OFF THE HOOK: Mackinaw trout is Stampede's apex predator

Stampede Reservoir is most renowned for its abundant kokanee salmon population, but it has a thriving mackinaw population that rewards anglers trolling on the reservoir from ice out in spring until the winter when the lake freezes over.

The lake normally freezes over by the end of December, but this year the lake was ice-free well into Christmas week, offering an opportunity for hardy anglers to bag big, beautiful mackinaw in chilly solitude.

Kevin Alioto of Shingle Springs and Bruce and Matt Webster of El Dorado Hills made a trip on Dec. 18 with Rick Kennedy of Tight Lines Guide Service that demonstrated the top-notch fishing that Stampede can provide when you hit it right.

"We met at the ramp at 7 a.m.," said Kennedy. "It was nine degrees and clear with a little ice around, but not anything that would interfere with launching. In contrast, last year at this time the road to the lake had five feet of snow on it."

They started off targeting brown trout by pulling Rapalas, Smithwicks, Kazi Minnows and everything else they could find in the tackle box. "Finally, about 9:30 we slowed things down and switched over to Pro Troll StingFish Lures. We ran one on the surface, one 15-feet and one at 20-feet down on the downriggers," Kennedy explained.

Within 20 minutes, they were hooked up and landed a 10-pound mackinaw on the rod that was on the downrigger 20-feet down. It wasn't long before the rod on the surface was hooked up, with the anglers landing a 3.5-pound mack.

"Finally, things were picking up," recalled Kennedy. "The next fish was a beautiful 13-pound mack, again from the 20-foot depth. No sooner did we get the fish back in the water than we landed our final fish, an 8-pound mack.

Kennedy and the three anglers landed these fish in 30 to 40 feet of water pulling StingFish at 1.8 mph. The water temperature ranged from 36 to 40 degrees.

Five days later, hoping to repeat the success that Kennedy had on that great mackinaw adventure, Ernie Marlan, Fish Sniffer magazine staffer Kennedy, Sean Trussell, an army second lieutenant and helicopter pilot and I embarked on a trip to Stampede.

We drove together in Kennedy's truck from Colfax and arrived on the road to Stampede around 7:45 a.m. The temperature was 9 degrees but quickly dropped to 2 degrees below zero as we drove down the road into the Stampede Recreation Area.

There was ice right at the end of the boat ramp where the waves hit the concrete, but otherwise the ramp was launchable. Unfortunately, there was a stiff north wind blowing right in our faces. After launching the boat, we piled in and went across the lake to where Kennedy had fished the previous trip.

It was the coldest weather that Ernie and I had ever fished in, but the heater in the enclosed cabin kept us warm. As the spray, driven by the hard, relentless wind, splashed onto the boat, it froze on the windshield.

We tried trolling StingFish in the shallow flats where the mackinaw feed on kokanee. We had around half a dozen hits, but the fish never stayed on for more than 30 seconds. We also trolled the lures in deep water. However, after a long day of trolling, we decided to call it a day around 4 p.m. with no fish boated.

Kennedy has been guiding at Stampede since 1996. In recent years, the Stampede mackinaw population has grown in numbers and size.

"Eight years ago we would call the mackinaws we caught at Stampede 'snakes,' since they would average around 16 inches long and be thick as a golf ball," said Kennedy. "Now there are mackinaw over 20 pounds in the lake that are scarfing up on the kokanee."

The mackinaw have apparently replaced the brown trout as the lake's apex predator. "In the 1990s, I would catch and release a lot of browns," recalled Kennedy. "Now the numbers of browns are gone."

The mackinaw can be caught year round, as long as the lake isn't frozen over and the road to the lake isn't snowed in. "Right after ice out is a good time to catch mackinaw, as is the summer, when the fish are feeding below the schooling kokanee, and right before the lake ices over," said.

Kennedy likes to troll not only with the blue/chartreuse StingFish, but also with large Koke-A-Nuts or Matrix Minnows behind 8-inch Sling Blades.

Besides kokanee, mackinaw and browns, Stampede also features a sleeper population of big smallmouth bass and a fair population of rainbows.

Stampede is located on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada 7 miles northeast of Truckee on the Little Truckee River. The DFG stocks an average of 75,000 kokanee fingerlings and 10,000 catchable rainbows annually.

For more information, call Rick Kennedy of Tight Lines Guide Service, (530) 273-1986.