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!
