Summer crowds on Shasta Lake are gone and the fishing is great!  We broke away from the river salmon grind in hopes of finding some action for our younger clients today.  Once again, Shasta Lake fished very well.  Morning bites were slow to start but we've seen bites all the way into the last pass of the day this week.  Its primarily a rainbow trout show, but our last two trips have yielded browns, bass, King salmon, and today a 14 pound Catfish!  We've caught most of our fish this week at 50' deep but have also had some good bite periods at 70'-80' as well.  Surface temps are hovering around 77 degrees which is surprisingly low for the 100 plus degree temps we've had for most of the last few months.  The Shad are balled up in many areas of the main body of the lake between the I-5 bridge and Shasta Dam.  Most of the Shad are still relatively deep but we are seeing some bait activity on the surface as well.  As the lake surface cools over the next few weeks, we'll see a lot of the Shad rising to the surface before they leave the main body and make their trek back up into the lakes arms in early October.  Some of the trout have some Copepods but surprisingly, many of the trout we caught this week were really clean!  I've been off the lake for about 6 weeks and the boat was loaded with salmon gear with very little lake tackle on board.  All I used this week were small spoons.  Thats all I needed really because the bite was very good.  If you're going to get out and fish Shasta I'd do it sooner than later.  I typically see a down turn in the bite by october becaues of the rapid changes in both the weather patterns and the cooling down of the lake water.  For the bank anglers, start thinking about heading to the Centimudi Boat Launch area to catch trout. When the lake cools the trout will generally head near shore and will congregate in the areas around the launch ramps.  That shore fishery is generally good well into the winter months into spring.  Shasta has plenty of water and plenty of fish so get down there and have a great time!  

Captain Jeff Goodwin