Outdoors with Don Q: Great day at Lake Tahoe, except for the camera

Last week, Kevin Law of Carson City and I joined Gene (“Gino”) St. Denis of South Lake Tahoe, California for a morning of Mackinaw (Lake) Trout fishing at Lake Tahoe.

Gene is a longtime, good, personal friend and he is a premier sport fishing guide at South Lake Tahoe, known as Blue Ribbon Charters, 530-544-6552. He has fished Tahoe for some thirty years (the last twelve years as a fishing guide) and is one of the top, if not the top, guides at that lake.

Kevin had not fished at Lake Tahoe for many years and instantly said, “Yes,” when I asked if he would like to fish there.

When I contacted Gino about going fishing, he said, “You bet, you and Kevin meet me on Monday at 6:30 a.m. at the usual place.”

That morning, promptly at 6:30 a.m., we arrived at Cave Rock Landing on the Nevada side of Tahoe, parked our car 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 spare light jackets, my cooler full of lunch “goodies” and drinks, digital cameras, a box full of fresh doughnuts, and were ready to enjoy a day 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 try to have Kevin catch a big fish, so we are going to Cal Neva Point on the north end. The last two times, I’ve been there, we have caught some nice big fish.”

It was a gorgeous day with bright sunshine, no clouds, no waves, no other boats and it looked like it was going to be a great day for fishing. For those of you who have never been to Lake Tahoe, it is about 28 miles long, 14 miles wide, 1,600 feet deep at the deepest and has an eye-popping average depth of 904 feet. The lake contains a variety of fish including Mackinaw Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Brook Trout, Kokanee Salmon, etc.

A half-hour ride across the lake and we arrived at Cal Neva Point, where he quickly rigged up our two poles with large silver colored flasher blades and live minnows for bait, and we began to troll at a depth of 220-260 feet.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous: Warm, no wind, no clouds, bright sunshine and the lake’s surface was like a mirror – a great day for trout fishing, boating, sailing, canoeing, water skiing or whatever at Tahoe.
There were several other charter fishing boats in the same area, and everyone on those boats (including ours) was ready to catch big fish.

After about three quarters of an hour of unsuccessful trolling (Nada, Nil, Zip, Zero), Gino said, “OK, that’s it, we going to move a short distance away from these other boats and try trolling at a shallower depth.” We moved to the new location closer to shore and began to troll in “figure eight” patterns at a depth of 140-160 feet.

Shortly after we began trolling, Kevin’s minnow had a strike and after a short tussle, he brought in the first Mackinaw of the day. It was just average size, not a trophy, but it was our first fish of the trip.
Right after that, I caught another average-sized Mackinaw.

We had found the right spot to catch fish.

For the entire morning, the two of us caught our limits of Mackinaw with the largest Macks going up to 8-pounds. They were not giants but respectful. It was a fun-filled day until late morning, and then it happened:
As Gino was preparing to toss a Mack that I had just caught into the live well, which was full of cold fresh water and fish, Kevin moved my light windbreaker jacket, which was lying next to the live well.

When he did, my digital camera which I had placed on the jacket for "safe keeping" toppled over and fell into that live well.

He immediately grabbed it out of the water but it was too late, it had been completed submerged. Kevin's face turned pure white, I was in a state of shock and Gino was speechless and motionless. I quickly removed the battery and memory card, dried as much of the camera as I could reach with a small hand towel, left it open in the sunshine and silently prayed that the interior would dry with no damage.

Later, on returning home, I placed the open camera on the outdoor table in our backyard where it was exposed to the hot sun, all afternoon, to try to dry any water remaining inside of it. The next morning, Elaine inserted the battery and memory card back into the camera, we both held our breath and she turned the camera on to see if it would work again.

It did! Whew!

Accidents happen and they can happen in the blink of an eye. Thank Goodness that everything this time turned out AOK. That was a fishing trip that I will remember for a long, long time.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you what was interesting about the Mackinaw that we caught and kept.
If he grins and says, “When they were cleaned, everyone one of them was absolutely stuffed with tiny Opossum Shrimp that they had been feeding on.

Photo Captions

Photo No. 1:
“Thumbs Up” for Kevin’s 8-pound Mackinaw
Photo by Don Quilici

Photo No. 2:
Trolling from Gene St. Denis’ sport fishing boat “The PT-109” in the deep water at Cal Neva Point at North Lake Tahoe.
Photo by Kevin Law.

Photo No. 3:
Captain St. Denis carefully watches as Don Quilici reels in his first Mackinaw Trout of the day.
Photo by Kevin Law.

Photo No. 4:
Don Quilici holds his first catch of the day.
Photo by Kevin Law

Photo No. 5:
St. Denis watches as Kevin Law brings in his first fish.
Photo by Don Quilici

Photo No. 6:
Kevin’s first Mackinaw Trout is almost to the boat.
Photo by Don Quilici

Photo No. 7:
Looking southwest across Lake Tahoe from the Cave Rock Landing on the Nevada side toward the Desolation Wilderness Area on the California side.
Photo by Elaine Quilici

Photo No. 8:
A happy fisherman with his limit of two Mackinaw Trout caught at Lake Tahoe on Monday, June 13.
Photo by Don Quilici