenile grouping, the trout don’t generally even attempt to eat them.  We have a lot of chubs.  You’ll see what I mean pretty soon.  2017 and 2018 I could troll 7 miles one direction and catch chubs 4 at a time.  A waste of time.  We never used to catch them trolling, only on bait under bobbers.  So when trolling and catching tui chub 4 at a time? Can’t drag a line for more than a few minutes before a chub is on? Can’t get 4 lines in the water before a chub takes the first two in the water?  What does that tell you? LoL.  We also have Tahoe suckers (grayish with darker back, small nodes on the lower fins).  Seasonally they can be modeled green back with reddish stripe, late summer they can be a little more on the yellowish green back.  A treasure and rarely seen by anglers.   Please release these in good condition if you catch them as their numbers are low and they are a special species to this lake that don’t complete with the trout. Speckled dace (a minnow that only grows up to remain a minnow).   Generally seen taking harbor near the transom of an anchored boat and various sizes from small to 1- 1 1/2 inches at most.  Mostly in family units from smaller to larger and 50-100+ individuals is a big bunch. 

Various zoo-plankton’s and other microscopic food sources have also become very prolific to the point of fowling lines and down rigger’s…and when thick enough, can plug jet pumps.   The biggest change in the fishing occurred in less than one year.  From catching and releasing tons (20-40+ per day) of 2-3+ lb fish to being lucky to get one or two was a dramatic shift in Eagle Lake in less than one year.  Finding trout in the middle of summer at 17 to 20ft deep at 73F water temps is pretty unnatural but that’s where they were in 2016-2018 when surface temps were above 70F.  We may have seen some 4+lb fish but their numbers being caught were few and far between…lots of 2 to 3 ½ lbs as usual.  This fall we have seen a handful over 5lb but on average, be happy with a 3 1/2lb.   Over 55 years of eating these trout, the best quality of meat comes from a 2-3lb trout.  Meat of the bigger trout of 4 +lbs is generally grainy, mealy and softer.  Everyone wants to catch a big fish, but the quality of the meat is not nearly as good as smaller fish.  I rarely keep a fish over 4lbs for eating myself unless it’s damaged or water quality issues prevent me from wanting to release it.  To me, it is a waste if it doesn’t eat as good as a smaller fish but I will smoke it.  In warm water months, it’s not unusual to see meat that’s softer in a few fish.  Note that under new regulations, one can’t fillet fish on the boat even if bringing back all the carcasses and guts to throw away to avoid long waits at the fish cleaning sink.  I’ve been pulling my boat out and filleting in the boat in the parking lot when lines are long or simply come home to clean em.  Bypass so to speak. By the way, creel census is completely volunteer.  One doesn’t HAVE to have their fish measured or weighed.