The wet stuff subsided for a few days this past week. The weekend temperatures soared into the low 80’s, so some research time on Lake Shasta was in order. Sunday was the day for me. Unfortunately the wind was blowing up a gale across the bay behind Shasta Dam, and creeping to a sheltered cove to fish in white capped water was a tense bit of work. But I made it with only a little spray. (Actually the spray soaked my ball cap!)
Okay, now I am all rigged up and trolling in the zone where I had been hooking bass. I have had good success with a brass/chrome dodger trailing a blue Shasta Tackle wiggle hoochie about 20 inches back at 33 to 41 feet on the wire. Spots (spotted bass), smallies (small mouth bass), rainbow trout, and Chinook salmon have all been produced using this tackle. The other pole has a copper dodger with 15 inches of leader and a snap swivel in order to change lures quickly. I also have a slider for experimenting with weight. I am using about 1/2 ounce on it this day and began with a Rebel jointed lure.
Troll, troll, troll, but nothing was happening. Now I begin to alter depth, and switching lures. Still nothing. My sonar is showing almost nothing in the places where just a week before was full of fish, and the wind is blowing my little boat in a manner almost exactly away from my target areas. Grr! But I kept at it.
After a good 4 hours trying the techniques mentioned above, and quite a few others, (even dunked some worms), I decided to give in. On back to the launch ramp I went, and examined what I had learned this day. The best I could come up with was the sharp decrease in water temperature. In one week the temp went from 67-68 degrees to 62-63 degrees. The fish I had been targeting moved into different feeding patterns, and territories. I think the cooler water now up higher in the water column will send fish into shallower feeding zones, and will be striking offerings all the way to the top.
I will try again next week if the weather permits.