Shasta Lake Fishing Report

Spring trout fishing at Shasta Lake is in full swing, with good catches of rainbow and brown trout in the 4-5 pound range. Water temperatures are currently around 48 degrees, providing ideal conditions for trout fishing.

I have been successful using mostly spoons, but some anchovies as well, as baits and lures. Most trout are being caught in the 5-20 feet depth range, with trolling near creek mouths proving to be especially productive. Some of the best spots for trout fishing at Shasta Lake include the Sacramento River arm, the Pit River arm, and the McCloud arm. Trolling along the edges of submerged structure and rocky points has been particularly effective.

Spring is a great time to fish for trout at Shasta Lake, as the fish are actively feeding and eager to strike. The cool water temperatures make for energetic fights and rewarding catches. Whether I'm a beginner or an experienced angler, spring trout fishing at Shasta Lake offers plenty of excitement and opportunities to reel in some impressive trout.

Remember to practice catch and release when I've already retained enough fish for the BBQ, helping to maintain the fish populations for future generations. Give Jaynie a call or text at (530) 510-2925 to set up your next Shasta Lake fishing trip and experience the thrill of trout fishing in this beautiful location! Happy fishing! 

It’s time for the spring brown trout fishing!

Big Rainbows This Month On Shasta Lake

Spring browns are waiting!

It’s mid February 2024 and Shasta Lake is poised for another great spring trout fishing season! Water levels are holding steady at 27’ feet below full pool and water color is nice and green! Average water temps are hovering around 48 degrees which is where it should be. We have weather moving in mid week and this will certainly change the aforementioned stats a bit but no major changes are anticipated.

Big rainbows are biting now too!

I’ve been trolling 90% of the time using varying methods. Side planers have been the best overall but that is partly due to the fact I usually have 4 of them in the water. A close second would be spoons trolled behind Chinook Divers and lastly are downrigger presentations. Trinidad Tackle Optimizers are a great option for catching big browns but they need to be trolled pretty fast (3.5-3.8 mph) which means going all on is necessary. If the big Optimizers aren’t getting bit, I’ll often times size down my presentations to get a bite going. That means trolling smaller spoons in the 2 1/2” range. Sometimes that makes a big difference. Other times it’s important to try the dodger/flasher presentations with a trailing spoon, hooch, fly, or one of my favorites, the Brads KCP’s or Super baits stuffed with tuna. This can be a deadly presentation for big browns and the occasional King salmon in Shasta.

Big browns will eat Brad’s Super Baits on Shasta Lake

In March I start to troll bait like Shad and Anchovies behind a 5.5” Shortbus triangle flasher. This set up can be a real big fish getter! I like running these setups off a downrigger or a #3 Chinook Diver. I’ll set up the Shad in the same fashion but a lot of the time I like to run the Shad alone off a downrigger or a long line behind a side planer.

All of these set ups will catch nice browns and rainbows as well as King s on Shasta the time of the year!

Shasta Lake Brown Trout Report

shasta lake trophy brown trout

1/23/24- Shasta Lake brown trout!

After taking our winter break it was time to get back out on Shasta Lake again and sample the bite for our upcoming trophy brown trout season.  I decided to try the McCloud arm because its one of our most successful areas on Shasta to find big browns in the spring.  The Hirz Bay area was somewhat unfishable due to the small debris floating on the surface due to the rapidly rising lake levels we've seen the past few weeks.  I turned around and decided to troll downstream as soon as we found a clearing in the surface debris.  Searching for big fish bites sometimes involves trolling fast with big spoons.  My go-to selection for big spring browns is the well known Trinidad Tackle Optimizer spoons.  My favorite color patterns are blue/white and black/white in size #3 or #4.  I loaded up my outside side planer rods with 120' setbacks with no weight.  Big Optimizers are a medium weight spoon and their shape draws them down about 2' below the surface when running them "clean" (no snap weights).  The size, shape, and colors of these spoons pull aggressive browns and rainbows from below and often times the spoons fished on the surface get the most bites in the late fall, winter, and spring.  Well yesterday was no different from most and we got our first grab on the blue/white #4 Optimizer trolled at 3.5 mph on the deep water side of the boat.  Fishing friends Rob and Patty were fishing with me and Patty took the first turn on our first big fish. We stayed our course and eventually fought the big brown to the back of the boat.  As it came into view below the surface I could see the dark shadow of a thick bodied brown!  Patty and I worked together to get this beautiful brown in the net and into the boat for a few quick pics before Patty released the brown back into the emerald depths of Shasta Lake.  It was a beautiful sight!  After all the excitement we continued our troll down the lake arm but didnt see anymore action for at least an hour or two.  We downsized our spoons and tied on some Optimizer Jr's and slowed down our troll speed to 2.8-3.0 mph.  We FINALLY found a school of nice rainbow trout at the confluence of the McCloud and Pit arms.  We picked up a few big rainbows on the new Trinidad Tackle Optimizer Jr UV glow spoons.  Rob and Patty enjoy smoked rainbows so we harvested 4-5 of them and called it an early day.  All in all it was a great scouting trip and I was glad to get back on the water again.  I'll be starting my brown trout charters in mid February and they will run through March.  I'm looking forward to another great spring brown trout season and hope to break the 15 lb. mark this year.  If you would like to get in on this special brown trout fishing opportunity give Jaynie a call on our office line to get the ball rolling.  Call or text (530) 510-2925 or visit our website at jeffgoodwinfishing.com and fill out our online booking request.  Thank you and I'll be looking forward to seeing my return clients and hopefully meeting some new ones too!

- Captain Jeff Goodwin

Shasta Lake Summer Trout/Salmon Fishing

It’s finally June and that means summer fishing on Shasta Lake! The fishing has been pretty good all year so far but June is when the fishing really kicks up a notch. We’ll be targeting rainbows, browns, Kings, and Kokanee salmon through September again this year. Currently we’re fishing the lower areas of the Sacramento and McCloud river arms and catching numerous fish daily. We’ve had a lot of great groups come out to fish with us this year already and we’re headed into the busiest part of the year on the lake. Whether you want to fish with family or friends and want to just catch fish or learn more about fishing Shasta, now is the time to schedule your trip(s).

Shasta Lake rainbow trout caught June 3rd, 2023!

We’ve been fishing 10’ to 25’ deep and have been trolling with side planers and divers. Small spoons have been a staple for us but traditional trolling gear will work as well. With surface temps hovering around 72 degrees we have been fishing really shallow. It was a big winter on Shasta and the lake is FULL! We’ll see the bite pick up even more as the trout and salmon begin to feed on the Thread fin Shad. Stay tuned for more reports as we get deeper into the month of June! To book your Shasta Lake fishing trip or to learn more about what we have to offer, call or text Jaynie at (530) 510-2925. Thank you!

Great private family trips on Shasta Lake is our specialty!

2023 Shasta Lake Spring Fishing Report

Shasta Lake has made an incredible rebound after seeing its second lowest point since the reservoir was filled in the mid 1940’s. Shasta bottomed out at 144’ feet below full pool this past fall and California washing to be in dire straights if we had another dry year in 2023. Fortunately we received good fortune in the way of some of the heaviest rains and a mountain snow pack California hasn’t seen in decades. Shasta has risen over 110’ feet since its low point this past November and is now forecasted to fill to full pool by the end of May.

3/23- One of our nicer brown trout caught this spring season on Shasta Lake.

Surprisingly, Shasta Lake has remained in a fishable condition throughout the steady rise we’ve seen this winter season which has now landed into spring. We have a bit of floating debris which is normal during big water years, but we’ve still managed to continue our trolling program which normally consists of 6-8 lines in the water most of the days we fish. Water clarity has been pretty good, especially in the lower sections of the lake around the Pit River Bridge and Shasta Dam. If there has been a challenge in conditions, it would have to be that we’ve seen some of the lowest surface temps I’ve ever experienced on Shasta Lake’s main body. Winter water surface temps have averaged in the 45-46 degree range and thats definitely created some problems with the bite. The trout and other lake species have demonstrated some lethargy it the bite windows have been short. We’ve had days with 15 trout landed and some days with less than 5 which is a bit on the slow side for most of our Shasta Lake trout fishing seasons. Conditions are about to change in the coming weeks and we should be into some fast action fishing days on the lake very soon!

Shasta Lake Shad have been in the 2-3” range most of the 2023 winter season.

One of the keys to success this winter has been to locate the Shad which really hasn’t been that hard to accomplish. Most areas of the lake have held Shad schools and the abundance has actually been quite impressive. Every trout we’ve harvested this season has been loaded with Shad in this size range. Thats not a common condition we generally find in these fish most winter seasons I’ve experienced. Having all of this bait thriving in Shasta this year is a great sign of a healthy lake. With all the Shad present, it hasn’t been hard to figure out what the fish have been keying in on. Finding lures to troll for the winter trout has been a simple task and pretty much anything that matches the hatch will get bites. I expect this trend to continue now through the rest of the spring and well into next fall.

3/23- Big brown trout fishing on Shasta Lake will be plentiful now that the water temps are on a slow rise.

With cooler water temps this year, our spring fishing pattern should last well into June before the fish start to go deep to escape the warm surface temps summer brings to Shasta every year. Until that occurs, we’ll be trolling the top 20’ of the water column where that bait will be suspended just like we have been all season so far. The use of side planers, divers, and downriggers will be the preferred trolling techniques just like most cold water seasons we fish on the lake. Shad patterns will be best from now well into the fall season when the Shad typically get more difficult to find. Trolling speeds will likely remain productive in the 2.5-3.0 mph range but will likely need to be slower beginning in July. I don’t see us fishing deeper than 60’ by the end of July but time will tell.

Limits of really nice rainbow trout for Bob and Arlene of McKinleyville, Ca. this past March season.

All things considered, I think we are going to have a great summer/fall season on Shasta Lake. With ocean/river King salmon fishing closed in 2023, many of our guides and clients will be focusing on fisheries like Shasta Lake that see a downturn in bookings due to the fact we focus on the river salmon from August-December every year. I see this closure as an opportunity to spend more days fishing on Shasta Lake this year opposed to years in the past where Shasta took a back seat to the river salmon fishing season. We are confident many of our river salmon fishing clients will enjoy fishing for trout and salmon on the lake this year instead. We will have 3 USFS permitted guides available for Shasta Lake fishing trips this summer so our schedule should accommodate hundreds of angler trips in the coming months.

Call Jaynie at (530) 510-2925 for more information about our Shasta Lake fishing trips and for our available dates on the schedule. Let’s have a great 2023 summer season on Shasta Lake!

2023 Shasta Lake Fishing Report

Super clean Shasta Lake winter trout!

1/2/23- Shasta Lake is in great shape and is on the rise from 143 feet below full pool! I just started fishing the lake again today and found success my first hour of the day. Mostly rainbow trout were caught along with a nice 3 lb Spotted bass as a bonus fish! I fished the main body in the Dry Creek area early in the morning and found success in the entrance area of Dry Creek Arm. The area between Dry Creek and Big Backbone produced a few trout as well before pulling our gear and running over to the Sac Arm where we found more great water and more rainbows willing to bite. Most of our trout were caught between 10"‘ and 20’ with somewhere in the n=middle being best. Small spoons in Shad patterns trolled at 2.8 mph was our top presentation. I’ll be fishing Shasta a lot this winter into spring before breaking away for our Striped bass season on the Sacramento River in April/May.

Check back weekly for more Shasta Lake fishing info and catch results!1/2/23

2023 Sacramento River Striped Bass Fishing Report!

It’s almost time to get serious about our 2023 Sacramento River Striped Bass fishing season coming up in April and May of 2023. Sitting here listening to the rain hit the roof and monitoring river flows makes me think about the potential for an exceptional Striper season ahead. Springtime flows from a wet winter mean turbid river water, which means a strong Striper spawning run, which means great fishing! We still have a ways to go before spring but if the wet weather patterns continue over the next 12 weeks we’re in for some Striper fishing we haven’t seen in several years.

Daves first Striper trip with us last year and he got into some great fish!

One of our favorite techniques for catching Striped bass is to power drift live minnows. Stripers love live bait and we but $1000’s of dollars worth every season to ensure our clients have plenty of opportunities to catch their Striped bass. We troll live minnows downstream with electric motors to keep fro spooking the Stripers we are targeting. Most Stripers are found along the shoreline which means trolling over them in shallow water. Keeping things quiet really helps get bites from these aggressive yet cautious fish.

Kevin holds his best Striper to date from last season when conditions were less than optimal but very productive!

When we find the Stripers schooled up it’s usually pretty easy to hook up! When we find these pods of Stripers we often time experience double, triple, even quadruple hook ups when drifting over them with live bait. We use light action rods for this technique and just enough lead to tick bottom every 10’ or so. Keeping the minnows on the bottom is important for success! The bite isn’t hard to detect and more times than not the Stripers hook themselves making hook sets unnecessary. You go from feeling the tick, tick of the weight on the bottom to feeling the full weight of a Striper peeling line off your reel. Its so much fun and the Stripers fight as hard as any fish I’ve caught anywhere else.

Double hook ups ar not uncommon while Striper fishing on the Sacramento River!

The best time to fish for Striped bass on the Sacramento River begins in early April and can go well into May during wet weather years. As long as the water temps stay in the 50’s the Stripers will hold off on their spawn which keeps them in the system longer. Once the water temps hit the mid 60’s most of the Stripers will spawn and quickly move back down river. We book the majority of our trips from the first week of April through the second week of May to ensure we have the best fishing available for the clients fishing with us. We fish until limits have been retained by our clients or until we reach the end of a 7-8 hour day. We don’t pressure our clients to retain the first few Stripers they catch so we can go home early during any of our trips unless they wish to do so.

Our first trip of the season in 2022!

If this looks like a trip you would be interested in and have a party of 4 anglers wanting to fish, let us know! (We don’t mix our groups so we ask for a minimum party size of 4 during Striper season). We are already taking reservations for the 2023 Striper season and contacting Jaynie at (530) 510-2925 is the first step. We’ll have a few boats fishing daily so we can accommodate around 60 trips during the 2023 season. Once those trips are sold out we won’t have any availability until the following year. We do work with other guides though and can help arrange a booking with one of them after we are sold out. We’re looking forward to this season and seeing all of our Striper clients from this past year in 2023.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Jeff Goodwin

Shasta Lake Fishing Report

Shasta Lake is gettin some much needed water from the recent storm systems that have been rolling through Northern California. The lake is 12’ above its level this time last year and continues to rise every day. This is going to make for some great fishing in 2023!

We’ll be catching some big browns on Shasta Lake again this year!

We’ll be fishing in comfort all year again in 2023 with our 24’ Willie boat equipped with a full top to keep our clients warm and dry in the winter and out of the hot sun in the summer. This makes bringing the whole family an option any day of the season. The rainbow and brown trout fishing is best in the colder months with salmon fishing being good in the spring and early summer. By late summer the big rainbow trout fishing is at its best! We troll for the most part so zero fishing experience is required and our clients catch fish pretty much every trip we fish. Rarely do we make it back to the dock at the end of the day without a bunch of fish to clean.

Shasta Lake is a great option for the kids!

We’re booking our winter/spring season now but it’s not at all too early to get your summer trips reserved too. I’ll be offering an extended season on Shasta Lake this year so we’ll have plenty of dates available for our clients.

Trinity River Steelhead Fishing Report

Captain Justin has been fishing the Trinity River daily and the fishing is excellent! He’ll be running trips through February 2023. November and December dates are sold out but there is still availability in January and February.

The Trinity River got a good shot of snow/rain this week and the steelhead fishing has improved dramatically. Numerous steelhead are being hooked due to the light fishing pressure and an increase in flows below the tributaries. Captain Justin is primarily using spin gear but when the water is clear, fly fishing is a solid option as well. Either way the ultra light tackle is a blast to catch these steelhead on.

Beautiful Trinity River steelhead!

The lower river saw some good numbers of steelhead this summer so we’re expecting some great fishing this winter, especially if we keep getting wet weather. This steelhead fishery is little known by most and definitely sits quietly among the guides here in the Redding area for the most part. This trip is getting more and more popular with our clients ad it won’t be too many years before Captain Justin books the entire season making it impossible for new clients to get a chance to fish this great river for steelhead with him. Call Jaynie at (530) 510-2925 for more information and available dates before its too late. Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin

Sacramento River Steelhead Fishing Report

We’re just two short weeks from November now and that means Sac River steelhead! We’ve already caught several fin clipped hatchery steelhead during our recent salmon fishing trips so we know we’re not too far off from our consistent steelhead fishing that lasts well into winter. Red Bluff to Anderson is where we concentrate our efforts during the late fall and winter salmon/steelhead seasons. There will also be late fall King salmon available through Dec 31st in the areas we fish for steelhead.

Beautiful wild steelhead caught December 2022 in the Anderson area.

We haven’t seen any big steelhead caught just yet but if our season is anything like last year, we’ll see some bigger specimens caught again this year. Coleman Hatchery has been recycling some of their returning adults after they spawn and we’ve seen some older steelhead coming back again in recent years. First year return spawners on the Sac are traditionally pretty small, but the second season spawn return groups are much bigger.

Coleman Hatchery returning steelhead caught last year during one of many high water periods we saw last season.

We spend a lot of time side drifting and bobber dogging for the steelhead in the shallows but we also have some days when back trolling Brad’s Wigglers in the long runs can pay off as well. Bait and beads are best early in the season and after we have some steelhead in the Anderson area for a few weeks they get pretty territorial and get aggressive towards intrusive plugs. We run ultra light rods for our winter steelhead so when you hook up, its a lot of fun to fight these hot fish!

Hatchery steelhead caught back trolling a 3.0 Mag Lip plug in a tail out on the Sacramento River

We’ll have 3 guides working the Sac for winter steelhead, fishing and guiding out of our power boats. We don’t have a lot of availability but give Jaynie a call at our reservation desk and she can work on getting a date that will work for you and one of our available guides. She can be reached at (530) 510-2925 every day but Sunday. Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin

Shasta Lake Winter Trout Fishing Opportunities!

Fall has arrived here in the north state and while we’re still busy fishing for Sacramento River King salmon, it’s not too early to start the Shasta Lake winter trout fishing conversation’s. Shasta Lake water temps are dropping quickly which will have the trout following the Shad back to the surface of the lake. I love this time of the year because its time to put away the bulky down riggers and pull out the side planers and divers!

Shasta Lake brown trout caught long lining a Trinidad Tackle Optimizer spoon!

When Shasta’s shoreline trees begin to turn its time to chase the big browns headed home to spawn. We still catch a lot of great rainbows during the winter season but its the big adult browns that are the prize this time of the year. Every winter you’ll find big browns headed up the arms of the lake to return to the spawning grounds in the Sacramento and McCloud Rivers. With cooler surface temps and a choppy lake, I like to target these big browns and rainbows trolling fast with big spoons just below the surface, With water temps in the low 50’s and even high 40’s, it definitely pays off to run big presentations in the 4 mph range. One of the best ways to get these big fish to move to your gear when the water is cold is to deploy the side planers. There’s no better way to target these big trout than to run your gear next to the shallows and along the shorelines.

Three side planers trolled near shore is a great way to cover lots of water at once while looking for big Shasta Lake browns!

When the bite is tough, sometimes it pays off to size down your presentations and slow your trolling speed. Some mornings the trout just don’t want to chase big baits fast but will chase a smaller offering thats moving slower and requires less energy spent for a quick meal. It’s all about the mood of the trout and like the old saying goes, let the trout tell you what they want. It’s always changing!

Big Shasta Lake brown caught while trolling with side planers and a spoon close to shore!

I’ve written a bunch of articles on fishing Shasta Lake for trout in the late fall and winter but many people over the years have found that it’s much easier to learn how to catch these great big trout by booking a trip during the winter season with me. My trips are highly instructional and you get a lot for your money. Not only do I get clients into some great Shasta Lake trout during these trips but they also learn a lot during the day and often times are able to find success on their own down the road. Either way it can be a great experience no matter who you are. If you’d like to fish Shasta Lake this winter for big trout give Jaynie a call or click on the BOOK NOW button on our page to get the ball rolling. Thank’s and I’ll look forward to catching some big Shasta Lake browns with some of you this winter season!

Sacramento River Fishing Report

It’s been a salmon season like no other on the Sacramento River above Red Bluff and it’s definitely been one of the slowest in our area in many, many years. Restricted flows from Shasta Lake, warmer than normal water temps down river, and a ridiculous amount of floating debris/vegetation have all contributed to the late start we’ve seen since the season opened on July 16th.

Captain Jeff Brady with a fresh run King 250 on the Sacramento River miles from the saltwater.

We have remained optimistic for a big salmon run due to the amount of King salmon we have been seeing caught in the ocean all summer long. We’ve waited, and waited, and waited for these salmon to show up above Red bluff where water temps are favorable for salmon to hold in until the fall rains arrive in late October/November. We expect any day to see a big push of salmon into the Barge Hole but its clearly not happened yet. Average numbers of salmon caught in the Barge Hole every day has been 0-4 salmon. The funny thing is, we were catching more salmon in early August than we are now.

Early September King caught in the Barge Hole with Captain Kenny Turner.

No one technique we have been using has stood out as being the best bet making it difficult to pattern the effectiveness of one presentation over another. We typically fish with plugs in the morning and switch to roe when the sun comes up but we’ve been catching a few this year back trolling spinners early in the day as well. I’m sure that when the Barge Hole does fill with salmon any one of the techniques will catch salmon at some point in the day. Time will tell what is to be seen throughout the remainder of this years King salmon season but time isn’t on our side at this point. The fall run is generally over by the end of October and most all the King salmon will be stacked in Battle Creek nosed into the fish ladder at Coleman National Fish Hatchery.

9/17- This weeks forecast!

The weather forecast calls for rain this week and that could be the trigger we’ve been waiting for this season. Cooler water temps down river coupled with a shot of rainwater run off will surely get some of the salmon staged in SF Bay to make the run north. It is our hope that this will be what we needed and we can finish off our fall salmon season strong. We’ve made several last minute trip decisions and I really appreciate everyone that has worked with us through these cancellations, re schedules, and especially those who just came out and fished with us anyway. We have a special appreciation for our clients that come out to fish with us in good times and in the bad.

We’re predicting a strong late fall salmon season in November and December and we’ll have plenty of cool water downstream to get our late fall’s up here and on schedule. We’re already booking our late fall salmon trips and we don’t have a lot of dates left to schedule with interested clients. Smaller groups are actually encouraged for late falls and the trip is best for the hardcore fishermen due to the cold temps and in climate weather we encounter each late fall season.

Sacramento River Salmon Fishing Report

The 2022 Sacramento River King salmon season to date has possibly been the worst season any of us have ever seen. Many factors play a role in the current situation we seem to be experiencing but its not necessarily going to be the conclusion we see this year. Low flows and warm water down stream are the biggest contributing factors. We won’t likely see an increase in the flows but we will eventually see a cooling trend in the river as we inch closer to fall.

30+ pound Barge Hole King salmon caught on September 1st, 2022

Just a drop into the low 70’s in Sacramento River temps will signal the green light for the bulk of the 2022 salmon run. We’ve already seen a bunch of new salmon up river this week and there are literally quite a few sitting in the holes below Battle Creek. It’s actually early in the season for the Anderson fishery so we could see a big turn on at any time now.

Small spinners have taken the majority of our salmon the past few weeks.

I’m not providing false promises, I’m simply telling it how it is. We’re only catching a few salmon a day and its frustrating because we see dozens upon dozens of salmon rolling in the holes we are fishing. It’s not that we don’t have salmon, we just don’t see any good bite periods that last for more than an hour or two in the morning. As the salmon in the holes acclimate to their new environment, we’ll see an improvement in the bite. This happens every year, it’s nothing new. We just usually have the opportunity to fish down river in July and August and for some reason they just bite better down there early in the season. By mid September those same fish are up river and we typically move up to fish for them. By October we’re catching lots of them every day.

Bright King salmon caught this week below Anderson.

If we do eventually see the bulk of the salmon that are currently in the ocean, we should have a great finish to the 2022 fall season. By late fall we’ll have cold water throughout the Sacramento River and our late fall salmon run should be good as well. Its a smaller run but we catch some great salmon for the smaller groups we fish in late November thru December.

2022 SACRAMENTO RIVER KING SALMON SEASON SET!

SACRAMENTO RIVER FALL KING SALMON

The 2022 Sacramento River King salmon fishing season is set and its forecasted to be the best we’ve seen in 10 years! Lower flows in the Sacramento River will be the result of water conservation but that just means our salmon will be concentrated in the areas we typically fish each year. The up river salmon fishery will be where its at and we’ll be there all season long! The season opener below Red Bluff will be on July 16th. Above Red Bluff will open again this year on August 1st. The daily bag limit will be (2) King salmon per person of any size and the possession limit will be (4) per person for our two day trip clients. This won’t be the season to pass on as it doesn’t appear it will get any better for King salmon fishing in the foreseeable future. I believe this will be a great summer/fall season.

SACRAMENTO RIVER LATE FALL KING SALMON

We will have an extended King salmon season again this year above Red Bluff. In mid November we start to see our run of late fall King salmon arriving in the Anderson area. The late fall salmon fishery is a special one and many of our biggest Kings of the year are caught in the month of December before the salmon season closes on January 1st, 2023. The late fall Kings migrate quickly up river and are most often our freshest salmon of the year. Its a smaller run than the fall run, but there are always opportunities to catch them during our peak season between Thanksgiving and the new year. The late fall trips can be during cold/wet periods but we do what we can to keep everyone as warm and dry as possible during your trip. I’m excited about the 2022 King salmon season and I’ll be looking forward to seeing our salmon fishing clients again this year!

2022 Salmon Season Outlook

Early 2021 salmon season King!

We are awaiting the final 2022 king salmon season details for the Sacramento River but so far everything looks pretty good! Ocean abundance is up from last year and it appears higher escapement numbers will be set this year which will allow a higher number of returning salmon to make it back to the Sacramento River system. This is great news for and for our clients who will be fishing with us this year. Overall last years season was pretty good but with more salmon returning to the Sacramento River this year we should see an even better season than 2021.

The Final details will be outlined and the Sacramento River King salmon seasons will be set by late April. If you would like to experience the thrill of catching a big Sacramento River King salmon, I would encourage you to book a trip this year. We will be seeing the salmon returns from our most recent drought years which could have an impact on our returns. One never knows for sure but good water years equate to good salmon returns generally speaking.

Thank you and we’ll look forward to fishing with you all again this season!

Captain Jeff Goodwin

2022 Sacramento River salmon season outlook!

JULY 16TH, 2021 SEASON OPENER!

Opening day was a good one again in 2021! Captain Justin with our first salmon of the year!

Overall the 2021 Sacramento River King salmon season was a big hit! We had favorable fishing conditions pretty much most of the season and our guides put our clients on hundreds of King salmon. Just like every season, there were tough days, good days, and some great days as well. Our July 16th season opener below Red Bluff was pretty good and we saw a lot of salmon caught in the early morning hours. The last two openers have been good which is a nice change from the years prior where its been pretty tough. We always fish plugs at first light and last year we had fish on before we had sun on the water. The bite in 2021 slowed quickly, but not before we put some nice big Kings in the box. We were excited to see lots of salmon caught and that always sets the tone for the salmon season looking ahead.

EARLY RUN KINGS

Two week timeframe after the season opener was fairly productive, but we had just one boat working salmon trips most days. As usual, we fished in the Red Bluff area until August 1st and our clients caught some of the best fish of the fall salmon season without a doubt. The crowds are light and the King’s are bright! It’s a great time of the year to chase the freshest King salmon of the early fall season, and 2021 lived up to our expectations for sure. We’ll be sending out more boats in 2022 after the mid July opener and hope to get our clients into some good fishing to start the new season. Its a quality over quantity trip, but we land some very impressive Kings early in the season every year.

AUGUST 1ST, 2021 BARGE HOLE OPENER

Zach Collins jumped in on the opener and scored our first King salmon of the morning!

The August 1st opener above Red Bluff was a big hit this year! Well over 100 King salmon were counted above Red Bluff on August 1st this past year which was a big improvement over the lackluster Barge Hole opener we saw in 2020. Lots of salmon were landed just after first light and lots more were lost after hooking up. The August opener really gives us a feel for what kind of fishing we can expect in the months ahead and this opener was inspiring to say the least. We continued to run our salmon trips in the Red Bluff area, but by mid August we were down in the Corning area fishing below Woodson Bridge.

FALL RUN PEAKS IN SEPTEMBER

We see some of the best fishing of the season in September!

Woodson Bridge produced most days and we saw lot’s of Kings moving through the system while fishing down there. We had four boats working King salmon trips during the run peaks in the Woodson Bridge area again in 2021. It was hit and miss most days with smaller pods of salmon moving through the system rather quickly. The Woodson Bridge salmon have been blowing through the area and definitely haven’t been stacking up down there like they have in years past. 2020 was the same so we have a few plans in place to lock down the areas the migrating salmon are holding up in during the 2022 season. Spreading our boats out will be part of the game plan this year. The busiest areas of the river haven’t been as productive the past few years and it will be nice to see some new water throughout the seasons ahead.

FALL RUN FINALE!

We don’t get them like this every day, but we catch more fish in October than any other time of the year!

October was really good in the Barge Hole last season and we caught a lot of Kings in that area in 2021. We had the numbers and the impressive sized Kings again as well. Several King’s over 40 lbs, a few high 30’s, and lots of 20 plus pound Kings came over the rail for our clients again in 2021. We didn’t see as many bright salmon in the Barge Hole this past year, but their numbers made up for the older salmon we did catch. These Kings are mostly smoker quality salmon, but they sure fight hard. They definitely don’t act as if they have migrated 260 miles up river to get to the Barge Hole and they are always full of fight! We’ve had to go to heavier gear the past few years to handle these bigger 3 and 4 year old Kings. Lots of our clients wore themselves out trying to wear out these big salmon in an attempt to get them to the net. It was a great fall run of Kings on the Sacramento River in 2021.

LATE FALL RUN IN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

Big bright kings are what we see during the tail end of the Sacramento River salmon season

The late fall run was a little off from prior seasons, mainly because we had lots of rain in October and November which is fairly unusual here in Northern California anymore. We had several big rises in river levels and we saw a lot of our late fall Kings come and go. They never really stacked up in the Barge Hole and we only got a shot at the Kings that were there for the day. High water kept the inventory down, but it did also keep the Kings coming, just not in big numbers. We also experienced some very cold water in November and December and that definitely slowed the bites we saw from day to day. It seemed like the bite periods were short and the bites we saw at any point in the day were all we might see all day long. Fortunately, we saw the bites come in two’s most days and if you hooked em good we’d see a few in the net during a lot of the trips we fished. We saw some great quality Kings some days and we had some days where we caught older salmon as well. The size was up again this year and for that we were once again grateful.

We will be fishing further down river for late fall Kings this year in the month of November. We’ve seen a long lull between our fall run and our late fall run in recent years and want to fill the gap by fishing down closer to the Sacramento Metro area when our late fall Kings push through the lower part of the Sacramento River system. The Kings are very fresh and move through the lower river quickly after leaving the saltwater environments of SF Bay and the California Delta. We’ll be able to offer King salmon trips closer to the population centers of the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area regions as well.

WHAT OUR KING SALMON SEASON WILL LOOK LIKE IN 2022

Sac River Kings are so much fun!

Ocean conditions have been great the past few years and our 2022 king salmon run will be the byproduct of a good water year period in 2018-2019. Good water conditions mean good salmon returns and we are expecting another solid salmon run to return in 2022. We’ll hear about the current drought conditions from the media outlets and all the drama that goes along with it, but the fact is, this years water conditions have nothing to do with the 2022 King salmon return on the Sacramento River. We will have lots of water in the Sacramento River for this years return and we are anticipating a good run. I always point to our ocean seasons which open well before we see the salmon in the Sacramento River. If the charter boats in the ocean in May, June, and July are catching lots of salmon, well that just means all those salmon will be in the rivers by mid July on through the end of the year. Its not rocket science, they are either here or they are not and more years than not we have good King salmon returns on the Sacramento River.

We have already booked a lot of king salmon trips for 2022, especially in September. Prime time dates are mid August trough mid October and these dates typically fill first. Our late fall salmon trips from November through December will be popular again this year, especially since the Sacramento River has one of the few remaining King salmon fisheries that is available in that time frame up and down the west coast. We’re seeing more and more people looking for salmon trips during the late fall salmon run.

Contact Jaynie Goodwin at (530) 510-2925 or hit the book now button on this site for more information and available dates for the 2022 Sacramento River King salmon season. Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin

Sacramento River Striped Bass

Last trip of the 2021 Sacramento River Striped bass season!

2022 Sacramento River Striped bass Report

It won’t be long and we’ll be saying goodbye to the first month of 2022 and heading into the second. Although we’re already seeing reports of Stripers being caught down river, by March we’ll start seeing some Striped bass caught in the Colusa area as well. April and May are when we run the majority of our Striper trips with April being when the bulk of our them are booked. We see Striped bass return in the biggest numbers in the Colusa area in April and thats why we focus our efforts during that timeframe. This is a very popular fishery and we typically sell out before the season begins. This year will be a busy one and we’re already closing in on the last dozen or so available days we have to fish for Striped bass.

Captain Jeff Brady with a nice Sacramento River Striped bass.

Captain Jeff Brady is the first of our crew to head down river to get dialed into where our best fishing will be to start the season. Soon after he’s pinned down the sections of the river that are holding fish, Captain Justin and I will start our Striped bass trips as well. Being in more than one place at once undoubtedly gives us an advantage when Striped bass season rolls around. Captain Brady has a network of family and friends that spend the whole season on the river chasing Stripers as well so we always know where the Striper schools are hanging out.

Patty holds up her first Striper during her Sacramento River Striped bass fishing adventure with us in 2021.

We have clients come from all over California and beyond to fish with us during Striper season. Most of our clients stay at the Colusa Casino or at one of several hotels in Williams which is about 9 miles west of Colusa on Hwy 20. We tend to catch Stripers every trip and our clients love taking home fresh Striped bass fillets. Stripers taste very good and are best known for their excellent table fare in fish taco’s. There are many recipes for Striped bass, but the taco’s are my favorite way to cook them! Whether it’s a hard fighting fish you seek or filets for the dinner table, Striped bass fishing provides both and thats one of the reasons its one of our very popular trips.

If you would like to experience a day of fishing for Striped bass on the Sacramento River with us, please contact Jaynie at (530) 510-2925 for more information or to simply book your trip. We have a (4) angler minimum this year, but all of our trips are still private. Everything is going up in cost these days and fishing is far from being exempt. Setting minimums this season is necessary to keep these trips available for the fine folks that want to fish for Striped bass with us this year. Thank you for your support and we’ll all be looking forward to seeing you the morning of your trip!

Captain Jeff Goodwin

Sacramento River Striped Bass Fishing!

2022 STRIPED BASS FISHING TRIPS- It’s time to take a look at the upcoming 2022 Sacramento River Striped Bass season which begins for us in early April. Many factors play a role in when and where we run our guided fishing trips for Stripers, but in general, its relatively predictable and most years, we offer a short 6 week season fishing out of the Colusa, Ca. area.

Above average size Striped bass, but we get em much larger than this every season!

Striped bass are one of the hardest fighting sport fish in The Sacramento/San Joaquin River system, and their table fare is excellent! Striper fishing is generally very good and with good flows of turbid river water, the fishing can be excellent! The more water we have during our spring flows/releases, the more Stripers we will have in the Colusa area. Year after year we have good returns, but during high water years, we will have more fish than we will during the low flows of a dry spring. We’ll catch Stripers either way, but its always nice to experience those automatic limits of fresh Striped bass during the many trips we run every spring.

Limits of Striped bass for this group last April!

Fishing is relatively easy due to the sheer numbers of Striper schools that come up river every spring to spawn. We typically power drift live bait, but sometimes we will be anchored up in the trees or along the current seams fishing chunk bait (Sardines) close to the boat. Very little to no experience is required for our clients to be successful when fishing for Striped bass. Feeding line off the reels until we tick bottom is the most challenging thing our customers will have to, that is until their bait gets grabbed aggressively by a hot Striper! Long, line peeling runs by big Stripers followed by numerous runs from the boat before landing them is commonplace in this fishery. Just like river King salmon, Striped bass can wear you out while trying to get them to the net! It’s so much fun!

Captain Brady with an average size Sac River Striper!

Colusa is a short drive from Sacramento and accommodations are fairly abundant during the spring Striper season. Most of our clients either stay at the Colusa Casino or stay in Williams at one of several hotels they have there. The Colusa Casino has free RV parking and several of our groups choose to stay there every year. Due to the high cost to run these trips, we require a 4 person minimum to book each boat. Each boat can accommodate 6 anglers, but like always, our trips are private. We don’t sell seats so you’ll never be fishing with strangers, we don’t mix our groups. The 4 person minimum ensures that we will be able to continue to book all of our trips privately. Our trips will sell out before the season begins in April so booking early is recommended, especially for our returning clients. Please contact Jaynie and she can provide any additional details about our trips or she can get your day of Striper fishing reserved with one of our guides. Thank you!

- Captain Jeff Goodwin

Shasta Lake winter trout report!

Shasta Lake winter trout fishing is under way and we’re seeing a good bite and lot’s of trout! Lake conditions are great, even with low lake levels. In fact, I think the lower lake levels are setting us up for a really good winter season. Water temps are in the 57 degree range, but cooling, and water clarity is great for now. If we see large amounts of rain in the coming months, it will certainly stain the lake waters again and we’ll have to change out our presentations again.

Gracie Goodwin with a beautiful rainbow trout we caught on Nov 29th during a family outing.

Every winter we see the annual lake water turn over, but it hasn’t happened just yet. Typically we’ll see surface temps dip into the low 50’s before the lake will turn. It shouldn’t make much of a difference this year because we’re already seeing the trout feeding near the surface. That won’t change when the lake does turn over this month or next, we’ll still be fishing up top. We have lowered our presentations here and there because we’re marking lots of Shad in the 20’-40’ range, but we’re mostly picking up Spotted bass. If fishing for trout is slow, keeping this in mind will help keep the interest from other anglers in the boat, if thats the case. Its a Shad show and thats what’s on the menu in Shasta right now. Matching the hatch can be critical, so be sure to have some Shad size spoons in the boat to present to the trout right now. The Shad are small, about an inch. Refer to the pic below when selecting lures for fishing Shasta for the time being. The trout are stuffed with them like we typically see during summer on the lake.

11/29- Shasta Lake Thread Fin Shad are what the trout are feeding on right now.

With Shasta Lake levels sitting about 170’ below full pool, just about all areas of the lake are producing trout. Everywhere I’ve been fishing seems to have plenty of trout feeding near the surface now. Most of my time has been spent fishing the greener waters of the main body near the dam. Dry Creek, Big Backbone, and Digger Bay are all good places to start your day. I haven’t spent much time on the McCloud arm, but traditionally there are some nice browns and rainbows hanging out around the Caverns. When fishing any of these area’s, I recommend using side planers to attract these weary surface dwellers this time of the year. Downriggers can be useful too, but when fishing up top there isn’t anything out there that will out fish side planers while trolling this time of the year.

Side planers are King in my boat this time of the year! Church Tackle TX-22’s are my go to planers for all the lakes I fish.

Catching rainbows and the occasional brown trout is what I’m shooting for during the winter months. Most of the trout are going to be in the 1-3 lb. range, but getting into a rainbow or a brown in the 5-7 lb. range is quite possible. For these larger specimens, go big or go home! If you are looking for a trophy on Shasta Lake, trolling Trinidad Tackle #4 Optimizer spoons or Bay Rat Short Shallow stick baits should be in the water. Both of these lures can be trolled effectively at 3.5 to 4.5 mph and will draw some big strikes from some big fish! Typically we’ll only get a few chances each day trolling these lures, but the bites are worth the wait in my opinion. If you’re looking for numbers, I recommend slowing down to either side of 2.5 mph and sizing down your lures. Don’t forget to use scent on your lures! I recommend using Pautzke Fire Gel in Garlic, trout, or Crawfish scent. It really does help when the bite gets a bit on the tough side or when you need bites in between bite periods.

11/29- Jaynie Goodwin with a big, beautiful Shasta rainbow trout caught trolling a small spoon behind a Church Tackle TX-22 side planer.

If you have followed us just recently, or over the span of a few years, you know we get into some great fishing on Shasta Lake, pretty much year round. If you would like to learn first hand how to catch trout on Shasta Lake, I would recommend booking a trout fishing trip with us this year. We’ve helped 100’s of anglers over the years catch more trout on Shasta, and this coming year will be no different. If you want to learn more about Shasta or just want to enjoy a day on the Lake catching beautiful trout, give Jaynie a call or click the “book now” button on our website and she’ll answer any additional questions you may have or can get you scheduled for a winter season trout trip. Thank you for taking the time to read this report and please check back this winter season for more Shasta Lake fishing reports.

Captain Jeff Goodwin

2021 Sacramento River salmon fishing update!

Captain Justin Thompson with our first Sacramento River King salmon of the 2021 season!

The 2021 Sacramento River King salmon season is underway and we are catching fresh run Kings, beginning today! We started our morning at about 2:30 am where we drove to Red Bluff from Redding to launch the boat. The Sycamore launch ramp in Red Bluff was busy at 3:00 am and there were dozens of boats that had launched and already in the water. We made our way downstream in the dark and settled into the hole we were going to fish at first light. We were not alone. Just minutes after legal fishing time at 4:53 am, everyone had started fishing for this years class of returning King salmon. We had deployed our Brad’s KF 15’s and 16’s and Just before daylight, Captain Justin Thompson hooked the first fish of the day in the hole we were fishing. With over a dozen boats hovering over the deep hole, the bite never really turned on and we didn’t see another fish hooked for the few hours we were there. We left the hole a few hours into the day looking for some water less traveled, but found every hole to have way too many boats sitting over the holding salmon. We had a few tugs before finishing the morning and heading in. Overall the catch numbers were a little low, but thats not unusual for this time of the year. It’s very early in the season now and the salmon fishing on the Sac will build daily through September into October. Catching a King salmon on opening day is a ritual here on the Sacramento River, it has been so for decades. Time will tell, but we’re optimistic we will see a solid King salmon return and look forward to catching hundreds of big kings with our great clients again this year. I think it’s safe to say we will have lots of good days this year and encourage anyone looking to fish for river salmon this year to give us a call and let us help your group catch some great King salmon. The salmon are big again this year from what we’ve seen in the ocean catches and from what we saw on the river today. This could be the year we see a descent number of forty pound class Kings and maybe even a few over fifty! Now is the time to book your trip folks! Now that the procrastinator anglers are seeing salmon caught on the Sac, we’ll likely fill our remaining available dates. It’s unfortunate, but we see so many anglers wait too long to book their trips some years and miss out on a chance at catching a big King salmon or two to fill their daily limit. Even if you can’t arrange for a trip with one of our guides, we can help you find a good guide with another outfitter/guide service to fish with. Thanks and have a great summer!

Captain Jeff Goodwin

7/16/21 Fresh caught Sacramento River King salmon!