Fish Sniffer Magazine Volume 42 Issue 13 | Page 22

22 September 8 , 2023

VOL . 42 • ISS . 13

from the spring surface , but they were both way too close to shore . Then I noticed a gravel mound about 75 feet offshore . I nudged the Coastal up to it and we could see a large cable stretching from the shore and down into the water . This cable would have been underwater and invisible in the spring . We walked up the cable and John spotted my downrigger weight laying in the sand , with the rubber snubber sliced by the metal cable ! Got both my lost weights from the spring – what a way to start our trip ! After this fortuitous luck , we decided to start trolling across the main body of the lake out from the mouth of Digger Bay . I knew from past experience in August , that most of the trout would be deep and over the river channels . We put on Speedy Shiners , Humdingers and Silver Horde spoons behind Vance ’ s cannonball flashers at 80 feet deep . We had trolled all the way across the main body before John got our first hit at the mouth of Dry Fork . The fish fought hard all the way to the surface and then jumped twice ! After a spirited fight , I netted a very fat 19 inch rainbow that weighed 3 pounds . In the next hour , at the mouth and inside Dry Fork we landed 11 more trout , including a 3 pound brown and several 2 ½ to 3 ½ pound rainbows . All so fat they looked like footballs ! Back at Sugarloaf Cottages , we barbequed venison burgers with baked potatoes , and nice cigars and bourbon for desert ! Friday we were up and motoring out of our slip at Sugarloaf at 6:15 . The weather was beautiful , a slight breeze and air temperature of 62 degrees . We decided to try the mouth of the McCloud and ran all the way down the Sacramento into the main body and around to the McCloud . The north wind had picked up and was coming down the canyon fairly strongly , even producing some whitecaps . We headed up the mouth about a half mile , and turned around and trolled with the wind . We saw lots of bait on the Lowrance , and most of it was 20 to 35 feet deep . We tried trolling at that depth with no luck , but started hitting them again at 80 to

Lake Shasta is in great shape , only 30 feet down ! Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer staff

Fish Sniffer publisher Paul Kneeland with a 21 inch , 4 pound brown that hit a Hot Ticket spoon right after swallowing a 5 inch Shad !

Photo courtesy of John Brassfield

90 feet deep behind the cannonball flashers . John was doing well with a Mack ’ s Lure Humdinger in black shad pattern , and I was keeping up with him with a Hot Ticket spoon in blood-in-the snow pattern . We caught several beautiful fat rainbows there , and decided to troll under the I-5 bridge on the main body . We only had one take down there , so we picked up and headed to Waters Gulch . There were a few boats there , including 3

A tiny shad that a spotted bass coughed up at Lake Shasta . Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer staff

guide boats . We stayed outside over the river channel and caught several more trout , all very fat and healthy . A couple had some cocopods on their skin , buy many were bright and clear . At one point I hooked a heavy fish at 85 feet deep on the Hot Ticket spoon , and he fought well and was pretty heavy . John netted one of the biggest fish of the trip , a 21 inch brown that weighed right at 4 pounds . As I was taking out the hook , I noticed something in his mouth and pulled out a 5 INCH SHAD ! Measured on

my scale ! Wow ! No wonder these fish are fat ! A while later , John landed a spotted bass of about 12 inches . As he unhooked the bass , he started spitting up shad , and these were barely one inch long ! John used a sliding setup that consists of a short leader with a lure on it , attached to a snap that he snapped over the monofilament line of the bottom rod connected to the downrigger . This setup would swim down to the “ Bow ” in the line connected to the release clip , which we figured was halfway down or about 40 to 45 feet deep . He used another Humdinger , and caught 4 trout and 1 ten inch king this way . All of these were smaller fish to about 15 inches compared to the deeper trout . Saturday morning , we went back to the mouth of the McCloud , then to Waters Gulch and ended the morning at the mouth of Dry Fork . Thanks to the clicker counter in the Coastal , we ended up with 57 trout landed in 2 days , with several at 3 ½ to 4 ¼ pounds ! The rainbows averaged a healthy 2 ½ pounds . Our best lures were the Mack ’ s Lures Humdingers , Hot Ticket Blood-in-the-Snow , and Silver Horde 2 inch Kingfisher spoons in glow with blue speckles , all trolled at 2.2 to 2.4 mph . The vast majority of the trout were caught at 80 to 90 feet deep , where we found 58 and 54 degree water with John ’ s Fish Hawk Temperature gauge . I don ’ t think we ever caught a fish in water shallower that 150 feet , and most of the time we were over the river channels that were 300 to 400 feet deep . We stayed at the comfortable Sugarloaf Cottages Resort . They offer 16 comfortable cabins right on the lake , with one , two or 3 bedrooms , full kitchens with utensils and dishes , comfortable beds and bedding , and great patios with barbeques overlooking the lake . For more information , call ( 800 ) 953-4432 or go to www . shastacabins . com . For more information on the Fall Trout Derby , as well as the spring Trout & Salmon Derby , contact Harold at Sugarloaf Cottages or the Basshole Bar & Grill at ( 530 ) 238-2170 .