Almanor 3/7

It’s winter, so any fishing story is a good fishing story. Short version, only one fish was harmed today, and it still lived to swim away.

Launched with a friend in his Arima at Canyon dam launch around noon. Headed straight for the Dorado Inn about halfway up the eastern shoreline and started toplining/ripping rapalas close to shore. Got one 19” brown about 5 minutes in. First thought was, this could be a good day! Followed by, what if this is the only fish…we just got started. The latter was obviously what we got treated with. The scenery was awesome, Lassen has a nice heavy coat of snow on it, and we had glassy conditions all day.

Tried the west side near pratteville and did the jigging thing for no action, then fast trolled speedy shiners past rocky point on the way back to the launch. Got off just as the sun dipped behind the ridge line. No bites or takedowns.

Thanks for the report. What a gorgeous brownie. I had too many days where I catch one and only fish right off the bat 

Beautiful catch  . Thanks for the report and picture S-B.

Way to go buddy!! 

That’s a big brown!
Thanks for the report.

That’s a big brown!
Thanks for the report.

Not bad, but far from big for Almanor. Maybe someday I’ll get that double digit fish. Seems like most of the real big ones are landed around the hex hatch and in the dead of winter. I made a few pilgrimages to the lake in December and January, but only one of those efforts yielded fish. One year, I made the drive up from the Bay Area, launched at west shore with a plan of pushing over to the peninsula only to be denied by a massive ice sheet. That place is tricky, but there are few lakes with a better trout fishery IMO

Nice one, Evan.  One fish is better than zero!

I have Almanor on my list of places to fish someday.