Heenan Lake

Heenan Lake is where California keeps its Lahontan cutthroat. The state's broodstock for the threatened native trout lives in this one 130-acre lake, and the cutthroat CDFW plants in the East Fork past our gate are raised from it — so are the big ones that turn up down in the canyon below Hangman's Bridge. The fishing page covers the river. This one is about the lake.

It is a wildlife area, not a park — 1,700 acres of Jeffrey pine and sagebrush the Fish and Game Commission set aside in 1983, unstaffed most of the year, with parking, portable toilets and a check-in that appear for the fishing season and then pack up. The turn is easy to drive past: southeast on Highway 89, past the Highway 4 junction, entrance on the right about two miles later. Thirteen minutes from our driveway.

The steel sign at the gate is the rulebook, in cut letters. One correction to it worth making, because anglers still repeat the old version at our counter: the Friday-through-Sunday restriction died in the 2021 regulations overhaul — the lake fishes every day of its season. And one gap worth knowing: CDFW's own page words the season as September and October, more narrowly than the sign's November 30. Their regulations govern, so a late-season trip is worth a call to their North Central Region office, (916) 358-2900, before you load the truck.

Plan like there's no signal, because there isn't — no cell, no public Wi-Fi, and no license counter. Buy the California license before you come and settle the map at the cabin.

Where you sleep is the easy part of the plan. Nobody camps at Heenan — CDFW doesn't allow it, and there is nothing up there to rent, buy, or plug into. The nearest beds and campsites are ours: seven cabins, eleven riverside sites and the RV row, back down the same highway. The regulars talk about the first hour after sunrise; from here you're on the water for it, instead of driving in from Gardnerville or South Lake Tahoe while it happens.

Two stops make the trip. The General Store on the way up — the lake takes artificials only, so check your box against the tackle wall before the drive, not at the gate. And in October, Monitor Pass just beyond: the aspen turn in gold blocks then, so the regulars fish the morning and drive the pass in the afternoon. The fall calendar down here fills in the rest. Deer season runs alongside: Zone X-8's general hunt opens Sept. 26, and the deer season page has the Department's sheet deciphered the same way, with the nearest lodging inside the zone.

Heenan Lake, as the Department has it

Season, hours and gear from the California Freshwater Sport Fishing Regulations, §7.50(b), Heenan Lake. The Department's Wildlife Area page still describes the fishery as September and October; the regulation, which governs, has run it September 1 through November 30 since the 2021–22 season. Check the current booklet before you travel.

The regulation, as printed

§7.50(b) — Heenan Lake (Alpine Co.). Sep. 1 through Nov. 30. 0 trout. Only artificial lures with barbless hooks may be used. Fishing hours: sunrise to sunset. Night fishing prohibited.

California Freshwater Sport Fishing Regulations, Title 14 §7.50(b). Condensed; the booklet governs.

On the water

• License bought before you leave — there is none at the lake.
• Pinch every barb, including on the lures you brought last year.
• Keep the fish in the water. If it must come out, hold your breath: when you need air, so does it.
• Lines out at sunset.
• Park outside the gate and walk in.
• Dogs under control; no horses; no drones.
• No camping on the area. The resort is on 89 between Markleeville and the lake.

Anglers who fish it say the shore works but the water works better: float tubes and non-motorised or electric boats, which is all the Department permits. Flies — woolly buggers, leeches, scuds, prince nymphs, zug bugs. Lures — Kastmasters, Panther Martins, Mepps. Expect wind, and algae in the warm weeks of September.

Boats per the Department's board at the gate; tackle from local fishing reports, 2003–2023. Angler custom, not regulation.

The map

Parking — 38.657° N, 119.919° W, off Highway 89 at the north-west corner of the area. Walk in from here. The lake sits at 7,084 feet, with the spillway at its west end and Heenan Creek feeding it from the north-east through Company Meadows. The boundary is the heavy black line: Toiyabe National Forest lies west of it, Bagley Valley and its springs to the south.

Posted at the gate

The Department's boards at the parking lot, paid for in part by the fly clubs, say what its web page does not: nearly a million eggs are collected here each year, Heenan holds the only brood stock of the species in California, and the fish now occupy a tenth of their historic streams and under one per cent of their historic lakes.

Welcome · Trout Have a Tough Life. Land fish quickly, unhook and release under water, remove only the hooks you can see, clip the line on a deep hook, never squeeze or touch eyes or gills. Non-motorised and electric boats and float tubes permitted; no motorised vehicles on the area. In a thunderstorm, get to shore.

Lakeside Dining. Cutthroat live up to twelve years, and adults ambush chub and suckers. In May the bears come out of the aspens to fish the spawning creek, and pelicans, eagles and osprey work the lake. Watch from across the water.

Fishing for Our Natural Heritage. One of California's few designated Heritage and Wild Trout lakes. Over 1,200 fish spawned a year, females averaging a thousand eggs. Clean boots, boats and gear against mussels, mudsnail and Asian clam — and there is an angler survey in the brown steel box by the driveway.

Boards photographed at the Heenan Lake parking lot, September 2026. The kiosk was donated by the Granite Bay Flycasters and High Sierra Fly Casters with the Federation of Fly Fishers.