Lake Shasta "smoking" fishing report

The fires were burning but the fish didn't care. Thats because they could not get burned at 75 feet under the water. We took a trip to Lake Shasta to learn about downrigger fishing. Hired a guide, Ben Raimondi of Fish'in Comfort(530)238-9789, and took off at 6am in his 25 foot pontoon boat. It took all of five minutes before we got to the spot and set up. The fish were fifty to ninety feet down. Sent down the first downrigger to ninety feet with a ball flasher attached. That is a string of flasher blades run off the downrigger ball. The bait in this case Apex lures are run just above the flashers. The second downrigger was set at sixty feet with Shasta Tackle Sling Blades and Criplures in UV blue, and Sling Blades and Kokanuts in Pink. A second rod was sent down on a Shasta Tackle ShuttleHawk ten feet above the first rod. So we have lures at eighty,seventy,sixty, and fifty feet. Then Ben adds a slider to the top rod . A slider is a small lure attached to a short leader attached to a snap swivel. This is then snapped on the line and the lure travels down to the bow in the line half way between the other lure and the surface.

Now we wait. Not for long , the deep rod pops off the downrigger and the first fish of the day is on. Up comes a nice two pound rainbow. Minutes later a two pound salmon is netted. This action continues for the next few hours with mixed sizes of rainbows ,salmon and a kamloop trout,or native rainbow, brought to the boat to be added to the cooler or released.

I learned a lot about downrigger fishing from Ben. He was a wealth of information and really knows Lake Shasta. I even found some new lures Apex and Weetads which I got online to try in the lakes around here. Learned that the scents which I use are important for the lures and the attractors. They make a local scent called BassWax which all the local guides use. It worked better then the Pro Gel I use. If you want to try BassWax. you can order it online.

The next post will tell how well I learned the lessons of downrigger fishing when I take the Big Jon to the local lakes. So long for now and pray for rain. God Bless, Michael