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Flashers

To get you started I'll link to this Mark Wiza article on fishing Tahoe with flashers.  It's valuable info.

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      Flashers and bait are one of the best ways to fish Tahoe.  The biggest flashers and dodgers are for deep water.  We're topliners, so we can stay away from those.  You could catch fish all the time with only silver and gold.  Use silver when it's sunny, gold when it's cloudy or dark out.  Other popular colors are the rainbow pattern, pink, purples.  I like Seps brand flashers and dodgers.  They are well made and catch Tahoe trout.  Running depth varies depending on flasher size, line weight and setback.  Just keep em close to the bottom.  If your not getting deep enough, twist a rubbercore sinker about a foot or two above your hardware.  A 1/2 ounce usually gets you down another 10-15 feet.  In the winter it's fun to run the seps mini micro flashers in super shallow water before dawn.  The shore zone is food rich and when the water is cold enough the biggest trout in the lake can be found feeding in waist deep water!  

     For my leader I use 6x fly tippet.  36 inch leader is standard here.  For bait they're are million choices, so to keep it simple i use only 2.  Minnows or worms.  These are deadly on Tahoe.  

     Tie on a size 4 baitholder hook and thread your nightcrawler so the hook comes out 3/4 of the way down the worm.  Set this baby back 300 feet and troll slow.  Be patient and diligent, this rig is hard for trout to resist.

     The best of the best in Tahoe is a threaded minnow.  Buy a minnow trap, 50 feet of cord, and find a gallon jug with a handle for a buoy.  bait your minnow trap with dry dog food. Use bacon if you want to catch crayfish.  Drop this trap on the rocks and wait an hour.  The shore works in warmer months, but in winter you'll have to go 30-50 feet deep to find minnows.  Usually you have more bait then you know what to do with.   A baitholder through the lips is one way to rig your minnow.  The best way is to thread your leader through the minnow using  a needle.  A paper clip, straightened with the end 1/4 inch bent over to make a loop works too.  Then tie on a treble hook sized to match your minnow.  insert the hook eye into the anus, and stick one barb of the treble into the minnows tail.  You just created the ultimate live minnow lure.  He wont live long but it doesn't matter.  Trout will hit this thing totally mangled with its guts hanging out.  The rig takes more time to tie, but you can catch may trout on the same minnow. 

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