Following nearly three feet of snow in the second week of April, the beautiful warm day's of Spring have returned and the snow is rapidly melting. With many trout plants over the past weeks, all makes a perfect setting to fish Shaver Lake.

Several trophy sized trout have been reported caught from the shore using Power Bait, Gulp! Bait and Pautzkies Egg's. The Shaver Lake Trophy Trout Project is hosting it's summer fishing derby which began April 15th and extends through August 15th. The winner will be the guest of the SLTTP at it's 2nd Annual SLTTP Sportsmen's Dinner on August 18th. All fish are to be weighed in at The Shaver Lake Sports or Young's Sporting Goods in Shaver.

The leading trout so far was a, 4 lb.- 21 inch rainbow, caught by Tat Brewer from Fresno fishing from the bank using Power Bait. The best locations remain road's one and two, Bikini Cove and the shoreline around Edison Campground.

Trollers having been connecting with a variety of size trout from catchables to a few 4 pounders. Many have been 14 to 16 inches. Trout Busters tipped with crawler and other crawler/flasher combinations have been the most productive so far. The better spots have been in the Sierra Marina Cove and in front of the dam. Some of the trout have found their way down into deeper water, while the newer plants continue near the surface looking for the feed they were fed at the hatchery 4 times a day. They too will go down with the others to a depth of 15 to 21 feet deep. When they get at that level, down riggers are the best source to get to desired depths, but without a down rigger, weighted Mountain Flashers have been the best troll to get to the right depth.

I will start my 2012 charter season on April 28th fishing with two clients. I have been patient to allow the new fish to acclimate themselves before going onto the lake. Many shore anglers have taken several of the trophies in one trip. The SLTTP asks that anglers keep one trophy sized fish and finish their limits with smaller sized fish. Catch and release, keeping one trophy, is necessary to keep this trophy fishery going.