One of the best lessons I ever learned as a country boy was that when the going gets tough, the tough go fishing. And this has been one tough year. There are lots of opportunities to get out and about with a pole around here, including the Truckee up north and Tahoe off to the west, but I thought I’d go through a laundry list of fishing holes a little closer to home today.
As far as the Carson River itself goes, even though the two forks come together to become the river proper over near Genoa, the most popular and most easily accessible stretch runs from Mexican Dam on down to Dayton. Between Dayton State Park, a put-in site and handicap fishing platform at Camp Carson Park and a put-in at Morgan Mill Park, the river is a lot easier to get to in the lower stretches than higher up where public access can be harder to come by. There are some Rainbow trout stocked in the river, but the physical attributes of the waterway make it good for smallmouth and largemouth bass as well as some catfish and bullhead on down past Dayton.
Public Domain Files, Lynn Betts NRCS.
So if it’s trout you’re more interested in, you can head upstream to the East Fork. Way up, there’s a good portion of the river that is mostly next to Forest Service lands, so it’s not too hard to access, but as you get on down into the valley, it goes through a lot of private farmland and lands owned by the Tribe. Thousands of Brown Trout have been stocked in the East Fork in the past few weeks, so you might want to try your luck around Ruhenstroth Dam – you might know it as Broken Dam – and Centerville (or Lutheran) Bridge.
If you want to stay on 395 and head south to where it crosses over into California, you’ll come upon Topaz Lake. This is one spot I’m not too familiar with, but I’m told that it's stocked with Rainbows, and sometimes even Bowcutt, Brownies and Tiger Trout. (Okay, it's been a long time since I'd heard that last one, so decided to look it up. Nevada Department of Wildlife says it’s “a hybrid cross between a male Brown Trout and a female Brook Trout. They have a unique, dark maze-like pattern all over a brownish, gray body. The belly is yellowish orange as are the pectoral, pelvic and anal fins. The tail fin is square.” So at least I know that now.) NDOW also reports that Topaz Lake is good for smallmouth bass, okay but not great for largemouth bass and that the Rainbow Trout run to a good size here, with a number of fish taken each year in the five pounds or heavier range. Of course, Topaz Lake has the advantage over the river in that you can really get out into some real water, with a maximum depth of some 92 feet. The Topaz Lake Campground reopened for overnight camping at the beginning of June, and the Douglas County Park and Boat Ramp is open for day use.
Public Domain Files, Lynn Betts NRCS.
And, finally, one other body of water you could try is Washoe Lake, up in Washoe Valley toward Reno. Washoe Lake is kind of an altogether different animal, with a maximum depth of just 12 feet. This makes it a warm-water fishery, and it’s listed as having Channel Catfish, Bullhead Catfish, Sacramento Perch, White Bass, Crappie and Wiper. But you couldn’t prove it by me … the one day I spent out there, I came back with a whole lot of not one bite. But maybe that’s for the best because the Nevada State Health Division says you shouldn’t eat any of the White Bass from either the Big or Little Washoe Lake. Elevated methylmercury levels, yikes. You can access the new put-in at the southeast corner of the lake by taking East Lake Boulevard or the north boat launch at the sound end of Lakeshore Drive. There’s also one at the north end of East Lake Boulevard that’ll get you onto Little Washoe Lake.
Get out there and go fishing. And send in your pictures. Because without photographic proof, it’s just another fish story.
About the Author Keith Rugg
R. Keith Rugg has worked on staff for a number of local publications, including Lake Tahoe Action Magazine, the Tahoe Daily Tribune and the Reno Gazette-Journal.
