14 November 3 , 2023 VOL . 42 • ISS . 15

Thursday Oct . 12 – John Brassfield and I headed up to Sugarloaf Cottages at Shasta towing The Fish Sniffer Rogue Jet Coastal 21 for the Fall Trout Derby . Mark Kalinowski and Dennis Guthrie of Concord and Bruce Wicks and Al Fiske of Foresthill met us at the cabin . Shasta Lake was only about 50 feet down and nice and clear . Water temperature was 67 degrees on the surface . Friday morning , we were heading out of the slip at Sugarloaf about 6:45 am – still too dark to get on plane . John and I decided to try the mouth of the McCloud first thing . There was a cold north wind blowing whitecaps down the water , so we ran up to the Caverns and turned around and trolled back with the wind . Quite a few marks at 60 feet , but very little bait . I got our first rainbow on Hart Special Hot Ticket spoon when we stopped to move and I popped it out of the downrigger . It was about 15 inches and fat . We moved west to Bass Cove and started seeing lots of bait from the surface down to 100 feet . Not many marks in the bait however . The wind calmed down and as the lake became glassy , trout started popping all over the surface . We trolled through them several times , and I finally got one to go on a bright tequila sunrise small Speedy at 20 feet – Beautiful 19 inch rainbow with bright red stripe and gill plates and no cocopods ! Fished until about 4 pm and caught a total of 4 trout , along with several bass . All 4 trout came on 4 different lures at 4 different depths , from 20 feet to 60 feet deep . Friday evening , we had dinner at the Basshole Bar & Grill , along with many of the participants in the tournament . There was a general agreement – the bite was tough , and trout had been caught from the surface down to 100 feet deep . The trout could be anywhere ! Saturday we were at the dock at 6:30 and it was way too dark to see . Fishing officially starts at 7 am . John and I headed to Waters Gulch , where several other boats were fishing already . We trolled through with no love , and decided to move to Dry Fork . Got there and Kevin and Karla Smith and a couple other boats were fishing . I landed a nice trout coming into the mouth of the bay at about 45 feet on Hart Special . Then saw Kevin land 3 more trout as we followed him around ! We trolled out of Dry Fork and decided to try the Centimudi area . We trolled past the boat ramp and through the corner of the dam that has been so good to us in the past with no luck . Stopped the boat , popped the spoon off the downrigger , and found a very small rainbow on – maybe 10 inches ! We ended with only 3 fish to weigh in , 2 at about 18 inches and the tiny one for a weight

Karla Smith shows off the largest trout caught at the Shasta Lake Trout Derby – a 7 1 \ 2lb german brown !

Photo by Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith shows off a fat rainbow caught at 80 feet deep at Lake Shasta . Photo by Karla Smith of only 3.91 pounds . Bruce and Al did better , even had 4 fish to weigh in – they stayed at about 25 feet deep with Excel and small Needlefish spoons behind cannonball flashers . Dennis and Mark had 4 fish for 4.59 pounds . We were the lowest in our cabin ! Kevin Smith weighed in a 5 lb . brown , and a 5 lb . rainbow for at weight of 14 pounds . John and I caught 7 fish in the last 2 days on 7 different lures at different depths – no obvious pattern to go by . Sunday , we decided to go back to the Dry Fork area . We arrived at Dry Fork about 7:15 and started trolling at the mouth into the cove . I managed to land 2 rainbows in a row on blood in the snow Hot Ticket spoon behind Vance ’ s cannonball flashers at 60 feet deep . That was the first time this trip we got 2 trout on the same lure ! Spent the next couple hours in the cove , and saw Kevin Smith catch a couple of fish there too . The slight wind calmed down and the lake became glass , and the trout started popping on the surface .

By Paul Kneeland

John saw one at the side of the boat he thinks would have gone 5 pounds ! I put on a watermelon Speedy Shiner at 10 feet deep and managed to catch one nice 3 lb . rainbow , but that was it . We tried going into the far corners of Dry Fork , but didn ’ t see many marks and caught no fish . As time was running out , we ran back up the Sacramento arm and trolled off the rock wall just north of Waters Gulch , again with no results . Back at the weigh in , we were able to muster a decent weight of 8.52 pounds . Many of the best fishermen we know didn ’ t weigh in a trout !! Randy who was in 3 rd . place yesterday , didn ’ t weigh in a fish and didn ’ t get in the money . And much to our surprise after a tough day yesterday , John and I ended up in 8th place ! Bruce and Al were right behind us at 9th place . But Kevin and Karla Smith did it again , with a 7 ½ pound brown and a weight of 16.92 pounds , for an all-time record derby total of 30.63 pounds ! The three top teams were all fishing very deep . One team said they never trolled shallower than 100 feet , and caught big trout down to 140 feet deep . Most of us doing our normal depth and speed were having a hard time catching fish , even when you saw them all over the surface ! To illustrate how tough it was for most of us , 4 teams didn ’ t weigh a trout on Saturday , and 12 teams didn ’ t weigh fish on Sunday ! The three top teams were all trolling Apex type lures , the second place team trolling 1 ½ inch Apexes behind 9 inch flashers at 100 to 140 feet deep . Kevin and Karla Smith stayed between 70 and 100 feet deep , with his own Apexes and 2.0 mph . The 7 ½ pound brown came at 95 feet deep on Sunday . We had a great time fishing this derby , on this wonderful big lake , even when the fishing is tough . All the folks in Lakehead who put on the derby are very friendly and want everyone to have a good time . We stayed at 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 . Plus , the rooms come with a boat slip , so you don ’ t have to launch and recover every day . 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 .

SEE DERBY RESULTS ON PG 15