Donner Lake early August

[Spicytuna1]

I am a Delta guy and a river guy, not a lake guy.

Will be staying at a cabin up there early August and I will have my new baot with me.

Would like to try and throw flies etc... before I turn tot he darkside for the kids and my buddies.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[John Sv]

Creeks ok or do you just want to fish the lakes?
There is a caddis hatch in August. Sometimes the fish pay attention, other times not. My experience fly fishing on Donner at that time focuses on stockers near the boat ramp and the little park on the North side in the middle of the lake. I do pretty well with rooster tails all summer so in theory the fish would hit a streamer too.

[Spicytuna1]

Are there creeks that are accessible by boat? I am all ears and will have a couple windows of time to be on the water with my boat.

Sounds like its fly fish for stockers or troll conv for macks or kokanee

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In Donner Lake in August the trout should be pretty deep........

[Ralph]

There are planted trout throughout the summer near the ramp and West End beach. Donner Creek is not worth fishing. China Cove can be worth a try at sun up, but once the sun gets on the water the fish go deep.

[Tony Buzolich]

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

[Dan LeCount]

I'd avoid Boca for now, it might be fishing good, but I've been seeing maybe 20-30 boats in the morning out there, quite the zoo for a small lake.