Outdoors with Don Q: Another fun-filled day in the great outdoors visiting Caples Lake
Elaine and I spent an enjoyable day in the Great Outdoors last Sunday, which included spincasting for trout and taking photographs.
It was a fun-filled day that you might want to replicate in the near future, before Old Man Winter arrives with all of his cold, frost, snow and ice.
Here is what we did:
We got a leisurely start at 8:30 with a quick stop for gasoline at the gas station, followed by breakfast at one of the local casino restaurants.
Then we drove for about 50 miles on a combination of U.S. 395, Nevada S.R. 88 and California S.R. 88 to our destination of Caples Lake, Calif.. If you've never been to Caples Lake, this high-altitude lake lies along California S.R. 88, about one mile this side of Kirkwood Mountain Resort.
The lake is good from shore, a float tube, kayak, canoe or boat for a variety of trout, including Eastern Brook, German Brown, Rainbow and some eye-popping Mackinaw (Lake) Trout, up to double digits in weight.
The most common fish are Rainbows.
In the past, we have had good success at a number of different locations along the shoreline such as where Woods Creek flows into the lake, near the first dam (from the Carson City direction), near the second dam and along the trail that leads to Emigrant Lake.
On our drive to Caples, we were watching to photograph any kind of wildlife and saw some coyotes in a field and a number of hawks.
The coyotes were too far away to get good photos and the hawks were sitting on power poles crossed arms and would not have been photogenic.
The weather was great for this time of the year (warm, bright sun, no clouds and no wind), and you could not have ordered it any better.
We saw quite a few fishermen at the various bridges on the West Carson River on California S.R. 88 and S.R. 89, so I would guess that CDFW and the Alpine County Fish and Game Commission had recently planted trout in those areas (they usually plant fish from the bridges).
Most interesting, we did not see one fisherman at Red Lake, which is highly unusual on a nice weekend day. Not a one.
We arrived at Caples, drove to a location near the second dam, parked and then hiked down to the water.
It was a nice day for being outdoors at that altitude (8,000'). However you know that it won't be too long before Caples is covered with thick ice and deep snow for many months. It's almost wintertime.
We were spincasting from the rocky shoreline with red/white striped lures; and in about two hours of fishing, Elaine caught and released three rainbow trout (one was 13-14 inches in length), while I caught and released two other rainbows on the same color lure.
Then the wind began to come up (as usual) and we decided to return home, so Elaine could take photos of high mountain scenery and any critters.
She got some scenery photos of the countryside at Caples Lake, and then on our drive back on U.S. 395, I stopped and she got a great photo of a hawk sitting on a fence post next to the highway. Then, just before the U.S. 395 bridge that crosses the main Carson River, I stopped again, so she could photograph some buffalo in a field.
They were definitely not wildlife, but what the heck, a critter is a critter. And, a photo op is a photo op, so take advantage of it when it happens.
Finally:
Be sure to take advantage of our nice late-fall weather and plan to spend an enjoyable day, somewhere in the Great Outdoors.
For information about Caples Lake, you can either call (209) 258-8888 or go to website www.capleslakeresort.com.
Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you about another lake, close to Caples Lake, that also contains very nice-sized Mackinaw Trout.
If he grins and says, "Heck that's easy. It is Silver Lake, a few miles past the Kirkwood Ski Resort," he has fished there, sometime in the past.
— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.
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