Shasta Lake is known as one of the best brown trout lakes in the west and the spring brown season is right around the corner. A few browns are being caught, but typically we’ll start to see daily scores in the month of March and April. This is a period of the year where the brown trout are holding on structure in the top 30’ feet of the lake and presenting lures to them is as easy as it gets all year. Hungry and full of energy after spawning in late fall, these bruiser browns are in prime shape and eagerly take properly presented lures.

I primarily troll for the browns in Shasta Lake and find that often times, big, fast trolled spoons are my top producers. One lure that I favor for browns is the Optimizer spoon made by Trinidad Tackle. There are two sizes that are available, but honestly I don’t have a size preference because they both catch fish. Refer to the photos in this report for some of the top colors I’ve used, but really, color isn’t always a big deal. Trolled at 3.5-4.0 mph, these big browns don’t inspect these lures, they chase them down and crush them.

I troll Optimizer spoons off of downriggers with setbacks of 150’ feet or more. Occasionally, I will also troll straight off the back of the boat with keel or snap weights to get the spoons down below the surface. Sometimes the browns really like the prop wash and will smash a spoon directly behind the boat. Side planers are a strong favorite of mine and I’ll tell you why. First, side planers get the lures away from the boat and on days when the browns are boat shy, side planers are very effective. The second reason I like them is because you can cover so much more water. Instead of trolling a spread of lures just a bit more than the width of the boat, you can easily cover a 75’ foot patch of water in a single pass. Its also easy to put big lures against the bank where big browns like to hang out in the spring.

These are just a few tips or ideas I’d like to leave you with when you start thinking spring browns. One way to get a good grasp on how I fish for browns on Shasta Lake, is to book a trip with me in March or April. I’ve taught many people who like to fish for big browns how to catch them. My March schedule is getting tight, but I currently have several days in April available. We have some tough days hunting big browns, but we also have days when we get 3, 5, even 7 multi pound browns in the boat in a single day. Give us a call its time to book your Shasta Lake brown trout trip!