BIG LAKE. BIG FISH

AMONG THE SKIING AND CASINOS, LAKE TAHOE’S WINTER MACKINAW, BROWNS AND RAINBOWS MAY BE UNDERAPPRECIATED

Lake Tahoe, one of America’s great alpine jewels, might be known more for world-class skiing and casino gaming, but there’s some great fishing for trout – especially large Macks – to be had here too.

By Cal Kellogg

The Tahoe Basin is full of contradictions and represents very different things to many different people.

It is a place famous for its alpine ski runs; in fact, the world’s elite winter athletes traveled to the basin in 1960 to compete in the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics. It is also a place where high rollers play the gaming tables in high-rise casinos. And it’s where millionaires come to play and buy some of the most exclusive real estate on the West Coast.

But step away from the clamor of the craps tables and the elegance of the basin’s five-star restaurants, and you’ll find yourself in an environment bald eagles, black bears, mule deer and cougars call home.

And when I think of the Tahoe Basin, I think of its namesake lake and the massive trophy trout and Mackinaw that reside there; yet I am in the minority.

TRUTH BE TOLD, LAKE Tahoe is one the most overlooked trophy trout waters in the entire state, if not the nation. Nowhere except perhaps in Alaska, the Northwest Territories or the Great Lakes region do you have as good of a chance of hooking a 20-plus-pound Mackinaw as you do at Lake Tahoe.

From a physical standpoint alone, the lake is an amazing spectacle. Lake Tahoe sits at an elevation of 6,225 feet and is roughly 12 miles wide and 22 miles long. The lake holds 122,160,280