Hello fellow anglers, It is snowing every where. Which means that many roads in Alpine county have finally closed for the season.  With our recent storms brings ice on some of our surrounding lakes and ponds. I strongly recommend to stay off of the ice, even though our temperatures have plummeted, the ice is very thin and is very dangerous this time of year. The higher lakes such as Caples, Silver and Red lake have ice covering them, they are still to unstable to ice fish. I recommend at least 8 inches of ice before venturing out. I will keep you informed as the season progresses. With the seasons progress, Topaz Lake will open to fishing on January 1, 2019. I have spoken to Rick Ross from the Topaz Lodge for a full run down of the new derby. The derby is open to all anglers, but you must be at least 21 years old. the derby is free to enter and need to be a Topaz Lodge club member. Which you can sign up at the Cash cage. Trout must weigh 2 lbs or over to be eligible, which will get you $5 in slot play and 5 drawing  tickets. All Topaz tagged trout will awarded an instant $100 cash, $10 slot play and 10 drawing tickets. Each week the two largest fish weighed in will be awarded $25 cash for 1st place, and $10 free slot play for 2nd place. At the end of the derby there will be tons of prizes plus $500 cash given away. In addition, $1000 cash goes to anglers of the top five largest trout weighed in during the derby. The derby runs from January 1st to April 14th. You must be present to win. The Topaz Lodge reserves the right to eliminate any angler caught trying to defraud the derby, and only trout caught in Topaz Lake are eligible. For more information and rules of the derby, call Topaz lodge at 775-266-3338. I hope to see you on opening day.
For those who will using the Douglas County Boat launch. You can purchase and annual pass from the Douglas County Park Department on 1325 Waterloo Lane in Gardnerville. The annual pass for Douglas County residents is $70, for Douglas County seniors 60 years of age and older is $25 and for disabled veterans is free. Also a new change this year. The first come first serve rule is no longer available at the Topaz campground, it must be done in advance on their website. Simple instructions are, Go to Douglas county NV, click "government", go to "parks", then click I want to, then click "a campsite". Follow the prompts and you can choose and reserve your site. This is only for the Douglas County Campground, which is not related to the Topaz RV Park located on the west side of the lake. The lake level is low as of last week but is coming up slowly, on November 1st it was at 20,000 acre feet, on December 1st it has come up to approx 25,000 acre feet. Last year on opening day, the level was at 55,000 acre feet.
Don't forget on January 1st, California fishing licenses start the new year. For Nevada anglers, check your license for the expiration date. As of last year, the new change went into effect that fishing licenses were valid from one year of purchase date. Also a reminder to get your boat registration updated before the new year.
I hope to see you all on opening day. If you have any questions or report for out local fishing area