Lake Almanor Intel?

It's been years since I've been up to Almanor, and have never gotten to troll the lake for trout but I'll be staying in the area tomorrow-Thursday and was wondering if anyone had any recent reports or tips on what the trout are looking for?

I was planning to troll a sled with spoons, crankbaits, and the rest of your garden variety trolling arsenal until i found out what worked. Also hoping the hex hatch is going off so that I can break out the fly rod.

Same goes for advice about smallmouth. Thanks!

I was up there yesterday fished from Westwood beach to big springs. Caught salmon and rainbows at the mouth of big springs. I was watching my fish finder and can see my sinker and nightcrawler and put it at the depth fish were holding. Fish were holding about 50 foot in 65 foot of water. I ended the morning with 4 salmon and 2 rainbows all fish were released.

I was up there yesterday fished from Westwood beach to big springs. Caught salmon and rainbows at the mouth of big springs. I was watching my fish finder and can see my sinker and nightcrawler and put it at the depth fish were holding. Fish were holding about 50 foot in 65 foot of water. I ended the morning with 4 salmon and 2 rainbows all fish were released.

That's awesome to hear.  Any size to the kings or were they little fellas?

Kings running about 12-13" nothing special. Rainbow one was about 3.5# the other was straight off the planter truck.

I was there about 10 days ago, the hatch was over, not many people were catching browns, only 2 landed for the whole fleet of boats, kayaks and tubes. everybody was talking about the disappointing year probably due to high levels of water and maybe the eggs were washed into deeper waters and never hatch.
also the water was too warm.

if you go good luck.

Chris caught 'em all and then moved away!  J/K

Chris caught 'em all and then moved away!  J/K

Yup! 


High water years usually equal a tougher Hex Hatch fishery.  The nymphs are in deeper water and less likely to emerge due to lower temperatures and sometimes anoxic conditions.  But there's usually some fish to be caught.  Try the area between Rocky Point Campground and Fox Farm, 20-30 FOW, mooching mealworms and/or crickets just off the bottom.  The last high water year was 2011, and I did well in July and August doing that.  Troll crayfish-colored crankbaits along rocky/boulder shorelines in the mornings and evenings for smallmouth.  Make sure the crank is banging the rocks.  Fox Farm is another great area for that, with a big rocky reef extended a couple hundred yards out into the lake.

Those salmon were planted as yearlings last November.  Give them another year or two to grow and they'll be much more impressive, up to the mid-20 inch range.

Unfortunately I didn't see any of this until after returning from the trip, but we didn't end up fishing Almanor anyways. Had some luck at Butt Lake though! Took home a 22" rainbow from below the powerhouse. Thanks for the help anyways, next trip up I'll try to hit Almanor.

Congrats on the trout! Butt lake is a great place also. Almanor should be getting good here in a few weeks the trout will start getting into the Hamilton branch big springs for cooler water. And it is a lot of fun with flies.