Bucks Lake
Quincy (Plumas) · near Quincy · Sierra Nevada / Yosemite
Fishing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Best season
- Ice-off (~May) through October; early season and fall best for big browns and mackinaw. ~5,161 ft
Permits and booking
- Licence required
- Yes
- Licence detail
- CA license (16+). Bucks Lake Rd from Quincy is not fully plowed in winter — the upper road closes with snow (a snowmobile-in destination then).
What is here
- Features
- Big brown trout reputation · Mackinaw (lake trout) · Kokanee troll fishery · Multiple ramps & resorts
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Fishing detail
- Water type
- lake
- Water
- fresh
- Methods
- Trolling · Fly · Spin · Bait
- Boat
- both
- Target species
- Brown trout · Rainbow trout · Lake trout (mackinaw) · Kokanee
- Intl tip
- Troll for the mixed bag — a downrigger or leadcore covers the depths where browns and mackinaw hold once the surface warms. Kokanee anglers run tipped hoochies 20–40 ft down in summer.
The guide
Tucked in the Plumas high country above Quincy, Bucks Lake has a long reputation as one of Northern California's better brown-t…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Bucks Lake — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 39.885, -121.162