Beautiful brown caught this week trolling big spoons on Shasta Lake!
With spring like conditions in the Redding area, we have seen a steady weather pattern and its noticeably improved the bite on Shasta, Trinity, and Whiskeytown Lakes. Keswick Reservoir has also been producing some great rainbows and the occasional brown trout. We are still seeing a good surface bite early, but dropping down 15'-20' on our brighter days is a good move when trolling for trout, especially when light winds keep the surface flat.
Rainbow trout have been destroying this fly to the point most of the material is gone, yet it is still catching fish.
I continue to find success trolling a variety of presentations, but have been finding the most success with medium (2 1/2") to large (3 5/8") spoons and Arctic Fox Trolling Flies. Minnow patterns have been working great, but I'm finding bites on orange or red presentations consistently. White Arctic Fox Trolling flies (www.trollingflies.com) have been absolutely deadly on the rainbows trolled at 10'-15'. Tipping them with a small piece of nightcrawler doesn't hurt either. If I had to choose only one color to fish right now, it would be white.
This great Keswick Reservoir brown trout hit a metallic gold Mag Lip plug trolled at 2.5 mph.
Kokanee salmon fishing on Whiskeytown Lake is also off to a good start and I expect it to heat up with rising water temps in the lake. Water managers will fill Whiskeytown in early April. When its full and the Kokanee have time to adjust, it should provide excellent fishing through September! The fishing is good now and we're still a few months away from taking off. I fished a trip this weekend and we landed ten Kokanee and lost several more, making for a fun day on the water.
We're catching some great Kokanee now we're only going to see bigger fish in the coming months as they continue to grow!
Im already booking trips for our spring, summer, and fall lake fishing trips. I have plenty of open dates year round, but its best to get your trips reserved sooner than later, giving you a chance to book the most convenient days for your party. I can easily book large parties and multi day trips for your group and can even schedule days on different bodies of water seeking a variety of fish species making for an unforgettable trip for all involved. Leave a contact message on this site or give mea call to reserve your fishing trip this season. Its going to be another great year!
