The Fish Sniffer

(Pioneer) Eight-year-old Aiden McKinney of Pioneer landed a 26.4 lb. mackinaw trout while fishing with Rich Spears, manager of the Bear River Lake Resort, at Lower Bear River Reservoir on Wednesday, September 13.

McKinney will be submitting the paperwork for the fish to be a considered as a new junior division all tackle world record with the IGFA. The fish measured 38 inches in length and 16 inches in girth

McKinney hooked the fish while trolling a Trophy Stick on 12 lb. test Maxima line on a downrigger at 85 feet deep at 4 p.m.  

“That’s the biggest mack ever put in my boat,” said Spears. “The next biggest was a 23.4 lb. mack that I landed on January 6 of this year.”

It took the young angler 45 minutes to land. He was fishing at 4 pm in the afternoon when the huge fish hit, according to Spears.

Meanwhile, bank anglers are catching rainbows averaging 12 inches with chartreuse Power Nuggets and nightcrawlers at Lower Bear River. Trollers are doing the best on the rainbows while working nightcrawlers behind dodgers on 5 to 6 colors of lead core line.

Rainbows and mackinaws are also the reward for anglers fishing at Caples Lake. Mike Harris and his son Jeff from Roseville were trolling worms near the spillway about 15 ft. at about 9:00 a.m. when he hooked a 21” 3.5 lb mackinaw trout, according to John Voss at Caples Lake Resoort.

Two days later, Mike landed a 2-½ pound 22 inch rainbow while trolling a blue and silver broken back Rapala in the middle of the lake around 22 foot deep using around 9:30 a.m.

“Jon and Jennifer Neilson of South Lake Tahoe were renting one of our 12 foot boats on September 14 when they caught 2 scrappy rainbows,” said Voss. “They were fishing green Power Bait right in the middle of the lake about 15 or 20 foot deep.”