| Stampede Lake Kokanee Trip By Darold Givens Don Woods and I headed to Stampede Lake, near Truckee for a four day fishing trip. I had my camper and boat and all of my favorite lures. My goal was to catch kokanee, a land locked sockeye salmon that this lake is famous for. We left at 7 pm and arrived at the boat ramp parking lot at 1 am. We slept in the lot until daylight and launched before sunrise. The smoke from all the fires made it look like fog surrounding the lake. I had left my 2 way radio in the truck so we were on our own in selecting what lures to use for trolling. Sometimes I can talk to another fisherman on the radio and get some help. I had set up 4 poles before I left home. We put them all in and hoped for the best. Our depth was selected by looking on the sonar screen for the little arched dots that would signal there was a fish below us. By 6:10 it was ‘fish on’ and we had a nice kokanee in the box. After another lure change, we had a total of six kokanee and were off the water by noon. We then checked into our campsite on the lake. The ladies that were in charge gave us some fishing tips. They said to try for Mackinaw trout at 60 ft depth on the dam side of the lake. After setting up camp and having dinner, we went out for the evening bite with mackinaw on our mind. Two poles were set up with large trolling lures that were 8 inches long with lots of hooks. After trolling for over an hour it was ‘fish on’. Don had pulled in a nice 4.5 lb mackinaw. Being a large fish, it was disappointing that it did not fight much. Since we had heard that they were not too good for eating, a nice family sitting on the dock got a big fish to take home with them. When we got back to the camp we told the ladies about our success and they were jealous but glad for our success. The next day my son Rick who lives close by joined us. He is a fishing fool and literally ‘owns’ this lake. He put on his own hand made lures and began catching fish. It seemed that it was two fish for him for every one we caught. It was not long before we caught our limit of 15 kokanee. Rick took them all home for the smoker. The next two days we caught several more but no limits. I believe that kokanee pound for pound are the best fighting fish around. They will come straight out of the water and literally rip the hook out of their mouth. |
| Stampede Lake Kokanee |
| Foster City Rod and Gun Club |
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