Shasta Lake is seeing a steady rise in surface temperatures and the bite is really tough.  The bite temporarily suffers every year as the lakes trout and salmon populations focus on the spring blooms of aquatic life as the winter water temps surge upward.  Its really frustrating, but thankfully it doesn't last all that long.  Its happening early this year due to low water levels and unseasonably warm weather.  Inflows are smaller than outflows and Shasta Lake is dropping a quarter foot a day. As we head deeper into this years drought, the lake will drop more and more thrughout this coming summer and fall. This might present some real challenges to anglers who fish the lake this year, but time will tell.  I think fishing will still be good once we get into the May-June timeframes as we normally do every year.  There are still some nice browns being caught, but I think the best brown fishing is behind us for the spring season.  Most have moved out of the arms and are down near the bigger waters of the lake.  We're seeing some good numbers of Kokanee in Shasta this year already and I expect the King salmon fishing will be good as well.  As always, the rainbow trout fishing should be really good starting in May.  It may happen earlier, but I'm not finding a lot of rainbows biting right now, especially down in the main body.  All in all though, I think we're in good shape for a great summer trout and salmon season on Shasta Lake again this year.

Capt. Jeff G.