By Don Quilici

  • Looking at the north end of Topaz Lake, over a fishing pole attached to an electric downrigger. Photo by Don Quilici
    Looking at the north end of Topaz Lake, over a fishing pole attached to an electric downrigger. Photo by Don Quilici
  • Bob “Slick” McCulloch of Carson City steering the trolling motor while fishing at Topaz Lake. Photo by Don Quilici
    Bob “Slick” McCulloch of Carson City steering the trolling motor while fishing at Topaz Lake. Photo by Don Quilici
  • A White Pelican serenely paddling out in the lake. Photo by Don Quilici
    A White Pelican serenely paddling out in the lake. Photo by Don Quilici
  • Don Hettrick taking his turn at steering the trolling motor. Photo by Don Quilici
    Don Hettrick taking his turn at steering the trolling motor. Photo by Don Quilici
  • Slowly trolling toward a large flock of seagulls. Photo by Don Quilici
    Slowly trolling toward a large flock of seagulls. Photo by Don Quilici
  • Bob McCulloch enjoying some shuteye rather than fishing. Photo by Don Quilici
    Bob McCulloch enjoying some shuteye rather than fishing. Photo by Don Quilici
  • Looking toward the south end of the lake, with rain clouds beginning to build up for an afternoon storm. Photo by Don Quilici
    Looking toward the south end of the lake, with rain clouds beginning to build up for an afternoon storm. Photo by Don Quilici

Three of us (Don Hettrick, Bob “Slick” McCulloch and I) are back, safe and sound in Carson City after being contestants in the 16th annual Topaz Lake invitational fishing derby, which is sponsored by John Riordan.
That derby was held on Sunday-Monday-Tuesday, April 22-23-24, and it attracted some 70 fishermen from Nevada and California.
This year for the first time in history, the derby had a brand new fish category (bass) in addition to the regular trout category.
When the smoke and dust cleared after three days of fishing by all of the contestants, these were the 2012 winners:

Trout:
The winning trout was 3-pounds, 11 ¾ ounces German Brown trout caught by Butch Rachoff of Sacramento, California.
The second place trout weighed 2-pounds, 6.5-ounces and was caught by Ed Fabray of Carson City.
The third place trout weighed 2-pounds, 6.25-ounces and was caught by Suzanne Boerner of Carson City.
The fourth place trout weighed 2-pounds, 5.25-ounces and was caught by Todd Boerner of Carson City.

Bass:
Ken Doyle of Markleeville, California scored a “Grand Slam,” when he took first-second-third places in the bass category.
Doyle’s three winning bass weighed 3-pounds, 5-ounces; 3-pounds, 3-ounces and 3-pounds, 1-ounces.
How did the three of us do?
Well, we did not win any of the trout cash prizes (1st-2nd-3rd-4th), but we had a lot of strikes, plus we caught and released a lot of trout during the derby.
Hettrick finished a respectful fifth (just barely out of the money) with a rainbow trout that weighed 1-pound, 15 ounces.
It was caught on an orange colored Flatfish lure trolled along the east shore.
The three of us trolled three days with Apex, Flatfish, Needlefish, Rapala and Tor-P-Do lures, all the way from the surface down to about 30 feet deep.
Our most consistent success was along the east side of the lake, where we had plenty of company from the boats of other fishermen.

Here are some of our personal highlights:
— On the second day of the derby, I had a giant strike from a fish that made my reel loudly “sing” as my 6-pound test line was peeling off the spool and then the line snapped. We never saw that fish but it had to be super big.
— On the second and third days of the derby, our large boat (plus others) got blown off the lake by fierce afternoon winds at about 1:00 each afternoon.
On the second day, the lake looked like a scene from “The Deadliest Catch,” with high winds, large waves and whitecaps everywhere. On that day, we returned to the dock and then helped another half dozen boats as they fought their way back to their moorings. It was a wild afternoon at Topaz Lake.
— The three mule deer that slowly meandered down a very steep hillside and walked out into the water to get a drink, before returning to lie down under a small tree near the top of the hillside.
— All three of us had AT&T cell phones that did not work at Topaz Lake however those with Verizon phones had no problems with their phones.
Our AT&T phones were about as useful as buttons on a hankie!
— Slick accused Hettrick and I of being “Cheaters No. 01 and No. 2” for not paying him for a bet on who would bring the first fish into the boat.
He had caught a small rainbow and as he lifted it over the side of the boat, it came off the lure and fell into the bottom of the boat.
I claimed that the trout “jumped” rather than being brought into the boat, Hettrick said that he did not see anything, we did not pay on the bet and were called some very nasty names by an indigent McCulloch.
— Waiting like a giant spider until the heat of the day, the movement of the boat and the throbbing of the motor slowly put McCulloch asleep in his seat.
Then, quietly sneaking over close to him and taking a photo with my digital camera of him sound asleep instead of watching his fishing pole.
— The super job Riordan does each year in putting on the derby, including:
Weighing and listing on the leader board all of the fish that are turned in,
Providing cash prizes for the winning fish in each category,
Furnishing derby caps for every contestant,
Arranging for very nice prizes for every contestant,
All the great food at the Sunday and Monday night barbecues, including his personal barbecuing of hamburgers, hot dogs, steak, chicken, etc.
He works his butt off, while the rest of us have a “ton of fun.”
Well done, John!

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you about my favorite breakfast at the Topaz Lodge and Casino Restaurant.
If he grins and says, “Heck that’s easy. It’s the steak and egg special complete with a very nice steak, two eggs to order, hash browns and a choice of toast,” he has also eaten that tasty special.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and www.SouthTahoeNow.com. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.