Spooner Lake

(By Erik)

 

Two weeks ago Dad visited.  We spent two days canoeing and swimming in Silver Lake.  We had worms to fish and rods, but after assessing the lake I did not think we would be successful in catching any fish.  I thought it would be a waste of time.  Young kids need constant action or they lose interest and that is how I saw fishing at Silver Lake.  Soren was really disappointed that we did not fish.

This weekend Ashley and I decided to give it another shot.  We went to Spooner Lake.  Spooner Lake is pretty gross.  Its right above Lake Tahoe, but it is manmade.  It is full of pond muck.  Tons of goose poop.  You can’t swim in it and its clearly labeled everywhere “Spooner Lake has leaches.”  The nice thing about Spooner Lake is they stock it all the time with trout and it is in Nevada.  Ashley has a Nevada license, but no California license so she is able to fish.  Plus I read online that it was full of Lahontan Tui Chubs.  Those are the mystery fish we caught at Burnside Lake (see post below). 

We got out late – we arrived at the lake at 4:00.  The fish get hungry around 6:00, so we spent an hour canoeing around the lake.  He have hiked around it numerous times (two mile loop, about the kids limit) and it was cool to see it from the water.  After some canoeing we had a picnic on the shore of the lake and then we did some fishing.

The action was hot again.  The Tui Chubs were biting like crazy.  I was able to locate a bathymetry map of Spooner Lake (contour) and found the deepest location right by the dam.  Svea caught the most (15?), and I don’t think she ever let out over 3 feet of fishing line.  The fish come right up to you.  Attached is a picture of Svea with one of the “big” ones.  The poster at the lake says the lake is “dominated by Tui Chubs which are a relative of the minnow.”  Again – its not quality, its quantity. It was critical that they catch one every few minutes.  This one was actually about 6-inches, not bad.  Svea actually really digs fishing, its great.

 

I fished from the back of the boat.  Everyone used worms, but I used my flyrod.  I go fishing once a week on my own, so I spent most of the time cutting worms, baiting hooks, and removing fish from lines, but I was able to get a “wooly bugger” in.  A wooly bugger simulates a leach or minnow.  It was too big for the Tui Chubs, but I hooked one good rainbow trout that got away and then also landed one.  Pretty good size, and its good to be getting familiar with how to fly fish a lake as I have generally done all my fishing on streams.

 

Soren caught a ton of Tui Chubs mostly about 1.5 feet deep, but he did go after some of the big ones and managed to hook a great rainbow.  That’s his first trout!  He had a blast and kept saying how great the fishing was.  Soren is really into fishing, but I have to make sure we hit places where a catch is guaranteed so that he remains encouraged.

And Ashley was also able to catch her first Nevada Trout (she has caught a few in California).  Unfortunately, the light was wrong and the fish moved so you can’t see it in the photograph.  It was equivalent to Soren’s and mine.  Poor Ashley – no picture to show.

I am the new “Physical Facilities Representative” (PFR) at church.  Basically, I am the church janitor.  It is my job to assign different families to come and clean every Saturday morning.  It kills an hour or two which kind of stinks, but I have been in scouts for 8 years and I really needed a break.  I hope to do scouts again when Soren is old enough, but I an tired of it.  After cleaning the church we went to Wal-Mart for our weekly shopping.  Liv finally has enough hair and is looking a little ratty, so we got her first haircut.  She kind of has a mullet now, but atleast her bangs are not in her face.  She was very calm during the cut.  She didn’t care what was happening.

Lastly – we got Soren a “Bill Nye the Science Guy” video called “solving for x.”  I did not know how Soren would do with algebra, but he was super excited to watch it.  He got a paper and pencil so that he could “take notes.”  Notes he did take – I still don’t think he can solve for X, but for a 6-year old, pretty amazing.  If he does not wind up an electrical engineer I will be surprised.  Although I do question why 2 raised to any power equals 3.

So as you can see – we have it tough.  We only have about 12 Lakes to chose from every week and one of them happens to be one of the biggest, deepest, and cleanest in the world.  Pretty special place.  Great for the kids – and the parents.