Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 2724 Nov 9-23 | Page 11

Nov 9 - 23, 2018
VOL.37 • ISS. 24
11
Must Fish Trout Spots
presents
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Here we see author Cal
Kellogg with a quality Lake
Shasta brown trout. During the
late fall and winter fishing for
both rainbows and browns can
be amazing at Shasta and best
of all, crowds tend to be very
light during the cold weather
months.
A
^
French Meadows is a
great high sierra producer
of both browns and rainbows for
both boaters and bank anglers.
Fall is a great time to visit the
lake when cool temperatures
bring the trout to the top of the
water column where they feed
vigorously in preparation for
winter.
<
Collins
Lake is a
great place to
spend a fall or
winter day with
the family. Collins
is one of the
north state’s most
heavily stocked
trout lakes and
the rainbow
fishing can be
inspiring during
the late fall.
>

These big rainbows were caught
during a trolling trip to Don Pedro
Reservoir. Don Pedro is one of the
best rainbow fisheries in the state. The
average trout goes 2 pounds and 5
pounders are common. In the late fall
and winter you’ll find the trout on top
feeding on shad.
Top Trout Destinations
For This Fall & Winter
s I sit here at my desk looking out
the window, I’m preparing to go on
the road to Lake Almanor and Butt Valley
Reservoir in search of trophy fall trout
from Hobie kayak.
When I get back from Plumas County
I’m going to spend a week or
so hunting for deer and bears
and then I’ll be back on the
water searching for big trout
once again. The questions is
where?
Thinking about this
question provided the
catalyst for this article! With
so many fine trout fisheries
dotting the state, sometimes
it’s tough to settle on a
destination. There are a long
list of spots that I might fish
in the coming weeks and
months and then there are
the “MUST FISH” destina-
tions that I absolutely have to visit.
I’ve come up with a quartet of fisheries
dotting northern and central California that
I’ll be visiting in the not so distant future.
Perhaps review my notes on these fisheries
will inspire you to visit one of more of
them. If you see a guy on the water in a
kayak with a yellow lab, that’s probably
me!
is staggering.
The average rainbow caught at Shasta
ranges anywhere from 12 to 16 inches. Fish
ranging up to 20 inches and 3 plus pounds
are pretty common, but rainbows larger
than that are a rare commodity. This means
that fishing for rainbows at Shasta is more
of a numbers game rather than a
trophy hunt.
While you can catch rainbows
at Shasta during any month of the
year, the fall is a special time on
the big lake. The lake’s rainbows
as well as it’s spotted bass feed
well during the fall, but with
hunting seasons underway and
big bad kings in the Sacramento
River, fall fishing and boating
pressure on Shasta is typically
very light.
For me my coming Shasta
adventure is going to be a
multiple day camping trip. I’m
planning to stay on the move in my kayak,
camping in a different cove every night.
I’ll be trolling the top 20 feet of the
water column with Mack’s Lure Hum
Dingers and other shad imitations. I plan
on hooking a bunch of rainbows and some
bonus spotted bass.
FISH SNIFFER
HOW – TO
by Cal Kellogg
Lake Shasta: The State’s Premier
Rainbow Reservoir
That’s a pretty bold statement, but it’s
absolutely true. Lake Shasta is truly a
magnificent fishery. It sets a high standard
against which all other California Lakes
are measured.
The lake is enormous in size, impounding
water from the Sacramento, McCloud and
Pit Rivers. The waters of the lake support
a massive forage base in the forum of
threadfin shad. The biomass of rainbow
trout that reside in the lake, both in the
form of planted and naturally spawned fish
French Meadows Reservoir: ‘Bows And
Browns Near The Sierra Crest
French Meadows Reservoir is situated in
a heavily timbered granite valley at 5,200
feet near the headwaters of the Middle Fork
of the American River. The Sierra Nevada
crest is a scant 9 miles distant.
The lake is fairly large boasting 1,900
surface acres and more than 8 miles of
shoreline when at full capacity.
The nearest town to French Meadows
is the hamlet of Foresthill, which sits east
Auburn, California.
French Meadows has a strong population
of wild brown trout that range up to an
beyond 6 pounds. The lake is stocked with
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