The Editor’s Note

This month’s “American Angler in Japan” column by Lance Sawa about fishing at a trout farm on the other side of the Pacific (page 49) reminded the editor of fat rainbows he reeled in at a similar Lake Tahoe facility many years ago. (LANCE SAWA)

is the season for Fishmas spirit, as the April 30 statewide ’Ttrout opener kicks off what should be a great fishing season throughout the Eastern Sierra and several other fisheries in California.

We hope you enjoy our annual trout preview this month, which features stories on fishing opportunities in Mono County, the Kern River region and Northern California gem Collins Lake. But it was a column filed by Lance Sawa – our “American Angler in Japan” scribe and longtime Golden State trout fisherman – about his visit to a trout farm and fishery in his new home country across the Pacific that stoked a memory from my trout background.

Sawa had a great time fishing the three ponds of the facility he visited in Nagano Prefecture. It brought me back to my teenage years and a trout farm experience of my own.

My sister Charlene and her husband Alan have been married for almost 38 years and their mid-1980s wedding was in Lake Tahoe. We had a fun night after the wedding, and somehow the next morning Alan’s new wife was OK with him getting up early and joining me and his buddy to catch a few fish at the Tahoe Trout Farm in South Lake Tahoe (tahoetroutfarm.com).

We rented gear, fished in one of the farm’s trout-filled ponds and caught plenty of fat rainbows. The staff cleaned them for us as well and packed them in ice for our trip back to the Bay Area. (I joked to my sister that part of her wedding present was a bunch of smelly fish to take on the ride home; every bride’s dream, right?)

Trout have always been my favorite fish to target as an angler. There’s something so relaxing, so simplistic about the process, particularly when you factor in how complicated everything else is in the world. I can’t wait to wet my line again this year.

Here’s hoping all of your own Fishmas wishes come true on April 30 and beyond. -Chris Cocoles