By Dan Bacher

Scenic Stampede Reservoir, located on the Little Truckee River on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada, is one of the premier reservoirs for kokanee salmon fishing in the West It has become legendary for both numbers and size of these land locked sockeyes, but it also has good (and largely unfished) stock of brown trout, rainbows and makinaw.

Situated at 6,000 feet in elevation on the Jeffrey pine and sagebrush studded mountains, Stampede is a large 4 I I reservoir, covering 3400 acres with 25 miles of shoreline. It's a very popular lake for fishermen from the Reno area and throughout northern and central Califonia. It's also a very fertile reservoir, known for abundant plankton blooms that make it such a productive habitat for the kokanee salmon.

The fishing has been wide-open for over a month. "Anglers are catching limits of kokanee while fishing from 5 to 40 feet deep," advised John Rinna at Mountain Hardware in Truckee, the day before Fish Sniffer advertising director Paul Kneeland and I made a trip to the lake.

Kneeland and Brian Lockshaw of Napa had found great kokanee action while trolling on a previous trip, so we were hoping to repeat the success. We arrived at the launch ramp and quickly launched the boat at 6:30 a.m. on May 21. We were fishing in the new Fish Sniffer 17 foot Fisher Hawk boat, outfitted by Auburn Outboard. We went to the mouth of Sage Hen Creek, where Kneeland saw good numbers of fish on the graph.

We each used two rods, one rod set at 15 to 50 feet deep on the downrigger and the other on a topline trolling set up. We put Vance's Kokanee Bugs behind Vance's Dodgers and Luhr-Jensen Hot Tail Dodgers on the downrigger rods, while we used pink Dick Nites behind Vance's Flashers on the top line rods. We used three Lamiglas Kokanee Special rods and one Vic's custom downrigger rod.

We were in the water for less than three minutes when Paul shouted, "I got a fish." Nearly simultaneously, the rod tip on my downrigger rod went down also. "I have one, too," I said as a scrappy kokanee took off on a run.

We soon had both fish at the side of the boat, both healthy looking "kokes" in the 12 to 13 inch range. Just after I released my fish, my topline rod started bouncing up and down with another kokanee bite. Shortly after Paul put his top line into the water, he also hooked up another kokanee.

For over two hours, the action was nearly non-stop as we caught one fish after another. These fish were all similar in size, averaging 12 to 13 inches. 8y 10 a.m. we had 5 fish in the box and released 20 others, so we decided to try for some larger fish, so we moved to the island in front of the ramp.

Here Paul caught the largest kokanee of the day, a 14 incher. We continued to land kokanee, although not as fast as we had at the other spot. The wind came up so we decided to go back to the spot near the mouth of Sage Hen Creek where the water was more protected. We resumed hooking kokanee at around 10 to 15 feet deep.

However, it was a downrigger rod, set at 31 feet, that produced the day's largest fish, My line popped off the downrigger, but the rod tip, rather than bouncing up and down like it does when a kokanee hits, kept going down! I picked up the rod and the fish ripped out yards of line. "That's no kokanee," said Paul. "Feels like a mackinaw," I confirmed. After a dogged battle on the light rod, I finally boated a gorgeous 5 pound mackinaw trout measuring 24 inches long. The mack hit a pink Vance's Kokanee Bug behind a Luhr Jensen Hot Tail Flasher.

For the next two hours, we had many double hook ups. We decided to fill out our limit at 2:30 pm. when we kept our last two kokes. The day's tally? We caught a total of 37 kokanee, releasing 27 and keeping 10, and one macinaw. It was the best day of kokanee fishing that I ever had!

Other anglers confirmed the hot action. John Minnis of Truckee made a recent trip with guide Vance Staplin to the lake. "We caught two limits and released another three limits during the course of the day," Minnis noted.

A good spawn of kokanee and heavily stocking over the past few years accounts for the large numbers of fish. The DFG, in cooperation with Project Kokanee, h planted a total of 914,000 kokanee in Stampede from 1994 to date.

In addition to kokanee, anglers can also bag some rainbow trout in the 14 to 16 inch range while fishing small Rapalas or tossing Kastmasters from shore in the Davies Creek arm. Brown trout will hit bigger plugs, such as broken-back Tomics and jointed Rapalas, in the Davies Creek arm by the dam.

The mackinaws are usually caught by anglers fishing for other species. "Few anglers target the mackinaw, but the lake has a pretty good population of mackinaw," said Tom Brocchu at Mountain Hardware. Anglers in search of mackinaw should use large J-Plugs and other lures in the deeper water below the kokanee.

Believe it or not, Stampede also has a sizable population of smallmouth bass to 14 inches, which can be caught on top water poppers, crankbaits and other lures. Fish the springs and rocky points.

Stampede is 85% of capacity, and is 20 to 25 feet from maximum pool. The water surface temperatures have ranged from 54 to 62 degrees.

Boca Reservoir on the Little Truckee is also a good bet for kokanee salmon. "The lake is now producing smaller kokanee averaging 12 inches for anglers trolling Wedding Rings, Vance's Kokanee Bugs and other lures," said John Rinna. The DFG has stocked the lake with 205,000 kokanee over the past four years.

Boca, set at an elevation of 5700 feet, is a smaller lake than Stampede, covering 980 acres and featuring 14 miles of shoreline. Rainbows and browns can also be found by anglers fishing at Boca.

Fishing for kokanee at both Stampede and Boca should continue to be good as the summer proceeds. Warming water temperatures will drive the fish down deeper into the lake's thermocline and from the lake's east side to the west side. In July and August, jigging will also become an increasingly effective method for catching the kokanee.

Prosser Creek Reservoir, located at 5711 feet in elevation, offers anglers the chance to catch rainbows and a few browns, according to Brocchu. Fish in the 12 to 15 inch range are on tap for anglers fishing flies, trolling lures and using bait. Smallmouth bass are also found in this lake.

For more information on camping at Stampede or Boca, call the Tahoe National Forest, District Office, (916) 587-3558. For fishing information, call Mountain Hardware in Truckee at (916) 587-4844, Vance's Guide and Tackle at (916) 725-2383 or Ted Samford of Fishin' Not Wishin' Guide Service at (916) 389-2748.

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