Fishing Licenses for Lake Tahoe

Fishing for large specimens of Rainbow trout is at its best during the fail and winter months. However, Mackinaw fishing is good year around. Surface fishing for Kokanee is best during May and June. There are many kinds of trout in Lake Tahoe.

How To Release Fish

About five percent of angles currently release their catches, with the numbers increasing every year. Trout that are released are usually from streams supporting natives. The anglers fishing those streams generally intend to release their fish. Trout are sensitive to handling, although they easily survive when handled correctly.

Stream fishing is very popular

Try to keep them in the water and use needle nose pliers or a de-hook device. Avoid or limit touching,, particularly the gill area, and wet your hands when you must handle fish. Lake fish, especially warm water fish, are also regularly and easily released to grow and be caught again.

Reminders

• Always carry a copy of the fishing regulations with you so you can reference check


• It is ILLEGAL to use MINNOWS for bait in the mountain lakes. Minnows can escape, survive, and quickly destroy a trout fishery by eating up the food base for young trout.


• Slippery boulders in and along streams make for tricky walking and wading conditions. Step deliberately and use extra caution when wading in the larger streams.


• Mosquitoes frequent our streams and lakes during the summer. Be prepared, with a long sleeved shirt and insect repellent.


• Don't let sunburn spoil your day of fishing. wear some sort of protection (clothing, hat,and sunscreen) and remember that the light reflecting off the water increases the amount of sun your are getting.


• Weather in the mountains can change quickly. Be sure to bring warm clothing - and an extra change of clothes.


• PLEASE DO NOT LITTER!! It is hard to enjoy fishing when you are standing near empty beer cans, broken glass, and other garbage. Old fishing line, plastic fasteners and other refuse can be hazardous to animals which may come into contact with them. It's just as easy to pack it out as it is to pack it in. Leave No Trace!

Planted Trout

There are two basic categories of planted trout in the State fish planting program:

Fingerlings and Catchables. Fingerlings - A fingerling trout is born and raised in a hatchery until it is about three inched in length. Fingerlings are planted mainly in lakes on a varied schedule, sometimes yearly or every other year. The intent is to get a good age class distribution of fish (different groups, ages and sizes of fish in the lake). Most fingerling plantings occur only one a year, and because they are not fully raised on hatchery food, a good percentage survive and adapt to eating the natural foods in the lake. Fingerling trout are planted by aircraft in the remote or high-mountain lakes.

Catchables - It may take 14 months, lots of hatchery space, to raise a trout to catchable size (10 to 14 inches). Catchables size trout require truck transport, and therefore a road to the site. To justify planting catchables, State biologist must feel confident that at least half the planted fish get caught to the angler. Planted catchables can disperse or "disappear" quickly in lakes that are large and deep or in swiftly flowing streams. Survival rate through the winter for lake planted catchables averages ten percent, if conditions are good. Stream plants rarely adapt to eating natural food in their new environment and seldom survive a winter.

Where Trout are Planted

Past performance and the survival rate of the planted fish determine where the next year's trout will go. The majority of streams and many small lakes on this Forest do not receive plantings. This is usually because the fish are doing well naturally, and many anglers prefer to know the fish they seek are native to the stream. If you see a California Department of Fish and Game angler survey station, please take the time to fill out the fishing questionnaire. Angler surveys provide valuable information to the State Fish and Game biologists.