December was a tough month to do much fishing on the east slope of the Sierra's. Temperatures in the negatives,icy roads, and unplowed boat ramps made it difficult to get around. January has had plenty of snow, but it has been warmer and the roads and boat ramps have been plowed.
Early in the month, I managed to get out on Tahoe and do some toplining in hopes of a big brown or rainbow. We didn't manage anything big, although I did loose a respectable 4 or so pound brown when it jumped and tossed my plug. We did get plenty of hookups, hooking 5 browns and landing 3.
On January 31rst, I got out and fished a High Sierra Lake that doesn't ice over and features nice browns. The morning started out great. I was just pulling away from the boat ramp and had just finished getting both rods out, when I looked over and rod 1 was completely loaded under the weight of a heavy fish. Then I looked at rod 2, and it was bouncing too. 
I grabbed rod 1 and could tell that it was a good fish. It put up a very nice fight, especially considering the water was 35 degrees. About half way through the fight, the fish on rod two got off. No worries, I made the right choice as I slid the net under a nice 5.5 24" hen brown.
The bite went completely dead after that. We fished until about 11:00 o'clock and took a lunch break. After lunch, I just wanted to catch a fish... any fish. So, I pulled off the Rapala's and put on a worm and dodger. I kept marking fish right on the bottom in one particular run, so I grabbed the leadcore setup and kept metering out line until I tapped the the bottom. I immediately got bit and landed a small brown. On the next pass, my rod loaded up big time, and I figured I'd found a stump. Wrong! The stump began shaking it's head violently. This fish was very determined. It fought very hard immediately, then it played coy and came right at the boat, making me think I'd lost it several times. When it got near the boat it decided to slug it out. I had to back off the drag a bit, but I finally managed to slide the net under a nice 25" hen brown that was just a hair under 6Lbs.
Best of luck,
Mike McNeilly
