When my wife and lived up there I would often be on the water at 0-dark-thirty and be trolling with a sinking line and a long leader with an orange / rusty-orange marabou streamer. It worked great everywhere in that area. Troll as slow as you can close to the docks and shore line in a counter-clock-wise direction. The lake wants all boats to travel counter-clock-wise.
Once the sky started to get bright (maybe not even up yet) I would often troll with an old fiberglass 9 weight and use that old Guidibord colored trolling line where the colors told you how deep you were getting. I would then go to a larger streamer in a pond smelt type pattern with eyes and just a little flash. Again trolling counter-clock-wise but a little farther out along the drop-off. This would often account for some larger rainbows and an occasional kokanee in that China Cove corner. I was never able to connect with any mackinaw.
Using this same set-up I twice hooked up to something big at Stampede that I couldn't bring up before being broke off. These may have been mackinaw or big browns that cruise along the dam there.
If you get a chance to take your boat over to Boca, launch and head toward the mouth of the Little Truckee. Same light set-up and orange marabou streamer works great there too. Often my wife and I would fish there after dinner til dark and have a blast. Floating lines work well too with seal-buggers in a variety of colors. If not trolling, use a slow strip and they slam it.
Here too if you've got a sinking line (like for shad) cast and let it really sink in about 15'-20' of water and you'll get kokanee to grab it. They liked kind of a red-marabou streamer. Not too big only about two inches worked fine.
You'll be hooking plenty of rainbows and they're fun but you can really tell the difference when a kokanee grabs it. They're a lot stronger for he same size fish.
Have fun. I miss it up there especially in the fall. Tony
TONY BUZOLICH
Feather River Fly
Yuba City, CA.
(530) 790-7180
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