Its been a great Sacramento River salmon season, but its time for me (Capt. Jeff G.) to break away from the river fishing and begin the cold water trout season on Shasta Lake.  Shasta Lake is down 184' feet from full pool, but there's still a lot of water to cover when looking for rainbows and browns. With water temps dropping and lake levels rising with a string of storms this week, the trout will surely be roaming close to shore and very near the surface.  With lake levels down and the trout coming up into the surface areas of Shasta, we're going to see some great concentrations of trout in the weeks ahead.  We'll lose a lot of trout to the tributaries, but with lower than normal lake levels, we'll find a lot of those trout staging at the mouths of these small and larger tributaries making them pretty easy to locate.  Just like every year during the cold water months, I'll be trolling for trout with side planers to get my offerings away from the boat.  Its just the best way to get bites from weary surface dwelling trout from now through spring.  I always have downriggers ready to deploy as well, but only if I'm marking trout deeper than 30' feet or so.  Side planer presentations out fish downriggers 10 to 1 for me during most of my trips this time of the year.  Both large and smaller spoons like the Trinidad Tackle Optimizer series spoons will get lots of bites when the bite is on. My best colors year after year have been blk/white and blue/white Optimizers, but other colors like all black or all white, among others, are good as well. Cold water means faster presentations and the Optimizer spoons are built for speed!  Not only does speed cover more water, but it also gets reaction bites which are sometimes all you'll get when the trout are off the bite.  2.8 mph has been a good trolling speed most winter seasons, but trolling the bigger Optimizers like the #3 and #4 sizes can be effective up to 4 mph in some cases.  I play around with different trolling speeds every season, but almost always do well in the 2.8-3.2 mph range.  I'll be on the lake next week after my boat is ready for trolling and wet weather, but my fall/winter trips will begin on or around November 15th.  With all the bad press Shasta Lake got this past summer, bookings are down and I have lots of available dates through spring.  Its never real busy this tie of the year, but when the fish pics start posting the phone starts ringing.  I'm expecting another good winter trout season on Shasta this year, and with a full top and a heater on the boat, inclimate weather doesn't create any real uncomfortable conditions for our clients on the water.  Jaynie is taking calls for Shasta Lake trips and can be reached at (530) 510-2925 6 days a week.  Give Jaynie a call or visit our website for more information about our winter fishing trips on Shasta Lake.  Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin