Shasta Lake is heating up and so is the trout bite!  Salmon fishing has slowed for us but mainly because they have gone down DEEP!  The trout fishing has been the best this past week and although we're finding some trout down deep too, they have been a little easier to target in the 55'-65' range.  The salmon water is sitting below the 90' mark and the Kings and Kokanee we were seeing at 55' a few weeks ago, just aren't biting up that high for us now.  I'm not going to say it's been easy every day, because it hasn't been.  We're working hard for our fish some days, but we're getting them every trip.  I've talked to lot's of frustrated anglers on Shasta lately and there's some frustration out there for sure!  The trout and salmon have been really picky some days and the bite has been non existent during parts of the day, mainly late morning.  If you keep after them, they eventually turn back on and a guy can get a few nice fish before heading in.  I went back to trolling 6" Trinidad tackle dodgers with a small spoon or a Brads Kokanee Cut Plug trailing 3'-4' behind.  The gold dodgers have been pretty good and you can run Trinidad Popped Eyes or Optimizer Jr's.  The black with green dots has been a real winner on either spoon this year.  In fact, the Trinidad 6" dodger painted black has been a really productive dodger in front of the Trinidad spoons as well.  I've had trout follow the black dodgers all the way to the boat many times.  I know they hit them occasionally, maybe I should string a few hooks on them as well! Those dodgers have really shown to be very attractive to both trout and salmon in Shasta.  My favorite Brads KCP right now is the Fatal Attraction and the Topsy Turvey color patterns.  Add some Pautzke Fire Gel Scents to any of those lures and you'll get bit.  I have a lot of Kokanee tackle, but I've been running some Bear Mountain Tackle for the Kokanee that Matt Welty is tying for me lately and they are definitely a solid choice when looking for Kokanee lures.  I've been sticking to a 2.0 mph troll, but i've done well slower too.  All the fish in the lake seem to be interested in a slower troll this year.  Normally we'll hook lots of fish in the turns and when bringing up lines, but very few are chasing our gear this year. I've caught more fish slowing down after hooking a fish than I have speeding things up.  Every year is different, especially this one.  We still have a lot of fishing to do on Shasta in August and we do have some available dates.  Call Jaynie at (530) 510-2925 for more information or to book your Shasta Lake fishing trip.  I promise we'll have good fishing conditions through August this year so there's no need to be hesitant about booking your trip.  Captain brady's group hooked 16 fish today and over half of them were a few pounds or more!  Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin