Mickey Daniels at North Tahoe 'I'm tired of shoveling snow!'

By Don Quilici

• BIG SPRINGS RESERVOIR, NEV: No report. Will close on Feb. 28.

• BLUE LAKES, CALIF. AREA: Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station (530-694-2930) said, "I'm a sore "Mother" from all of the snow shoveling, here at the store.

We probably got about two feet here, and I've heard that they have about nine feet at the base of Kirkwood Ski Resort.

The road (S.R. 88) was closed for 2.5 days, and when they close it, like they did, before you get to Kirkwood, you know that you are in big trouble.

We had very few humans over the weekend and no fishermen.

The motels in this area lost a lot of their reservations because of that big storm."

• CAPLES LAKE, CALIF: No report. The road was closed by snow for 2.5 days. It is reported to have about 1.5 feet of ice.

DAVIS LAKE, CALIF: No report.

• EAGLE LAKE, CALIF: The 2004 fishing season closed Dec. 31.

The 2005 season will open on the Saturday preceding Memorial Day.

FRENCHMAN RESERVOIR, CALIF: Wiggin's Trading Post at Chilcoot, Calif. (530-993-4683): No report.

• INDIAN CREEK RESERVOIR. CALIF: Dave Kirby reported: "One guy stopped in and said that he was going to fish at Indian Creek Reservoir, he did not come back and he may still be there!"

• LAHONTAN RESERVOIR, NEV: Missy Swain at Burke's Market at Silver Springs (775-577-2750) reported: "It's snowing lightly (Monday morning).

It is wet, miserable and cold, plus the kids were upset that they had to go to school today, while everyone else had closed schools.

The reservoir has risen more than 20,000 acre feet from this storm.

I just hope that it stays cold and all that snow does not melt fast.

• PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Doug Ouellette of the Gilly Sporting Goods Store in Sparks (358-6113) reported: "Pyramid only has about three inches of snow, nothing like you guys got in Carson City.

The shore fishermen have been doing good with either flies or lures.

The boaters continue to do OK, trolling with the usual Lyman, Apex, Flatfish and Kwikfish lures.

The jiggers are jigging with Gibb's Minnows or Maribou Jigs.

Fly fishermen are using black or purple Woolly Bugger, Woolly Worm or Pyramid Popcorn Beetle flies.

They are catching better than average size fish (average 20+ inches) at "The Nets" and at "The Wash" (about a half-mile south of the junction of the highway coming in from Sparks).

A fly fisherman caught a 28-incher at The Wash.

This is actually a good time to fish at Pyramid."

• RED LAKE CALIF: No report. The road was closed by snow for 2.5 days.

• SACRAMENTO RIVER, CALIF: Kirk Portocarrero of Outdoor Adventures Sport Fishing, Redding, Calif. (800-670-4448) said:

Redding to Anderson: Water release is 4,000 CFS.

As weather allows, fly fishing for rainbows is producing some nice catch and release trout in the Redding to Anderson area.

PT's, and Micro May Fly patterns were working well.

Red Bluff: The recent downpour of rain made fishing impossible last week.

The river is starting to clear and looks as if we might get a few more good fishing days before the King Salmon season comes to a close on the 14th.

Fishing for Kings, before the rain, was fair to good in the Balls Ferry area.

Our clients were catching chrome King Salmon, 15-25 pounds, average.

Flatfish (T-50's & T-55's) and bouncing roe were the best bet, both were producing King Salmon.

• SILVER LAKE, CALIF: No report. The road was closed by snow for 2.5 days.

• SMITH RIVER, CALIF: Kirk Portocarrero reported catching and releasing nice bright Steelhead trout.

Prime time to fish for Steelhead is Jan., Feb. and March.

• LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:

Mickey Daniels of Mickey's Big Mack Charters (800-877-1462) said: "I'm tired of shoveling snow, both at my house and off my boat.

On New year's Eve, I had to shovel my boat four times.

We probably have about 7-9 feet here at the house (Carnelian Bay at North Lake Tahoe)

When I was going out, we were catching our Mackinaw trout early in the morning and tagging and releasing the smaller ones.

I troll in the deep-water area in front of Carnelian Bay and King's Beach with silver, Herring Dodger flasher blades with live minnows or large Apex lures.

Next week, I leave on Tuesday for the San Francisco Sport Show, come back from there and then go to the Sacramento Sport Show."

LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:

Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters and Tahoe Trophy Trout at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (530-544-6552): No report.

LAKE TAHOE - South Shore: Gene St. Denis: No report.

• LAKE TAHOE - East Shore: Gene St. Denis reported that NDOT has plowed the landing at Cave Rock on Jan. 2.

St. Denis said that when he got there on Jan. 1, the snow was up to his chest.

He has used his own snowblower to clear off the boat lunch ramp, which took him two days to clear.

They have received a total of about 5 -6 feet of snow that is now compacting.

• TOPAZ LAKE: Chuck Fields at Topaz Lake Marina (775) 266-3550 reported, "Opening Day was fairly slow, due to the snowy weather and not a lot of people were out here.

There were about 12 inches of snow on the ground.

The Marina boat launch was unusable because it was a sold sheet of ice.

Later that day, Douglas County opened up their boat ramp.

There were probably 15-20 boats on the lake on either day of the weekend.

There were a lot of limits caught from both shore and boats, with a lot of fish up to about 2.5 pounds.

There were a number of 4-pounder caught.

Lots of fishermen were using orange Power Bait.

Our little derby was won by a fish that weighed 4-pounds, 1/2 ounce.

• TOPAZ LAKE: Vicki at the Topaz Lodge General Store at (775) 266-3337 reported that a total of eight tagged fish were caught: Two fish at $250 each, five fish at $100 each and one fish at $50.

There were a total of 74 trout turned in on the Opening Day.

The largest fish turned in, weighed 5-pounds, 15/12 ounces and was untagged. It won $50 for the week, plus 10 tickets for the Grand Drawing.

WALKER LAKE, NEV: No report.

• WILDHORSE RESERVOIR NEV: Dennis Dunn at the Wild Horse Resort (775) 758-6472 said, "Heck, we've only got about eight inches of snow, up here. You guys are getting all of the snow that we need.

The ice on the reservoir is about 10-12 inches thick and the ice fishing is great.

In fact, there are some guys out there, right now (Monday morning).

The trout are hitting off and on, all day long, and they are nice and fat.

One guy had one on that was so big that he could not get it up through the ice and lost it.

The Perch are really hitting just before dark.

They are also catching lots of Perch, 6-12 inches.

They are jigging with white-colored, Crappie jigs with the hook tipped with a small piece of worm.

The best fishing is down by the dam or by the island.

New Year's Eve was pretty quiet, we had about a dozen people."