California · lake

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at 6,225 ft (1,897 m) above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America, and at 122,160,280 acre⋅ft (150.7 km3) it trails only the five Great Lakes as the largest by volume in the United States. From Wikipedia

Length
22 mi
Surface
194 sq mi
Elevation
6,232 ft

Flow now

Blackwood C Nr Tahoe City CA, 6 mi from the lake.

1cfsat build, Nov 12, 12 PM MT

0715Oct 12Nov 11

The typical week here, from 10 years of record: 2 cfs to 15 cfs, around 3 cfs.

Water temperature at the gauge: 37°F.

Also gauged at General C Nr Meeks Bay CA: 1 cfs, Nov 12.

Snowpack

0.2 in of water in the snow at Rubicon #2 and 2 more stations, against a median 0.1 in for the date (300 % of normal).

The snowpack here usually builds from Nov 19, peaks Apr 5 and is gone by May 23; runoff follows the melt.

The season, November

Usually workable this week. Pick your window and fish it well.

  • Midgessizes 18 to 22
  • Small eggs and worms
  • Pheasant tail and zebra midge nymphsunder an indicator

Typical for the week over 10 years: 1.7 to 15 cfs. Running 1.4 cfs today, inside that range. Flows are not forecast; check the gauge the day before.

Brown Trout are spawning (October to December). Stay off clean, light-coloured gravel in riffle tails and pool tailouts, and leave paired fish alone.

Brook Trout are spawning (September to November). Stay off clean, light-coloured gravel in riffle tails and pool tailouts, and leave paired fish alone.

Mountain Whitefish are spawning (October to December). The egg bite behind spawning whitefish is the best winter nymphing of the year: an egg pattern below the riffles.

  • Flows swing a lot this week most years. Carry both a heavy nymph rig and a dry-dropper and let the gauge decide.
  • Egg patterns in the runs below the spawning gravel, never on it.

Written by the app's rules engine from the calendar, the gauge record and the snowpack, not by hand, so it says only what the data says. The weather for the week comes with the app.

Fly shops on this water

Nearby waters

Every California water

Open Lake Tahoe in FlyMaster for today's plan, the flies, and your own log here.

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Flows from the U.S. Geological Survey, snowpack from the NRCS SNOTEL network, text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Built Nov 12.