The Jan. 1 opener of the 2000 Topaz Lake fishing season attracted large numbers of anglers, both on shore and in boats.
According to Nevada Division of Wildlife game warden Pat Sollberger, "Even though there were lots of first-day fishermen, the crowds were smaller than last year."
As of mid-day on New Year's Day, he reported that there were no fishing violations among all of the anglers who he had checked and that everyone seemed to be in a festive mood.
Sollberger also noted that boaters were doing much better than the shore fishermen.
Chuck Fields of the Topaz Lake Marina also said that there were smaller crowds this year. He had about 120 boats launched at his facility on New Year's Day, as compared to about 150 a year ago.
Fields said, "Trollers were checking in with lots of limits of rainbows in the 1-3 pound class. They were limiting out in about 1-2 hours. The biggest trout that we had checked in was a 4.2 pound rainbow. The majority of the successful boats were trolling Rapala lures, either with or without flasher blades and the boats were trolling at a slower speed than usual. The fish were scattered all over the lake."
It was reported that the Nevada Division of Wildlife and California Fish and Game had planted a total of some 60,000 trout during the three-month closure of Oct.-Dec.
For information, call Chuck or Linda Fields at the Topaz Lake Marina at (775) 266-3550.
