The Shasta Lake winter trout bite is underway!  I have been fishing Shasta Lake regulary since December began and I've managed to find some pretty good trout fishing along the way.  We've had some pretty significant rains and the lake has seen a big rise in the last month.  Nearly 20' feet is a big jump for a body of water as big as Shasta Lake.  Even with the big rise and a huge influx of rain water, we still have favorable water conditions.  Water temps have dropped down into the low 50's and the cooler water has the feeding fish on or near the surface.  This makes the use of side planers very effective and occasionally the divers too.  I've been using the downriggers but I'm running them down to 30'-40' for those rendom bites from the non surface dwellers.  Spoons are very effective this time of the year and so are the stick baits.  I'll only run one or two stick baits though as I seem to get more bites on the spoons day in and day out.  Trolling speeds have consistently been around 2.8-3.2 mph for the best bites.  December will continue to produce some favorable conditions for the browns and rainbows and will definitely continue well into spring.  I plan to fish Shasta Lake this winter through March before heading down to Colusa to fish for Striped Bass in April/May.  We stay quite comfortable in my 26' lake boat which has a full top and a heater to keep everyone warm and dry even on the wet weather days we see occasionally on the lake.  We have gift certificates for the holiday season and have availability throughout the winter/spring season.  Give Jaynie a call at (530) 510-2925 to purchase gift certificates or for more information about our Shasta Lake fishing trips.  Thank you!

Captain Jeff Goodwin