Almanor Fishing Report and Lake Status

Lake Almanor - CA (Plumas County)

Almanor Fishing Report and Lake Status

by Doug Neal
8-8-2016
Website

Surface temps reaching 74 degrees by mid day. Clarity, excellent at 20 ft. and lake levels still high. Moon phase is dark, which is the best time to fish Almanor. The worst time is a full moon, especially in July. Aug. and Sept. To make the most out of your time spent fishing here avoid a full moon cycle. Generally, fishing pressure has been light, with a spike around the weekends of course. Most guys are trolling, a few bait soakers, and jiggers are in the usual spots like the A-Frame, Rec. 2, Geritol Cove, and Big Springs. Radio reports on Channel 69 indicate that boats are scattered all over the east basin. Aquatic insect hatches are still popping off here and there, but for the most part it's over. Fish will no longer have large amounts of insects available and will soon turn their attention to the smelt as their primary food source as we move into late summer and early fall. Currently we have been seeing Smelt up to 1.75 inches long. Fast action rigs will soon out fish slow action. Right now both are working ok. Reports of a few fish coming from the Dam north to the Dorado, Rocky Point, and the old river bed that runs nearby have also been tapped for a few large Rainbows and Browns over 4 lbs. We have been fishing the east basin side of the peninsula which consistently holds at 58.5 ft. deep, with a few other boats. Some are trolling slow action rigs, Dodgers/crawlers or large mealworms, and naked crawlers, all very deep, 25 to 32 feet down early, dropping deeper to 12 feet off the bottom as the sun climbs. Other boats are seen switching out too fast action when the slow action stuff ain't workin', including me. If slow action doesn't get a bump in a hour and you got lots of marks on the sonar, time to switch out to fast action. #2 Needlefish, and 1/6 oz. Speedy Shiners are good producing fast action lures. We got several fish all over 3 lbs. and up to 4.8 after making the switch. All ramps around the lake are operational. Expect pleasure boat traffic to increase after 11:00 am. However, expect a overall decrease in pleasure boats as kids head back to school and the summer vacations at Almanor begin to wrap up. After a great day fishing try the ‘Almanor King Burger” at the Lake Almanor Country Club, its Grrrreat!


< Previous Report Next Report >




< Previous Report Next Report >