As we were: Tahoe fishing tales

25 Years ago

Oct. 21, 1987

The whitefish of Lake Tahoe, going, going, gone?

By GEORGE PEABODY

Question: How did a Tahoe Basin fisherman during October of the 1920s, know when it was time to go to bed?

Answer: When the light went out.

Question: How cold was it?

Answer: It was SO cold at midday that a water drop on the bottom curve of a hook froze immediately on lifting it from the creek! But then, the older I get, the colder it was …

And, so the conversation began between some of Placerville’s veteran fisherman, Elmo Fossati, age 77, Ed Bishop, age 74, Harvey Stancil, 80, and Bud Blair, 78, reminiscing about their boyhood Octobers in the Tahoe Basin, about its unspoiled beauty and its population of Washoe and Shoshone Indians …

Lake Tahoe and its spawning streams were a habitat of the mountain whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni), a relative of the salmon so prolific that no one prior to the 1930s imagined that it could become extinct here …

During, and prior to, the 1870s, Trout Creek and the Upper Truckee River south of Lake Tahoe, especially were noted for their whitefish harvests. By the late 1870s the Washoe and Shoshone Indians seined the ponds with mosquito netting, gathering schools of fish at a time to be dried for the tribe’s (and their dogs’) food supply for the next 12 months, and to sell in the settlements, cattle ranches and logging camps developing around the Tahoe Basin. The fish averaged 11 inches and 1-1/2 pounds at maturity; but some exceptional ones, up to 19 inches and 3 pounds, had been caught …

 

70 Years ago

Oct. 22, 1942

Catherine Marsh Enrolls To Serve With WAVES

Miss Catherine Marsh, a grand daughter of Mrs. Charles Marsh of Placerville, has volunteered for service in the WAVES, women’s navy auxiliary corps, and her application has been accepted and approved. Miss Marsh, at present resident at San Francisco, has been asked to hold herself in readiness for a call to training.

 

Observers To Get Awards

An opportunity to participate in a patriotic program and to help extend to the members of the Air Forces Ground Observation Crops the recognition they have earned will be afforded residents of Placerville, Gold Hill, Coloma and vicinity Saturday evening at the Coloma Community Hall.

The meeting has been arranged by the Gold Hill Observation Post of the Air Forces Ground Observation Corps in co-operation with the county council of Civilian Defense and will especially honor thirty observers to whom arm bands and other awards will be presented in recognition of their volunteer services …

110 Years ago

Oct. 25, 1902

The Dormody Estate Controversy

Wm. Dormody applied for letters of administration upon the estate of Mrs. Sarah Dormody in the Superior Court on the 18th instant. Mrs. Dormody died Sept. 5, 1902, five days after deeding all her property, real and personal, to her son, Thos. A. J. Dormody, leaving nothing to her other six children. This deed was filed for record with the County Clerk on Sept. 2d …

Charles A. Swisler represents the petitioner, Wm. Dormody, and E. W. Witmer and Geo. H. Thompson are attorneys for Thos. A. J. Dormody …

Further hearing on this matter is set for this, Saturday morning.