"A lot of guys using downriggers have been having a tough time, but I've just been knocking 'em dead!" Kit told me as we wound slowly through the curving channels of the keys in his ski boat. Yes, a ski boat, with an inboard motor, and no trolling plate or smaller kicker motor to provide the slow-trolling capability necessary for successful lure presentation. The lowest speed possible with this type of boat is just too fast for trolling, unless you're after tuna. Kit has a simple solution though, which he demonstrated as soon as we'd entered the lake proper and motored out to reach the end of the shallow south- shore flats, where the bottom drops quickly, down to 'deep blue'.

"Two five-gallon buckets." he told me as he tossed one over the stern. A rope on its handle attached it to a cleat on Kit's boat, and as it swung tight in the water on the starboard side, he threw out another one to port. "Pickle buckets, paint buckets, whatever, but two of them slow me down to just the perfect trolling speed." That they did; swirling in the wash behind the boat they acted as drift socks, slowing our speed considerably. The boat's speedometer was not functioning (take that high-tech approach down another notch) but the pace was still fairly brisk- faster than I've trolled for kokanee in the past.

Kit did have an electronic fishfinder, a Lowrance that had the annoying habit of functioning only part of the time. It would show the lake's highly varied bottom structure and depth for a while, then we would notice that it had spent maybe 10 minutes displaying one depth, say, '271', without change. Kit would actually smack it, Fonzie style, to get it working again. The reason it would lock up so long without us noticing was that as soon as we put our lines out, we were immediately into fish.

Kit has rod holders mounted on his boat, and even has a plate mounted to hold a hand-crank downrigger, but he ignored the cable-and-cannonball system, instead showing me his simple yet highly effective method for longline trolling. He uses Ugly Stick rods with line counter reels, 17 pound line, and flashers with four ounce trolling sinkers attached to the keels. Not just any flashers, mind you, but "Genuine Al Wilson # 8 Trolling Rigs". These are the old-school standard for kokanee here; they don't look much different than many of the other flasher rigs available, but local fishermen swear by them, and with good reason- they consistently call in the salmon. Any set of flashers is of course only as good as the lure trailing after, and on the rig I was to use, behind an eight-pound leader, Kit had attached the other quintessential Tahoe lure, a Mack's Lures Imperial Trolling Spoon, referred to by the locals as a 'red magic'. Again, this lure doesn't exactly send the fisherman reeling just to look at, but it has probably produced more kokanee on Tahoe over the years (including the state record fish) than all other lures combined. I had the privilege of sending this offering, after a dousing with Pro-Cure Kokanee Special attractant oil, to 240 feet back on the line-counter reel, as directed by Kit. He always likes to experiment, so he had a Worden's Triple-Teaser spoon on his rig- it had been quite productive the previous week.

As soon as I let the recommended length of line out, the sensitive tip of my rod began kicking, and I reeled in my first fish. Kit threw the motor in neutral and came to the stern to net it for me as I marveled at the chrome-bright, muscular beauty- a perfect miniature of an ocean salmon. Putting the boat back in gear, Kit repositioned us as he explained how he used shoreline landmarks and readings off the sonar (when it worked) to keep us on the fish. GPS be damned! This is how the old Tahoe boat captains memorized their trolling runs, and Kit had the technique down cold- "See the deepwater buoy? We keep that on our right, and start off the mouth of the keys, then, see that mountain there, behind Camp Rich? Not the first one but the second one- we head for that." And so on; a seemingly complex system of waypoints from my perspective, but Kit made it look easy. Every five minutes or so, my rod would bend again, and I'd reel in another kokanee. Fully half of them came off on the way in- these fish have soft mouths and are notoriously tough to keep on the hook. Meanwhile, Kit had only one hit, a swing and a miss, on his rod, so he reeled in to change lures. He was about to tie on the 'red magic' when another boat passed near us and we were hailed by the pilot, Kit's friend Fred. Fred and his wife were downrigger trolling at forty feet, and reported being just slightly ahead of us in numbers caught; five fish to my four. Kit asked what they were using, and Fred replied cryptically "Number two!" As I began to wonder whether these wily old salts had developed a numeric code for naming lures, to throw the tourists off track, Kit enlightened me when he pulled out a new lure, still in its package- "Fred's Magic # 2, Kokanee and Trout, Glow In The Dark, Made In Tahoe For Tahoe."

"Fred makes these." Kit explained, referring to the small flutter spoon as he removed its wrapping and tied it on his leader. "He's pretty much the kokanee king around here, and if he's using the number two, that's good enough for me." Sure enough, now the tables turned and Kit had one fish after another, while my action slowed and I struggled with another few lost fish before finishing off my limit, only to count Kit's fish and see that in the same time it took me to get in one salmon, he had taken his five fish limit as well. I checked my watch and saw that it was barely 7:00 a.m.; we had taken ten fish and lost nearly as many in less than two hours. Not bad, but the best was yet to come. When I returned home, I barbecued my fish over mesquite chips, with lime and just a pinch of spice, a salt/pepper/garlic/chili powder mixture. If you've not eaten kokanee salmon, let me tell you that their flavorful yet mild red meat is pure delight to the palate. A fish breakfast may seem weird, but I just couldn't wait.

The kokes we caught were all 12 to 15 inches long, but they grow fast and run a bit bigger each week until the fall spawn. Kokanee salmon were introduced to Tahoe in the 1940's, and now reproduce naturally, mainly in Taylor Creek. Scattered throughout the lake early in the year, they gather each summer off south shore, waiting for the spawning urge to drive them in huge numbers up this tiny stream in October. August is prime time to target them in the lake with trolling techniques, and if you find a group tightly schooled on your sonar screen, you can even drop spoons straight down and jig for them. An added thrill is a chance at a mackinaw, or even a monster rainbow trout; these predators gather beneath the suspended salmon schools to feed on them. The best way to target the big boys is to run a large, silvery kokanee imitating lure slightly deeper than the salmon schools, but Kit tells me he's had mackinaw to eight pounds slam his tiny trolling spoons as well, so set your drag light and consider whether you really want to use that sporting three-pound-test leader!

All the lures mentioned here are available at Longs Drugs, 2358 Lake Tahoe Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe. The phone number is (530) 544 1500, and Kit Arlin is sage-in-residence every day except Wednesday and Thursday, when you'll find him out on the lake, pulling two buckets and five kokanee.

Note: Recent thunderstorms in Tahoe have fried my computer modem! Bonehead forgot to run his phone line through the surge protector, and paid dearly for the oversight. The computer was under warranty, but is currently being repaired and won't be back until mid August. If you're looking for a guided spin or fly fishing trip, or a canoe-trolling adventure (sorry, no Tahoe trips in the canoe, the jet-ski swarms are too thick) call Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters at (530) 541-8208 or click on their banner at the top of this page to email me. For those readers just looking for fishing secrets, I'll spill them all as always, but please use the 'Email Me' link here and be patient. I apologize to those with whom I was in mid-correspondence; I'll catch up as soon as I can.

Until next time, remember, never stand in a canoe!
Mark Wiza
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