12 June 26, 2020 MAP FEATURE
VOL.39 • ISS. 14
Caples Lake, an El Dorado Irrigation
District (EID) managed reservoir
in Alpine County, offers an unbeatable
combination of majestic alpine scenery and
fine trophy trout fishing.
Big browns and mackinaw lurk in the
clear, pristine waters of Caples. The lake
mackinaw record is 26 pounds and 39
inches held by Norm Perini from Pine
Grove. Jeff Walters from Kirkwood holds
the brown trout record at 13 pounds and
31 inches.
Besides hosting trophy brown mackinaw
trout, the lake at this time also hosts
recently planted brown trout, along with
rainbow trout.
Caples features 620 surface acres and is
situated at approximately 7,820 feet above
sea level when the lake is full. It is located
off Highway 88, roughly one mile west of
the Carson Spur, and about 17 miles south
of Lake Tahoe.
The resorts, boat ramps and marinas
are now open at Caple. Savvy trollers are
catching and releasing big mackinaw trout
up to 18 pounds, while shore anglers are
hooking lots of recently planted brown
trout. Boats are limited to 5 mph.
The California Department of Fish and
Wildlife stocked its first batch of 2,000
pounds of 10- to 14-inch browns before
Memorial Day weekend and the second
batch of over 2,000 pounds of browns on
June 1, according to Joe Voss of Caples
Lake Resort.
Shore anglers find
solid
Caples Lake features an array of mackinaw, rainbow, brown and brook trout for shore and boat anglers in a pristine alpine setting.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
Caples Lake Offers Big Mackinaw, Plentiful Browns and Rainbows
trout action at the dam, spillway, Woods
Creek inlet and other areas on the lake
while tossing out PowerBait, Power Eggs,
crawlers and an array of Kastmasters,
Rooster Tails, Panther Martin spinners,
Little Cleos, Thomas Buoyant spoons and
other lures.
Boaters trolling with Flatfish and
other lures have picked up some
huge mackinaw to date this season.
For example, Chris Hostnick landed
an 18-pound mack during a trolling
adventure.
Rene Dombrowski of Carson also
landed several macks in the 14- to
16-pound range while trolling with her
husband, Ryan, in late May.
Voss advises boaters in pursuit of
rainbows and browns to top-line troll with
flashers and worms. For wild browns,
he urges boaters troll with Kastmasters,
Speedy Shiners and stickbaits including
Rapalas early in the spring and late in fall
before the lake
ices over.
I have
fished
The spillway is one of the top spots for shore anglers to hook rainbow, brown and brook trout
at Caples Lake.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
Caples numerous times from the bank
since 1999 and have done very well on
a mixture of rainbow, brown and brook
trout. My best trip was in 2008 on the
very day that the lake was being planted
again with CDFW rainbows after being
drained to minimum pool for work on
the dam.
Although the majority of fish were
rescued in a cooperative venture
between the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance and the CDFW,
there were a surprising number
of colorful brown, rainbow and
brook trout left in the
lake.
I had a blast catching one fish after
another under floating debris near the dam.
The fish ranged from 16 to 17 inches long.
The few of us fishing at this spot before
and after the plant caught easy mixed
limits of all three species while tossing
out nightcrawlers under water-filled clear
bobbers.
The CDFW over the past couple of years
has planted a mixture of fingerling and
catchable rainbow trout in the reservoir.
The Department stocked 80,000 fingerling
rainbows weighing 800 pounds and 20,000
catchable rainbows weighing 10,000
pounds in 2018. The agency also planted
20,000 catchable rainbows weighing
10,000 pounds in 2019.
The Department has planted 19,000 trout
weighing a total 8,800 lbs. in 2020
to date.
Rene Dombrowski
of Carson caught
and released this
huge mackinaw trout
while trolling with her
husband, Ryan, at
Caples Lake in late
May.
Photo courtesy of RYAN
DOMBROWSKI.
They
will
plant
Caples once more
before the end of
June, according to
Ben Ewing, CDFW
Fisheries Biologist.
Caples Lake has
a long and fascinating
of fish plants and creel surveys. The
California Department of Fish and Wildlife