18 September 6 , 2024

VOL . 43 • ISS . 10

Fish Sniffer publisher Paul Kneeland with a 21 inch , 3.25 pound rainbow that hit a white / red spot Hot Ticket spoon at 90 feet deep at Shasta Lake .

Photo by John Brassfield

John Brassfield of Trucksmart Stores shows off a bright 3 pound rainbow caught on a black shad Apex behind Vance ’ s Cannonball Flashers at 80 feet deep at Lake Shasta .

Photo by Paul Kneeland , Fish Sniffer staff

2 ½ to 3 ½ pound rainbows . All so fat they looked like footballs ! Back at Sugarloaf Cottages with a very nice view of the lake , we barbequed fat T-bone steaks with baked potatoes , and nice cigars and bourbon for desert ! Wednesday 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 Dry Fork area where we have had good luck in the summertime in the past . We started right over the river channel at the mouth of Dry Fork and then made our way into the cove , still staying in 300 feet of water . We didn ’ t see much on the graph until we got to the back of the cove on the right , and saw some marks and caught a couple of fat trout . Again at 80 feet deep with spoons behind cannonball flashers . We fished for about an hour and a half , and only landed 4 trout from 15 to 18 inches . John was having luck with a trout size silver / black Apex behind the flashers , and my best lure was the white / red spots Hot Ticket spoon , also behind the flashers . We decided to move to the mouth of the McCloud river , and turned and trolled under the I 5 bridge . We managed a couple more medium size trout , but nothing as big as yesterday . Finally , we moved to the face of the dam where we had seen several boats trolling in the morning . We caught a few more trout there , all at 80 to 100 feet deep . All day we had both been running a second line 15 or 20 feet above the ball , and had very little luck . It seemed the Vance ’ s Cannonball flashers made a big difference . We ended the day with 21 trout to the boat , with only 2 above 20 inches .

Thursday we were up and out of our cabin at Sugarloaf by 6:30 , and decided to go straight to the dam where we had our best luck yesterday . The water temperature was 80 degrees in the morning , with very little wind and

For some great fall fishing and lots of comradery , don ’ t miss the upcoming Shasta Lake Fall Trout Derby on Saturday and Sunday October 19-20th .

beautiful clear skies . We started at Digger Point and followed the main river channel right to the face of the dam , then turned around and trolled back out over the same channel . For the first time , we were seeing lots of marks on the screen , and many of them at 40 feet deep , right under some small bait balls . John added a sliding dropper rig that consists of a short leader with a lure on it , attached to a snap that he snapped over the monofilament line of

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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 . With a black shad Humdinger , he caught 3 trout in a row . I quickly tied a dropper rig with a blue shad Humdinger , and immediately got into some fish . We adjusted our upper lines to run about 40 feet deep , and caught as many on them as on the deep sets at 85 to 100 feet . We fished till about 1 pm , and landed a total of 16 trout that morning , for a nice total of 54 trout in 2 full days ! Great summertime fishing at Shasta ! Our best lures were white / red spot and rainbow trout pattern Hot Ticket spoons , rainbow trout and cutthroat Speedy Shiners , black shad trout size Apex spoons , and even a few on red / white Al ’ s Goldfish and straight silver Al ’ s 49er spoons . Most fish were caught at 80 to 100 feet deep , except for Thursday morning

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when about half were caught at 40 feet deep . For some great fall fishing and lots of comradery , don ’ t miss the upcoming Shasta Lake Fall Trout Derby on Saturday and Sunday October 19-20th . The Fall Derby is only for trout , rainbows or one brown per day , with over $ 9000 in Prize Money . For information or to reserve your spot , call Sugarloaf Cottages at 800-953-4432 or go to www . shastalaketroutderby . com 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 . Also renting cabins for the Fall Derby with a private boat dock is Tsasdi Resort , which is just up the road from Sugarloaf . Contact them for reservations at 530-238-2575 or www . tsasdiresort . us

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