Lake Tahoe has a certain mystique. The lake boasts a breathtaking visual impact…it’s brilliant blue waters, framed by some of the most awe inspiring scenery in North America. From an angler’s perspective the lake is a delight, offering mackinaw, rainbows, and browns, and a prodigious kokanee salmon population.

Lake Tahoe has an elevation of 6,225 feet. The lake holds 122,160,280 acre-feet of water with a maximum depth of 1,637 feet. That is more water than found in the United State’s ten largest reservoirs combined.

Mackinaw are the dominant fish at Tahoe. Tahoe’s first recorded mackinaw plant took place in 1889 when the Nevada Fish and Game Commission released mackinaw into Meeks Bay. By the 1920’s large trout started falling to anglers. The largest of that period being a 32 pounder boated by John Pomin.

Of the guides that ply the waters of Tahoe, Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters is among the best. St. Denis began fishing the lake in 1981. In the years since then he and his clients have landed 29 mackinaw over the 20 pound mark.

Over the past couple months St. Denis called me several times to report catching big fish including a 15 pound mackinaw and a 9 plus pound brown. Naturally, I was anxious to get on the water with St. Denis, but the busy outdoor show season kept me sidelined. Finally my schedule opened up and I was able to arrange a trip with St. Denis for my wife Gena, her dad Gene, and myself on February 9.

When we arrived at the Cave Rock Launch ramp on the lake’s east side a little before 8 o’clock in the morning, we were greeted by blue skies and glassy water. St. Denis rolled into the parking lot right on time with his 20 foot Alumaweld in tow. Within minutes the boat was launched, gear was stowed, and we were underway.

“We’ll start fishing at Sugar Pine Point directly across the lake. There is a good concentration of macks holding off the point,” commented St. Denis as he piloted the boat on a westerly course.

As we cruised across the lake St. Denis showed me a map detailing the point. The submerged point is about 35 feet deep near the shoreline and 55 deep toward the tip. The water that surrounds the point ranges from 150 to 260 feet deep.

“First we’ll troll the flats on the point itself. There aren’t big numbers of fish holding on the flats, but large mackinaws like to cruise the flats when they feed. Once we work the point, we’ll move into deeper water and target heavier concentrations of fish,” related St. Denis.

When we arrived at the point, St. Denis rigged our rods with large dodgers trailing rigged minnows 14 inches behind them. St. Denis applied a mixture of Pro-Cure Trophy Trout and Shrimp Gel to the hardware and baits. For the next 30 minutes we cruised back and forth over the submerged point.

“Well it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any action on the point. I’m going to move into deeper water and we’ll start getting some hits,” proclaimed St. Denis. As we moved deeper St. Denis dropped his downrigger weighs and bounced the bottom with them every few minutes.

“Over the years I’ve found that bouncing the weights excites the trout. I think it raises silt and that prompts the trout to feed. Of course, you can only do this in areas that have a sand or clay bottom,” related St. Denis.

At 9:30, a trout holding at 160 feet nailed the minnow on Gena’s rod. Keeping the rod tip high, she put steady pressure on the trout. A couple minutes later St. Denis netted the 22 incher and Gena had her first ever mackinaw.

I was the next to hook up, quickly boating and releasing an 18” mack. After that the bite really broke loose. Gene and I led off with a double hook up. Gene landed his 4 pound prize, but I lost mine.

Then Gena was back on the hook, ultimately filling out her limit with a fat 6 pounder. By 11:30 we’d landed about a dozen macks, keeping six fish between 4 and 6 pounds.

St. Denis picks up a lot of his larger fish while toplining big minnow plugs. I’ve wanted to see how he trolls for a while, so I asked if he’d show me. St. Denis agreed and we headed for the “blue holes” at the south end of the lake. When we arrived, St. Denis slowed the boat to 3 mph and put us on a course to troll across the holes.

One rod sported a 7” broken back Bomber Long A the other a #18 Rapala. Both rainbow pattern plugs had been smeared with Pro-Cure Trophy Trout scent. St. Denis trolls his plugs on 8 lb. test line. To cope with Tahoe’s clear water and wary trout, St. Denis trolls the plugs 400 feet behind the boat.

“Okay we’re about to go over the first hole,” St. Denis exclaimed as I watched the depth on the sonar drop from 27 to 109 feet in a matter of seconds. About the time our distant plugs were crossing the hole, the rod on the starboard side got hit and the clicker screamed. Jumping from his seat St. Denis grabbed the rod and passed it to me.

The fish was heavy and refused to budge. St. Denis circled the boat back toward the fish and into deeper water. As he maneuvered I was able to gain back half the line. I put all the pressure on the fish I dared and worked it ever closer to the boat. The only question was whether it was a mack or a brown. When we spotted color behind the boat the question was answered. It was a mackinaw.