The legacy of the reservoir's history as a recipient of waste water facility has its advantages and disadvantages. In compensation for using Alpine County for putting South Tahoe sewage, the utility agreed to spend $30,000 year on trout plants at Indian Creek and other local reservoirs, according to Dave Kirby of Woodfords Station.

The lake's history of being a recipient for waste water has also resulted in a nutrient-rich fishery; what Mark Wiza, fishing guide and www.fishsniffer.com columnist describes as a" mini-Bridgeport Reservoir." Rainbow and brown trout grow big and fat in here, feeding on the snails and aquatic invertebrates that populate the reservoir.

However, too much nutrients can also be a problem at times, resulting in big algae blooms every summer and a big fish kill in 1999. Although the utility district no longer puts treated waste water in the reservoir, it manages the lake as if it still does.

The district conducts monitoring in response to Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) planning and to assist the DFG with fishery management. The district does water quality monitoring at the lake once a month to analyze water temperature, ph, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, minerals, metal, chlorophyll, algae and bacteria levels.

Indian Creek, located in a semi-arid area, is known more for its fine fishing than its scenery, though the lake's campground is surrounded by ponderosa, Jeffrey and pinyon pine trees. The lake was about as scenic as it gets when I fished the reservoir for the first time with Mark Wiza on Friday, April 9. The water was cold and clear, there still was some snow on the surrounding peaks and the sky was a robust blue.

It was a contrast to previous times when I had visited the lake on the way to other destinations. On my previous three ventures, the lake was very uninviting, with soupy water, big clumps of algae and weeds, a smelly, muddy shoreline and a persistent strong wind that made fishing all but impossible.

There were already about a dozen bank anglers fishing in the area near dam and several canoes and float tubes when I drove down to the lake to meet Wiza. "This is the only game in town in this area this time of year, when streams are still closed and other lakes are still frozen over," said Wiza.

Just as I was putting my camera and rods into the canoe, Kenny Lee of Mount House hooked and landed a beautiful 15 inch holdover rainbow while using Power Bait.

We put out two rods, one with a set of Sep's micro flashers and the other with a Rebel Wee Crawdad. We trolled slowly, less than 1 mph. It was a beautiful Eastern Sierra spring day, with only a periodic light breeze dappling the water's surface.

We trolled in the main body near the dam and then trolled to Wiza's "hot spot" in 16 to 35 feet of water where I hooked the first fish of the day, a 12 inch planter. I followed up by catching a gorgeous 15 inch holdover rainbow on the crankbait.

However, it was Mark who hooked and battled the big fish of the day, a 19 inch rainbow, on the nightcrawler/flasher rig. The bite was steady for the next two hours. By noon, we had landed eight and kept four trout; some of these full-bodied trout leaped and surged like steelhead. We tried bait fishing with Crave and Power Bait for a while, but didn't hook any fish.

We took a break around 2 p.m. and then went back trolling. We ended up with 10 total trout for the day, keeping five. The majority of fish were beautiful, fat holdovers in the 14 to 15 fish range. When I cleaned them, they had bright orange meat; the fish apparently did very well over the winter. The hot set up was a threaded nightcrawler behind flashers.

Wiza has fished Indian Creek since he moved to South Tahoe in 1994 and uses it for a "practice" lake to try out different lures and flies. Although we fished bait and lures, he has found a lot of success fly fishing here. We saw other anglers hooking fish on fly rods from pontoon boats and float tubes.

"Pulling Wooly Buggers with sinking or sinking tip fly line is one of the most effective ways to take trout on flies," added Wiza. "Another method is to 'heave and leave' with a midge under a strike indicator." For dry fly fishing, he recommends fishing midge, caddis and grasshopper patterns.

The Alpine County Fish and Game Commission plans to stock 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of rainbows, ranging from catchables to 7 pounders, in Indian Creek this year. The Commission has stocked 2,000 pounds in the reservoir to date, according to Kirby.

The DFG has already stocked 5,000 subcatchable rainbows in Indian Creek this year, but doesn't know yet whether it will plant catchables, according to Stafford Lehr, DFG fishery biologist.

"We are re-thinking what waters we are going to stock, due to the 25 percent cuts in the hatchery budget," said Lehr. "We are in the evaluation process - it's possible that Indian Creek may receive additional plants of trout."

Do trout spawn successfully at Indian Creek? "If the flows are right, there is a spawning run up the tributary creek, but it depends when the diversion into the lake occurs," said Lehr, "Whether the spawn is successful or not is debatable."

Rainbows are the main gamefish found in the reservoir now, though a small population of browns also inhabits the lake. The DFG has stocked brook trout and cutbows in the reservoir in past years, but anglers haven't reported catching them lately.

The east side of the lake has an unimproved boat ramp, but the gate to the campground was locked on the day I fished, so we had to launch near the dam.

A side trip is Summit Lake, a hike in lake most easily accessed by the trail from the Kurtz Lake Environmental Study area. This is a popular spot to fish flies for rainbow and brook trout from a float tube.

For more information about fishing Indian Creek, call Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station, (530) 694-2930. To book a guided trip with Mark Wiza on Indian Creek and other local waters, call (530) 541-6551.