What summer doldrums? If you know the spots to hit and the productive techniques to use, trout fishing in the Tahoe area hardly slows down even in the dog days. Let’s hit just a few of my favorite late summer hotspots-

West Carson River: this stream in Alpine County just 20 miles from South Lake Tahoe is running low and clear at this time, but is still fishing very well. The meandering meadow section in Hope Valley is heavily stocked with hatchery trout and heavily fished by anglers looking to take home a limit (hint: they stock at the bridges). If you arrive within a few days of the hatchery truck, you will see pods of these guileless rainbows, and with a modicum of stealth, you can hook some as well. For spin-anglers, I recommend using only the tiniest of lures, such as a 1/32 ounce Panther Martin spinner, early or late in the day when the sun is off the water. A good bet at any time though is a single salmon egg on a #16 scud (fly tying) hook, presented on four-pound-test, with one small split-shot pinched on the line about a foot above the bait. Another tip for bait-dunkers is to stop buying those packages of Eagle Claw snelled hooks with the twenty-pound-test leader material. Even hatchery trout have good eyesight, and on waters where wild and holdover trout are also in the mix, that ‘rope’ tied to your hook will definitely scare off some good fish.

Last week I took client John Pickett to the West Carson for an afternoon fly fishing lesson, and he enjoyed great, confidence-building action in Hope Valley. I set John up with one of my favorite teams of flies for this area, a foam beetle dry-fly with a beadhead brassie nymph as a dropper. The trout liked them both, and he hooked six, missing several more. We released them all, leaving them a bit more shy and educated for the next angler.

Having conquered these trout fresh from the hatchery, I then took John to one of my secret pools downstream, where he fished the evening rise. Unlike the open, meadow sction of Hope Valley, this spot is hemmed in by trees and brush, making casting more difficult. The reward for my client was close to a dozen lightning-fast hits on his dry fly from wild trout. He missed the majority of these takes, but managed to bring in four small but beautiful, parr-marked wild rainbows on a mayfly emerger pattern, and one fourteen-inch holdover hatchery trout on an orange Stimulator.

East Carson River: Just twelve miles east of the West Carson on Highway 89, you’ll find the East Fork, a substantially larger river with great opportunities for spin and fly anglers as well. Approximately one mile east of Markleeville, California, the river passes under the highway at Hangman’s Bridge. Upstream of the bridge is the roadside, put-and-take section, where bait and barbed hooks are permitted as is the standard five-trout limit. Here trout spinners and spoons up to ¼ ounce are appropriate, and of course a well-presented nightcrawler or salmon egg is always a great choice. There are plenty of twelve-inch hatchery rainbows from the California Department of Fish and Game here, as well as some wild and holdover trout. Alpine County also stocks large ‘tourism booster’ rainbows here; some of these are in the five-to-ten pound range.

Hangman’s Bridge also marks the start of the river’s catch-and-release wild trout section. Downstream of the bridge for eleven miles to the Nevada border, no bait or barbed hooks are allowed, and no fish may be kept. This is the area I’ve been fishing, and the rewards are worth the hike (the river winds away from the highway here and can only be accessed on foot). Though it is legal to fish barbless artificial lures on spinning gear in this stretch, I’ve found that in all but the highest flows, fly fishing is far more productive. This season we’re once again enjoying great nymphing in the morning and afternoon, with great dry-fly action in the evenings. This is a river where a decent angler can hook ten to twenty trout or more per day, with each trip bringing a real opportunity to catch a fish from three to five pounds or larger.

The bad news for Fish Sniffer readers is that I’m no longer working with Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters, and so no longer under their permit from the Bureau of Land Management to guide here. The good news for me is that for the first time in four years, I’m actually getting to spend time fishing the river for fun again, instead of unwrapping beginners’ leaders from around my head. On August 25, I hit the East Fork for a five-hour morning stint, starting just below Hangman’s. In this time I caught and released ten trout, missing a few other bites as well. Most of these fish were rainbows from 11 to 15 inches, but in one pool my strike indicator twitched twice before I set the hook on a fat, nineteen-inch brown trout. When I netted my big trout of the day I saw why my indicator did a ‘double take’; this fish had eaten both nymphs in my two-fly team, a beadhead Prince and a San Juan Worm! When bottom-bumping nymphs stopped working at mid-day, I finished my trip by catching one more trout on a dry fly, a size 24 Trico spinner. The trout were actually rising to a size 28 or 30 grey thingy, but who carries size 30 grey thingies? This would be a fly the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

On my weekday morning session, I saw two other anglers while fishing two miles of river. Neither was doing very well, and it occurred to me that a little instruction on how to fish the Carson and how to get the most out of a strike-indicator nymph rig would have helped them immensely. I gave out some free advice, but if you’re looking for a guided trip, I recommend Jim Crouse of Alpine Fly Fishing Services (530-542-0759). Jim has fished the East Carson for many years and offers a fun, educational trip here.

Caples Lake, Silver Lake: These two great trout lakes are early and late season favorites of mine, when cold water brings big fish into the shallows. At these times I hunt big brown trout and mackinaw by trolling minnow plugs near the shore, but large trout can be caught by trollers using downriggers in deeper water throughout the season. Last summer I guided Mark Verschelden and his sons in Mark’s boat on Caples, and we started our day by trolling a J-13 rainbow Rapala at 35 feet off the downrigger for mackinaw. When after just a few minutes the line popped free of the downrigger release clip and the rod started pumping, we thought we had hooked a good laker, but Mark’s son then reeled in a seven-pound rainbow! For those not equipped with deepwater gear, flashers or dodgers trailing nightcrawlers will catch smaller trout on both Caples and Silver all summer long, no downriggers required!

We’re only a few weeks away though, from the crisp days and frosty nights of autumn, when big trout will again haunt the shallows. In June when the ice broke up on Silver and Caples, I caught brown trout from two to six pounds trolling the shoreline with Rebel and AC plugs, and such opportunities will return shortly. For those of you who just can’t wait, let me now present a new feature in Wiza’s Sierra Report:

Mystery Brown Trout Theatre!

Mark is a licensed fishing guide offering light-tackle adventures in the Tahoe area. Hot trips this spring include canoe or small boat trips for trophy trout and on-the-water fishing seminars for boaters on Lake Tahoe. Call (530) 545-1475 Email Mark for details.