HITTHETAHOEMACKS, BROWNSJACKPOT

It may be ski season at Lake Tahoe, but besides hitting the slopes and the gaming at North and South Shore casinos, don’t forget to find some time to get on the water and chase some Mackinaw and browns. Cal Kellogg gets us off to a head start with a primer on toplining and going deep with downriggers.

23 Evolving Tacticsfortrout

Mark Fong grew up bait fishing for rainbows at the many Bay Area trout fisheries, but these days he’s traded in his OG PowerBait and nightcrawlers for the spoons available via the Japanese domestic market and trout-specific soft plastic baits. Fong discusses the tackle evolutions and catches up with a new-school teenage angler for some perspective.

47 Throwing Steelheadchangeups

Our From Field to Fire team of Scott and Tiffany Haugen have plenty of experience chasing winter steelhead from the North Coast up to the Pacific Northwest, and they’ve figured out that sticking to one technique is a bit problematic if the steelies are being finicky. “I’d rather be good at multiple methods than specialized in one or two,” writes Scott, who provides a few alternate ways to get a bite. Tiffany adds a fruitflavored smoked fish recipe to enjoy your bounty.

53 Make A Runfortheborder

One of Capt. Bill Schaefer’s favorite spots on the Pacific off the Southland coast is right at the U.S.-Mexico border. Locals call the man-made structure here that stretches about a mile out and is up to 100 feet deep the “Pipe.” And the action for calico and barred sand bass, plus some periodic rockfish and lingcod, can be, well, smoking hot. Gear up and hop aboard with Bill for a run to the Pipe.

MIENA, Tasmania, Australia–

When family members and I planned a rather quick nine-day trip to Australia – four nights in Melbourne, Victoria, five more in the island state of Tasmania – I knew a fishing opportunity might not be easy to plan out.

Guides in Tasmania – a known trout fishing destination – are extremely expensive to book, and my budget was already going to be stretched in a country known for high costs for just about everything. I also considered trying to rent some gear to try my luck DIY style, but that was iffy from the start in a region dotted with mostly small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it