Retirement - Best Lake in NorCal

The Lakehead, O'Brien, Salt Creek areas of Lake Shasta have private residences that back to the Sacramento and McCloud arms of Shasta.

All the requirements are there, plus an added bonus of a great variety of wildlife. Within 30 minutes is Redding. And Shasta isn't the only option; I could write an enormous list of fishable waters just within 90 minutes.

The only drawback is that Big Blue is 3 hours away.

From a tax perspective, Nevada is much better for retired folk. California is messed up financially and it's only going to get worse. East shore Lake Tahoe would be my choice. It's cold in the winter and there are some crime issues. Nevada is gun friendly though.

Best lake? The ocean! One thing to consider is that you can't control the future of many of the lakes. Dams get taken down, rain stops, a spotted thorny gopher eel is found, and there goes your lake!

I spent a lot of my childhood on Shaver Lake. I don't know what's brought the water down in the last 10-15 years, but I know that I don't want to see it in the state it's in now.

This topic is very timely as my wife and I were day dreaming about a cabin on a lake or pretty creek/river. 

We are more interested in smaller lakes where motors aren't allowed or limited to 5mph for the whole lake.  The two lakes that we had really magical times at with the kids were Wrights Lake and Medicine Lake.  Haven't even checked for listings as we're pretty sure we can't afford it.  But man, it was nice day dreaming about watching our girls grow like wild flowers while playing their summers away on lakes like that. 

How about a piece of property and I can just park my travel trailer on it?  Any suggestions on where I can do that?

Blue lakes is where you want to be.

^ +1 on that!

You know, they filmed the movie The Great Outdoors at Bass Lake near Fresno....

Not a lake but I think Shelter Cove would make a great retirement place. 

Rey

Bass is a beautiful lake, but too small. All summer long it is beat by the skiers, loud boats n jet skis. Water beats you up trying to fish. This time of year when they are not there it is much nicer, but is still small. It alos gets too hot in the summer, 100 is not uncommon.

I really like Bass Lake. The negatives already pointed out are true, but for probably 2/3 of the year it would be great.

Matt

Not CA but I've had 2 houses in Havasu. Most people are there during the summer so the winters are really quiet. An added bonus is you can easily rent your house out during the summer and travel. Or inversely lots of people that own houses there look to rent them for the entire winter to retired folks and come back for the party summers. For CA I'm liking Redding, lots of water to fish and paddle and the weather isn't too bad, gets a little hot but the trade off is mild winters. For what your looking for lake siskiyou in Mt Shasta city comes to mind. It's a different California up here.

Thanks a lot of good insight to consider,

Anyone know anything about fishing in some of the gated communities, places like Lake Wildwood near Penn Valley, Pine Mountain Lake near Groveland or Lake of the Pines near Auburn?

I know the areas because I grew up along the HWY 49 corridor but don't know how good the fishing is or how bad the boat traffic is?

Just something to consider about "retirement" is quality and accessibility of medical services.

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When I was a kid, some of my earliest memories were date palm trees and fresh breezes off the waters of a sea north of El Centro. It was a wonder back then. Beautiful ladies waving from their convertibles. Resorts with pools. A real nice place to visit. I thought it might be a good place to retire with a cold drink, fishing pole and some plastic pink flamingos in front of my Airstream trailer.

Maybe someday the glory will return...