Outdoors with Don Q: Having fun at Indian Creek Reservoir

Last Thursday, Doug ("Mack The Naw") Busey of Douglas County and I spent a very enjoyable day, fishing at Indian Creek Reservoir in Alpine County, Calif.

Indian Creek Reservoir (ICR) is a man-made reservoir located in the backcountry between Woodfords and Markleeville. ICR and its surrounding area is managed and maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The reservoir can be reached from two different directions: A paved road from S.R. 89, near the Turtle Rock Campground or a dirt road from Diamond Valley. We went to the reservoir via the dirt road, which was clear of snow but in places that road is corduroyed and in other place it is rocky and bumpy.

It is a good dirt road that you can drive with any 2WD vehicle, just take it slow and easy in the corduroyed and rocky areas.

If you like to fish, you just might want to consider ICR as it contains cutthroat, brown and rainbow trout plus even some bass.

The reservoir is in California, so obviously you will need a California fishing license, as one dummy found out last Thursday.

The game warden arrived in mid-afternoon, checked all of the fishermen and wrote a citation for the one individual who did not have a license. Geez, dumb is dumb!

Doug and I had planned to fish there on Thursday, thinking we would probably have the reservoir mostly to ourselves, but boy oh boy, did we get a surprise!

At one time in the afternoon, we counted more than 30 shore fishermen, two float tubes and one boat, plus most of the fishermen (including the two of us) were fishing with two poles...it was a busy fishery.

When we arrived at the reservoir, we drove down to Doug's favorite fishing spot on the near side of the dam, and we found two longtime friends of Doug: Steve Lightfoot (who I have known for many years) and Steve Brower (who I met for the first time), both of Douglas County, already there, ahead of us.
I told Doug, "Let's fish next to them, then have fun, picking on them all day long."

He grinned and replied, "Let's do it," and we did, but we also found out that they had lots of fun picking on us...it was a two-way street!

Fishing for the entire day for all of the fishermen at ICR was a little on the slow side but surprisingly steady.
Our particular foursome had numerous strikes and caught and released a good number of rainbow trout in the 10-14 inch class.

The area where we were fishing was shallow which ruled out spincasting with lures, so I fished with a nightcrawler on one of my two poles and orange-colored Power Bait nuggets on the other.
While waiting for a strike, the four of us sat in comfortable folding chairs, enjoying the warm and gorgeous weather, while joking and kidding with one another.

After catching and releasing one of my rainbow trout, I walked over to the two Steves and volunteered to give them a fish catching lesson at $37.50 per person. Sigh, they snickered and said bad things to me.
So much for trying to be a good neighbor and a nice guy.

When I brought in one of my "Monster-Sized" (AKA 12 inches long) rainbows, Lightfoot asked how big it was.
When I replied, "Gosh, it looks like it is about a 12-pound rainbow," he snickered and said that liars will make up any kind of story for attention.

Oh well, that "mean-spirited" remark will prove costly to him, as I have now removed him from my 2013 Christmas card list. I'll show him!

A fun-filled day of fishing with friends, and as a bonus, the weather was great.
It doesn't get much better than that! Then, about 3:00 p.m., the wind began to blow and the four of us reluctantly packed up all of our gear and returned back home.

Finally:
If at some point in the future, you should decide to travel to Indian Creek Reservoir, remember this very important item:
Be darn sure to have a valid fishing license if you are fishing and the "Friendly Old Game Warden" shows up.
If you don't have a license, he ain't gonna be happy nor will the judge nor will you.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you about a special feature at the BLM campground at Indian Creek Reservoir.
If he grins and says, "When it is open for the camping season, it is one of a very few campgrounds in this entire area that offers hot showers," he could have camped there in the past.
Note: When you can take a hot shower at the end of the day, especially if you are in a tent, that is camping in style and comfort.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and www.SouthTahoeNow.com. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com