One of the great things about fishing in the North State is that if one location is not producing another probably is. Such was the case of my late week adventures to Baum Lake on Thursday and Shasta Lake on Friday.

Thursday afternoon’s visit to Baum Lake provided a couple of strikes and short-lived hookups on my reliable candy patterned Kastmaster, but nothing landed.  In fact, in speaking with a number of anglers only one had landed a trout on salmon eggs at the outflow of the powerhouse.  A few fly anglers reported none landed and no takers on the variety of nymphs presented.  There are plenty of trout dispersed throughout the lake but the bite was just off and none were slurping on the surface to offer a dry fly opportunity.

Shasta Lake on the other hand offered some decent bass fishing despite the changing weather on Friday.  Reports throughout the week has been for solid returns for 12-15 inch bass with a few larger mixed in.  A wide range of plastics are effective as we landed bass on hula grubs, neko rigs, ned rigs and drop shots most in 20-30 feet of water.  Basically, anglers should fish to their strengths and confidences as bass should cooperate.  Effective use of electronics to locate fish will definitely up the count.

Another positive report for Shasta is that trout fishing is picking up and a large plant of brown trout was just completed in the lake from Crystal Lake Hatchery. Hopefully more rain will be on the way as the lake levels have stalled at about 36 feet from full pool.  It should be a good spring fishing season on the lake.