Northern CA Freshwater Fishing Report

Trout come-back at Lake Shasta Trout still going great at Lafayette Reservoir; Rollins Lake to receive DFG trout plant BY ROBIN WADE/WON Staff WriterPublished: May 03, 2012

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REDDING — Just as things were settling down on Lake Shasta another storm came through and messed things up for the hot trout and salmon bite that were developing. The question is; can it rebound in time this for this weekend’s Kokanee Power Spring Trout Derby. “I did a trip on Tuesday and we had easy limits of trout with several over 18 inches that weighed 2-plus pounds,” Mike Elster of Mike’s Fishing Guide Service said. “We started in the McCloud arm and caught fish between 16 and 18½ inches and 2 to 2½ pounds. Then we went to Goose Neck in the Sac arm and caught a few more before moving in front of No Name Island. It seemed like we had fish on every 5 or 10 minutes there.” Elster said by Friday he had to work just to get 4 rainbow trout. “It should start stabilizing now and by this weekend it should be great,” he said. “Friday we went to Big Backbone for salmon and found nothing, no bait or anything. So we went back to the McCloud and got a few. Next was Dry Creek for only 2 kings and 2 rainbows, it was a tough day.” Things should settle back down in time for this coming weekend’s Kokanee Power’s Spring Trout Derby as the lake should be in good shape by them. More information on the event can be found at http://www.kokaneepower.org/derbies/20120505.pdf Also gearing up for the derby, Gary Miralles from Shasta Tackle said he hit the Pitt arm for four hours this past week. “I was looking for the plankton bloom,” he said. I found a small area of bloom 4 miles upriver from Arbuckle Flats and caught 6 trout to 2.5 pounds trolling CrippLures and Hum Dingers in red and orange patterns. Fishing guide Al Brown was here earlier in the week and reported a slow bite but by the weekend he had changed his mind. “I went back to Shasta after the storm and the bass were on a great bite,” Brown said. “We were using single tail brown and green grubs on a ¼-ounce jig head.” Trout still going great at Lafayette Reservoir, catfish coming on strong BY JIM JONES WON Staff Writer LAFAYETTE — Extra heavy trout plants made at Lafayette Reservoir for the  Outdoor Sportsman’s Coalition of California (OSCC)  Fishing Derby, April 21 produced lots of limits and whopper trout for contestants, but also has kept fishing success at a high level since then. Catfish woke up big time from their winter doldrums, big time. And, some very nice bass were being caught, too. “We stocked lots of extra trout (3,000 pounds just last week!) for Saturday’s OSCC Fishing Derby and the bite has been excellent all week,” Irene Baker of Lafayette Recreation Area said. “The catfish are hitting big time. Nightcrawlers and chicken livers are working well.” An astounding catch of catfish was made by Cory Smith of Walnut Creek and his buddy, Constantino. They caught 10 catfish totaling a whopping 59 pounds on mackerel from a boat.  Fourteen-year-old Jack (no last name given) from Lafayette caught and released an 8.5-pound bass on a Yamamoto Senko. Rollins Lake to receive DFG trout plant this week and bass action is good BY PAT YOUNG WON Staff Writer COLFAX — Rollins Lake is scheduled to receive another DFG trout plant this week and the timing couldn’t be better as the water clarity was much improved over this past week. Bass fishing was good according to Casey Reynolds at Long Ravine Resort. Both largemouth bass and smallmouth bass were hitting crawdad imitations and some lunker fish were spotted in the shallows recently. The DFG has scheduled a trout plant at Rollins Lake for this week. Casey Reynolds at Long Ravine Resort said that the water clarity on the lake was improving and trout fishing would be much better with the clearer water.  Trollers generally do well at the dam and in the Bear River inlet area. Shore fishing will be good for a few days around the planting site before the trout begin to disperse out into the lake. “I was bass fishing all this past week and the action was good,” Reynolds said.  “I fished along the shores in Long Ravine and in the ponds that are an extension of the lake along Rollins Lake Road and caught largemouths to 3 pounds and smallmouths to 4½ pounds. The fish were hitting crawdad imitations and the Panther Martin Holographic Minnow in rainbow trout with a gold or silver blade.”  Reynolds said that the water clarity in the main lake was still a little off-color but clearing. Water clarity in the ponds that are formed by the lake running through culverts under Rollins Lake Road was good and these ponds hold good populations of largemouth bass. Reynolds said he had spotted one bass that weighed well over 10 pounds but it wouldn’t hit any of his offerings — “it just swims up to your lure, checks it out, and slowly swims away.” The big ones didn’t get that way by being stupid!!