Fish Reports

Black Bass Fishing Gets Tough

OROVILLE – Brad Willis and Mike Searcy of Johnson’s Bait and Tackle reported “tough “fishing” on a bass fishing adventure to Lake Oroville in early February. “We struggled to get fish,” Willis reported. “I caught and released four spotted bass, while he hooked and released 10 bass. We hooked the fish while fishing ripbaits parallel to the shoreline. The fish were all spots in the 1 to 2 lb. range. We used the M shad+2 swimbaits.”
On the latest trolling adventure at Oroville by Rob Reimers of Rustic Rob’s Guide Service, he reported “a mixed bag day.” “Brad’s cut plugs were not partial; they catch everything. We got kings, trout, and bass all on the same lure, the Christine Special in the KCP size,” he noted.
Lake Oroville is holding 2,800,593 acre feet of water, 82 percent of capacity and 135 percent of average. Releases out of Oroville Dam have were 9,744 cfs at press time. DWR is reminding the public that boat ramps at Lake Oroville are no longer open 24/7. Watercraft must be out of the water by ramp closing time or they will be locked into the facility overnight. Please plan ahead. More details about DWR’s mussel inspection program are available at water.ca.gov/mussels. Watercraft Inspection Location/Decontamination Services, North Thermalito Forebay at Garden Drive and HWY 70 in Oroville. Hours of operation: Daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sealed Vessel Launching at Lake Oroville is available at the Spillway, Bidwell Canyon, Lime Saddle and Loafer Creek/Loafer Point.

• Dan Bacher

Winter fishing is in its prime!

Cory Kellar of Blackbeard Worm Company gave us this report: Pyramid Lake is in its prime!! This is one of my personal favorite times to fish the lake. The trout are shallow and catching and releasing is easy. This is the main stretch till the Cutthroat spawn and the lake turns over in the spring. Shore fishing is epic! The folks fishing from ladders are crushing it. This is that time of the year that the locals get out to catch monsters and don’t talk about it much. So there is very little buzz on social media. Very few fishermen are talking about how good it really is. Sure we don’t get the big number of fish landed like in the fall jigging season. With that being said, forty plus fish days is very possible. What tops that is the larger twenty pound class of cutthroat are caught daily. Even better than that, the males have on their pre-spawn colors so catching that beautiful full colored buck is in the cards. For fly fishermen, this is the time of the year that the eleven foot switch rod earns its spot in your arsenal, and Indicator fishing is in its prime. The key is having enough leader to allow that bead head nymph or balanced leach to be as close to the bottom of the lake without touching as possible. That takes lots of trial and error and knowing the location you are fishing. Don’t be afraid to ask the folks around you how long of a leader is needed to get the correct drift. Having a good North or West wind to keep your indicator moving to help cover more water is helpful. The wind also makes for sore arms from casting all day. That’s why that two handed fly rod has gotten so popular and why fly companies have designed fly lines just for Pyramid. The Rio Chukar and Scientific Anglers integrated switch lines are a must. They are designed to help cut through the wind with a super heavy weight forward design to get the distance. They are even marked to take all the guess work out of how much line you need out to get a proper cast. It’s as simple as putting the twenty four inch marked area at the tip of the rod and then do a simple roll cast. If there is plenty of wind, the indicator will have all the action it needs. If not make sure your twitching the indicator every minute are so to give your flies a little movement. Conventional fisherman are throwing spoons, spinners, and soft plastics. Make sure you’re mixing up your retrieves. Stop reeling, let your lure flutter down and then reel again. You’ll be surprised how many more bites you’ll get when you re-engage the retrieve. Boaters are using winter trout tactics with long lines and side-planers are the go to methods fishing the surface. Make sure to vary your speeds so s-turns and zigzagging should become second nature. We have found 2.5mph-3.2mph to be the best speeds. As for lure selection all the corner stone lures are producing at any given time. Yakima bait company’s Flatfish in a u-20 size and Mag Lips in 3.5”. Spoons , spinners, Apexes, and Lyman plugs in 3” have been doing well. The last time I was out red dot frog and bleeding frog colors out produced everything else. On the sunny days silver and blues and silver and black lures did great. On the over cast days brass and gold lures as well as tui chub patterns hit the water. Make sure you are rotating through different lures each day to figure out what the Trout want that day. Then start rotating through colors after that. You’ll be amazed just by doing a little extra work how dialed in you can get. It’s the difference of “yeah we got a few trout” and “man we put forty fish over the rail including a pig over twenty pounds”. I’ve truly never fished a lake that every day is different and colors can change hourly. These Lahontan Cutthroat and be super picky eaters at times. So having a well-supplied tackle box in my opinion is the key to success.

Trout and Salmon slow, Bass fishing very good.

Shasta lake is now only 33 feet to the crest and the main body water temperature is right about 50 degrees in the morning. The past few weeks has been really tough fishing for trout and salmon. We have been out often and trying everything in the tackle box and everywhere on the lake. The best fishing we’ve found is just as you leave the main body upstream at the beginning of the arms. The situation is changing daily, so you might need to adjust as you go. The one thing that we did notice is the trout are tending towards smaller lures like Dick Nites, Sockeye Slammers or Trigger spoon Jr. The best colors vary from fluorescent orange to shad patterns, depending on the day. We’re still trolling these at 10 to 15 feet deep at 2.1 to 2.4 mph. The trout are mostly holdover rainbows with nice square tails and beautiful red meat. The average fish for us now aren’t too big, running around 14-16 inches in length. In years past we have caught larger and more fish during the winter. We are looking forward catching some bigger trout as we get closer to Spring. We are still getting some planters and smaller trout that are hitting our lures, but not sticking. In the past few days we’re seeing some floating moss clusters. We are seeing lots of algae growth within 8 feet of the edge of the lake. The lake is also becoming more stained in the past few days. Since we haven’t had any rain to cause the staining, We are guessing it’s some sort of algae bloom. Bass fishing is still really good for most anglers. They are catching lots of fish in depths of 20 to 25 deep. Most of the fish are in the 1.5 to 2lb range and many are being caught and released. The beautiful weather we’ve been having in the 70’s is going start getting them to sit on the flats in shallower water. This is where you have to look closely at your maps because Shasta doesn’t have a lot of flats. Fishing the points and trying to stay on the bottom going into the deeper water is a great technique right now. Swim baits are doing very well in white and blue as well as blue and silver colors. Of course plastics in the 5 to 7 inch lengths in pumpkin is always a great go to for Shasta. Report Courtesy of Rob Hower, Shasta Lake

Target Quality Rainbows with Stonefly and Egg Patterns

TRUCKEE– The extended stable conditions on the Truckee River over the last few weeks have made for good flows, clear water and steadily rising water temperatures. The fishing has been really good and if you were one of the lucky few to think about fishing the river during this extended high-pressure system, kudos to you!
We have been fishing all over the river recently, everywhere from just outside of Tahoe City to all the way down to USA Parkway. It’s ALL been good. The hatches of baetis out east have made for some really consistent action on dries, and the section along Highway 89 has been a great challenge with the slow clear water and ultra-spooky fish. Think long leaders, dry droppers, or maybe even some streamer fishing. We absolutely love this river for the variety it offers along its 120 miles of trout water. With the water temps remaining cold, focus on the slow deep runs, walking speed or less along most of the river, except maybe out east. We have been fishing more egg patterns lately as the rainbows gear up for spawn in a few short weeks. With the precipitation starting this week, worms and stones will also make for great attractors, paring well with baetis nymphs and zebra midges down to a size 22 depending on the water clarity. I t’s also worth noting that there are far more stoneflies in the upper reaches of the river than from Reno down, as they require a high water quality and rocky substrate to thrive. Fish mid-day through the evening for the best results.

•    Miles Zimmerman, Trout Creek Outfitters, Truckee

CDFW to Host Public Meeting on California’s Salmon Fisheries

Sacramento - The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) invites the public to attend its annual Salmon Information Meeting. The hybrid meeting will feature the outlook for this year’s ocean salmon fisheries, in addition to a review of last year’s salmon fisheries and inland spawner returns. This year, the meeting will be held in person at the California Natural Resources Agency Auditorium at 715 P St. in Sacramento on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, at 1 p.m., and will also be livestreamed online. The 2026 Salmon Information Meeting marks the beginning of a two-month public process to help develop annual sport and commercial ocean salmon fishing seasons. The input is also used to inform inland salmon season development later in the spring. The annual pre-season salmon management process involves collaborative negotiations between west coast states, federal agencies, tribal co-managers, commercial troll representatives, commercial passenger fishing vessel representatives, private recreational anglers, non-governmental organizations and others interested in salmon fishery management and conservation. These leaders utilize the most current information shared at the Salmon Information Meeting to work together to develop a range of recommended ocean fishing season alternatives at the March 4-9 Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting in Sacramento, Calif. Final season recommendations will be adopted at the PFMC’s April 7-12 meeting in Portland, Ore. Salmon Information Meeting details, agenda, informational materials and instructions to view the livestream will be published in advance of the event on CDFW’s Ocean Salmon web page. Livestream login information and a handout with the meeting presentations will be posted by the morning of Feb. 25. Please see the Ocean Salmon web page for a complete Calendar of Events and contact information regarding the Salmon Preseason Process, including other opportunities for engagement in the ocean salmon season development process.