The spring brown trout fishing has been one of the best and slowest I've seen in several years.  I've never fishing for spring browns during current water levels on Shasta Lake so I suppose its a location thing but that can't be confirmed.  Many of the areas I normally fish this time of the year are producing more browns than ever, they just happen to be a lot smaller than I'm used to this time of the year.  The good news is Shasta Lake is absolutley stuffed with young browns and I'm certain the big trophy class browns are just throwing me a curve ball this year.  We've had spring weather almost all winter and with warmer weather already showing up on the lake, water temps are quickly on the rise.  This phenomenon wreaks havoc on the bite for a short while because as the lake comes to life again in the spring.  The abundance of food for the trout and salmon is more than enough to keep them disinterested in artificial offerings.  Shad, Plankton, Daphnia, Crawfish, and black flying ants are all on the menu this month and that keeps the trout and salmon switching their preferences from day to day.  That being said, we still managed to catch quite a few trout this month and even some of our targeted trophy browns.  Browns to 8 lbs and lots of limits of smaller trout have kept this season worth mentioning for sure.  As the lake warms in the coming weeks we'll see a larger concentration of fish at different levels and a predominant Shad bite which makes these trout easier to catch.  In the meantime I'll be concentrating on the trout in the top 20' feet and will still be running bait, spoons, and Kokanee Cut Plugs to catch most of our fish.  The 3 color leadcore lines have been our best rod lines with 1 oz snap weights being second.  We have seen a few good diver bite days, but the side planers were #1 again this cold water season.

Captain Jeff G.