Its August, its been very hot all summer, and Shasta Lake is now 149' below full pool.  So how has this years environmental conditions affected the salmon and trout fishing on Shasta Lake?  Well from where I sit, conditions haven't been all that much different from most of our summer seasons gone bye.  Surface temps have been hovering around 81-82 degrees in July and August which is normal for this time of the year.  The cold water is much deeper than normal (about 90' feet down) and we're not fishing some of the areas we normally fish this time of the year because those areas have shallower water than we normally see in August.  Because the lake levels are down from normal years, we're fishing the old river channels which are sitting down in 250' to 320' on average.  The old submerged river canyons are steep so getting away from the channels can put you in shallower water than you realize in a hurry, especially if your fishing down 80'-100' where we're seeing a lot of our salmon and trout sitting right now.  I'm using dodger/spoon combo's now that we're fishing deep and that seems to be paying off most days.  I'm also trolling a bit slower than normal and 1.8-2.0 mph seems to be my best trolling speed for salmon and trout.  Fishing down by the dam has been the best for me lately as we're seeing some relatively clear water down there opposed to many other areas of the lake that are staying fairly dirty this year.  Thats not to say that the water clarity isn't better down 80'-100' deep, but I have no way of really knowing how colored up it is down there.  I have found that the brighter tackle colors have been more effective for me than the silvers and gold's i'm used to running this time of the year.  Go bright and go deep and you should find some biters out there.  Shasta normally fishes really good through September, but remember, lake conditions change a lot in October when we begin to see some big changes in water temps on the lake. After September, you'll have to start looking for the fish again as they disperse from the depths of the main body of the lake.  The aforementioned information should help anglers stay on the fish until I can provide some fresh reports in the fall after the river salmon season winds down for a few of us.  The lake will drop slowly and the boat launch access at Centimudi should be good until the summer season on Shasta Lake comes to an end.  Thanks for following our Shasta Lake reports this summer, I'll be looking forward to starting back up on Shasta Lake in late fall.

Captain Jeff Goodwin