Shasta Lake is receiving winter water and she's actually getting more than needed to ensure a full pool condition by May.  Currently, water managers are releasing 35,000 cfs from Shasta to maintain space for flood control.  We are only mid season for our wet weather patterns so keeping the lake down is unfortunate but necessary.  The lake is in great condition though and water conditions are currently quite favorable for fishing.  We have been running trips 5 days a week and we are catching some great trout!  We are seeing a lot of bigger rainbows and a few smaller browns now but that should change soon and we'll start to see the bigger browns more and more throughout the spring season.  Water temps are on the cool side and are hovering around 48-49 degrees most mornings.  Water color is good and the debris we started to see the last few weeks has really cleaned up with the slow drop in lake levels since the higher releases from Shasta Dam began.  We are primarily running the top 15' of the lake with side planers and divers with large to medium sized spoons in tow.  Its just that time of the year and spoons are definitely our preferred presentation.  As the water warms up a bit we'll start to introduce some brined Shad and Anchovies as well as some Brad's Super Baits stuffed with tuna.  Trolling speeds ahve varied with the gear we've been using but 2.5 mph has been a good speed when trolling spoons.  If your looking for the big bites jump up to the larger Trinidad Tackle Optimizer spoons and run them in the 3.5 mph range.  You're not goimg to see a lot of action but the action you see will be worth the wait.  Weather will continue to play a rold in the fishing but soon we'll see more good days than bad as far as the weather goes.  We do have some available dates left for our spring fishing season on Shasta.  If you would like more information or would like to book your trip, call or text Jaynie at (530) 510-2925 Mon-Sat 8:00-5:00.  Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin