First, fishing with minnows is not illegal, just highly restricted. Different parts of California have varying restrictions on the use of baitfish; in my region, defined in the current sport fishing regulations as the Sierra District, "...live or dead finfish shall not be used or possessed for use as bait...", except for Tahoe, Donner and Fallen Leaf lakes, where "...Lahontan redside, tui chub, Tahoe sucker, Lahontan speckled dace, mountain sucker and Paiute sculpin may be used only in the same lake where taken."

The Department of Fish and Game not being known for easy-to-understand regulations, let me break it down for you. You don't need to be able to tell the difference between a mountain sucker and a whitefish to use minnows. Unless someone illegally introduces goldfish to one of these three lakes, the six permitted baitfish species listed are all that you'll ever catch in your minnow trap anyway, which brings me to the next awkwardly worded restriction "...only in the same lake where taken". If fishing Fallen Leaf lake, your minnows must come from Fallen Leaf; likewise at Tahoe and Donner. The only place I know that sells live minnows is The Sportsman in South Lake Tahoe. They are minnows trapped in Tahoe, so they may be used only in that lake. If you want minnows for Donner or Fallen Leaf, you'll have to trap them yourself- here's how:

Tie a float (I use a white, plastic gallon jug) to one end of a sixty foot length of light rope, tying the other end to the clip of a standard, wire minnow trap (available at numerous Tahoe retailers). Visually, or with your boat's depthfinder, look for a rocky, uneven bottom in 15 to 50 feet of water. The colder the weather, the deeper the minnows will be found. I recommend starting at least 25 feet down at this time of year. Wrap the rope around your float, using it as a spool to store the rope. Bait your trap with a handful of dry cat or dog food, then lower it to the lake bottom, waiting to make sure it doesn't roll any deeper before dropping your marker float. Leave a few feet of slack rope beyond what is needed, then if you have much extra rope coiled around the float, push a loop of the free rope under one of the coils, tying a simple overhead loop-knot to secure the rope and keep any more from spooling off the float.

Wait at least half an hour, preferably an hour before checking your trap. Sunrise is the best time for collecting minnows, and if you have none in the trap when you check it, try deeper, and let it sit for a longer time. For shore anglers, traps can be thrown from the bank, as far as possible, and the rope anchored to a tree or rock on land. This method is usually unproductive in the winter months, though, when the minnows are deeper than can be reached by tossing the trap from shore.

Your catch will primarily be Lahontan redsides and speckled dace, with the redsides preferable as bait. You may also find a few larger chubs, and more rarely suckers. I prize these bigger fish the most, as trophy-bait. Transfer the minnows to a livewell or insulated minnow bucket. In warm months, you will often find a hundred or more minnows in the trap, but keep only what you need- a maximum of two or three dozen per five gallon minnow bucket for a morning's fishing, or they will die quickly. I use a large, Coleman cooler, and I've found that in cold weather, I can leave up to two dozen average size Lahontan redsides in ten gallons or so of water in this cooler on my back deck, and they will live for over a week, without feeding or aeration (unless I forget to secure the lid, in which case the neighborhood raccoons and stray cats play "bobbing for minnows" until they're gone).

Alright, so you've managed to catch some minnows- now, how do you fish them? From shore, simply set up a bobber or slip-sinker rig and hook the minnow through the lips or behind the dorsal fin and cast out as with any live bait. From a boat, your best options for mackinaw are vertical minnow drifting and jigging, and for a mixed bag of gamefish, try trolling minnows.

Drifting: Tie a slip-sinker rig, just as you would for bottomfishing with nightcrawlers. I prefer a one ounce egg sinker for less than 200 feet of depth, followed by a bead, small swivel, two to three foot leader (slightly weaker than the main line) and a wide-gap, kahle hook. Hook the minnow through the lips, from the bottom up, and drop the rig to the bottom, reeling up several cranks immediately upon hitting the lake floor. A depth finder is highly useful for locating fish (look for rocky bottoms, steep drop-offs, humps and holes) and knowing how far to reel up off the bottom, but I know one dedicated Fallen Leaf canoe-angler that has no depth finder or motor, but consistently catches mackinaw with this method.

Jigging: Heavy jigging spoons are excellent for vertical mackinaw fishing as well (try Crippled Herrings, Gibbs Minnows or Buzz Bombs), and they will perform better tipped with live minnows. Just lip-hook the minnow on the lure's single or treble hooks ( I use a minnow on each hook point with trebles). Drop a bait-rigged spoon to the bottom, reel up to the depth the fish are holding, as shown on your depth finder, and start a lift-and-drop motion, pulling the spoon up several feet, then dropping your rod tip quickly, to allow the spoon to free-fall and flutter seductively.

Trolling: This is the most difficult method to master, but lately, it has been so productive for me that I cannot overstate its importance in an angler's minnow-fishing repertoire. Last week I shallow-trolled Fallen Leaf Lake with Lahontan redsides behind flashers and dodgers on light tackle, enjoying great action for two to four pound mackinaw and a couple large, wild rainbow trout. This week, I took the canoe on Tahoe, and was blown away by the rainbow fishing on this supposedly difficult wild trout lake. My friend Brad Brosman accompanied me, and as a Tahoe native, he told me he couldn't recall such good topline-fishing here since he fished with his grandfather in the 1960's. Much of this has to do with the current seven year period without drought, during which Tahoe's tributary streams have provided optimal spawning conditions. Nevada's extensive rainbow trout stocking program at the Cave Rock boat ramp doesn't hurt either, and a few of the fish we caught, though as large and robust as the wild fish, had the stubby fins of hatchery trout, showing the excellent holdover potential that exists here for planters, further bolstering the fishery.

Trolling from Cave Rock south to Zephyr Cove at dawn, we caught two fish on lures (MINNOW plugs, what else?) while waiting for the bait-trap to fill, then switched to minnows and caught 18 more rainbows and a mackinaw by noon. Trolling attractor blades ahead of the bait was again the key, and Sep's silver willow-leaf flashers drew the most fish to our minnows, with Sep's silver/prism tape dodger running a close second. We kept a few of these delicious, pink-fleshed fish, but released the majority, including several fish over twenty inches long. One three pound fish charged the boat, leaping and actually hitting my friend in the shoulder, showering him with forty-five degree water, before hitting the gunrail and flopping back into the lake, promptly tangling on my motor's shaft. Our catchphrase for the morning was "Pure Mayhem!" At one point, I had a hit that didn't connect, and when reeling in to check my bait, I watched a larger rainbow than we had caught, around six pounds, follow my dodger-and-minnow right to the boat, mouthing and spitting out my bait three times as I tried to set the hook, before turning casually and slinking out into the depths.

You can simply lip-hook the minnows for this method of fishing, as with vertical drifting, but while a trout will often take a stationary minnow by the head, ensuring a hook-up, it will just as often approach a trolled minnow from the rear, resulting in stripped baits and lost fish.

Instead, try this more complex but much more effective rigging, adapted from saltwater fishing and used by many Tahoe fishing guides:

Using a Palomar or Trilene knot, tie a treble hook (#6 for four to five inch minnows) to a high quality leader (I prefer six to eight pound fluorocarbon). Thread six to eight inches of the leader's tag-end through the eye of a large sewing needle. Upholstery needles will work but are thick and will cause more damage to the minnow. I use long, thin, bait threading needles from Pro-Cure. Insert the needle into the minnow's anus, straight through its body, and out its mouth. Pull the leader through the minnow, until the treble-hook hits the entry point. Push the hook-eye into the minnow's anus, creating the ultimate "minnow lure", and tie the end of the leader that you have drawn out the fish's mouth to your flasher or dodger (less than two feet of leader for dodgers, closer to three feet for flashers).

This method will greatly increase your catch ratio, but even with such a rig, I encounter fish that peel the minnow like a banana without becoming hooked, or even manage to strip the entire threaded minnow right off the leader. Imagine how many fish you lose on a conventional lip-hook rig! Your minnow will die rather quickly after threading, but this doesn't seem to lessen its appeal to the trout. My friend and I used only a dozen minnows to catch nearly twice as many trout last Sunday, and we caught some of the best fish on stone-dead, half shredded Lahontan redsides. Threaded minnows will often spin, as well, instead of tracking in a straight line, especially at higher trolling speeds. As offshore salmon-anglers know, this often attracts strikes, and if your minnow is twirling like a wounded baitfish, LET IT ROLL!

All the fish pictured in this article were caught on threaded minnows, trolled behind flashers or dodgers.

Until next time!
Mark (Never stand in a canoe) Wiza