Smallmouth Heaven: Rucker Lake

The most successful outing for me in 2008, was a afternoon trip to Rucker Lake in the Tahoe National Forest. I was able to catch both Green Sunfish (they are just Blue Gills with Green Skin) and Smallmouth Bass. I was reading on Steven Ojai’s website, that there is Goose Lake Redband Trout in Rucker Lake. RedBand Trout are a native to the waters of California. The California Department of Fish and Game have been trying to strengthen the numbers of these fish. This fish used to be in greater abundance, but now are only in certain areas of California. I had to goto Rucker Lake, to find out if this trout still existed. Also, I wanted to make sure the Smallies were present at the lake. I didn’t have a doubt about that, but I did get skunked on my last visit to this lake. That was back in Late October or early November. I didn’t want to dwell on that experience, so of course I dropped cache.

So I didn’t wake up early in the morning to go. I stayed up the previous night thinking of a fly that might work there. I was thinking that there should be damselflies on the water now. Rucker Lake is only about 5100 feet in elevation. Also I heard a rumor that there was a natural spring in the lake that kept the lake warm enough for the fish to survive the Sierra Nevada winters. I didn’t have any bad experiences on the trip up. I stopped over to the Fly Specialities location in Citrus Heights. Grabbed some needed fly tying materials for the next fly swap I will be partaking in on FishSniffer.com. I guess this is a good way of my learning how to tie flies and to put a lil’ added pressure on me to make sure I provide a good product. So about 2 hours from leaving the house, I made it to Rucker Lake.

There were a lot of people there already. However, not many fishing people and the people that were fishing, where fishing from the bank. I had a good and fuzzy feeling about this trip already. I filled up my float tube with air & hiked down to the lake. Within the first 15 minutes, I was producing hits. No doubt it was from the greedy Smallies going after my flies. Flies that I tied. At first I was trying this Disco Damsel Fly creation I had came up with. It was awesome, but after a couple of hits, the fly was coming apart. This is something I need to work on at the vise – producing sturdy flies. After about landing 3 Smallies, I was taking notice of where I was producing most of my hits and success. It was in the weeds or tall grass that was on the shoreline of this lake. Hmm, did this mean I could try some poppers or some topwater action? Well, I wasn’t too sure, so I took out my intermediate line and tied on a popper. Wella, the technique that I had used for Largemouth in the Valley were working here. Except, I would be a lil’ bit more patient with the Largemouth. The Smallies here were going bonkers. There were bugs everywhere and there was damselfly hatch going on when I first arrived. Also there were a lot of high clouds to aid in my quest and some wind to help mask my presence. So you can figure out what kind of day I experienced. This was my most productive day of the year so far. I couldn’t believe my luck. The only bad thing that happened was the fact that a Smallie that I landed broke off my line, before I could take my popper out of its mouth. I guess this will go towards me learning how to make these awesome topwater flies.

I had some much success; I lost count of the fish I caught. After about two hours, I had a lot daylight left. I decided to go up the road to Blue Lake. Blue Lake is a beautiful lake, which had a lot of bug activity. However there wasn’t much fish activity. After checkout that lake for about an hour, I could see why there was no people up there to enjoy the scenery. Too bad my lens was wet; I thought I took some good picts. Well, now I know which flies work and which don’t for Smallies. Basically anything they can get their mouths around. I like Smallies, but I am starting to crave a trout bite. I am sure my next adventure in the Sierras will be that of a trout of some type.