shasta lake trophy 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