Lake Almanor--My First Browns Ever

Arrived on Friday 5/23 at Camp Williams in Prattville, West side, Lake Almanor.  The week-long hot spell turned changed just for me, and it snowed on the day we arrived.  We rested up a day and on Sunday my wife and I went out with Bryan (Big Daddy).  It was a warm, calm day, but the fishing was slow.  But I did get my first browns ever.  The second was real chunky.

Monday we went on a tour of Eagle Lake. Tuesday, within the first hour out paddling I caught my first brown from the yak.  I was excited and hoped this was a sign of good things to come.  But the rest of the day, and the next two days of 7-8 mile days of paddling in the wind yielded nada.  I was getting a bit discouraged by then.  But still glad that I'd at least scored one from my yak.

Friday we went on a tour of the Feather River, Quincy and Bucks Lake.  Bucks had just opened up and was rimmed with snow.  The guy at the Flyfishing shop said it was red hot at Bucks for browns and Macs.  His party had gotten about thirty fish in the last 5 days with a Mac to 22 lbs!

Saturday was my last day.  The weather had really turned cold and wet.  After fighting chop most of the morning I decided to call it quits, bummed that I'd only gotten one fish for my nearly 30 miles of paddling over four days.  As I rounded the last point near the camp I got my hail Mary, second brown.  He went aerial just for me and I was stoked!  After warming up, I headed out for my last bit of trolling.  Right off, I caught a small king salmon and a short time later I got my second brown for the day. 

All the browns were in the 2.5-3 lb. range.  They were delicious.  I loved paddling on the beautiful lake and it made me wonder whether I'd keep targeting rockfish as much. 

I also got to try out my remote controlled, electric downrigger for the first time.  It worked pretty well.  I was able to easily adjust the weight to the changing depths of fish I'd seen stacked on the 2nd and 3rd day out.  But I just couldn't get them to take anything.

Remote Controlled Downrigger:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,17749.msg174836.html#msg174836

Marmite you are a sic techie. A brown slayer to boot. I was just diggin' on the pics and then I saw your battery powered downrigger. I thought OMG this guys is a techno nut. Very cool. You didn't fish at Bucks ? Its an early year at Bucks  Its usually still in ice. Big rainbows on inflated crawlers there in early May. Congrats on a way cool trip. and thanks for the pics. Craig

Congrats on the browns Marmite. Thanks for sharing some pictures.

Jedmo

Beautiful fish, Doug!
And that remote-control 'rigger? You always have something up your sleeve man! That is very cool.

pics of real trout!  Not those mutant tail less, steroid, doped football ones from the bay area.  Gotta get up there more often, glad your trolling was productive

Eugene

Beautiful browns! Nice healthy footballs! I heard they were getting some browns up there. I love your rigger.  Very creative.

Beautiful Browns....

 I feel asleep looking at your pics and awoke to a very nice scene...

 Feel Like I was there......

 Nice Trip......

Awesome unique report.  The only brown I've ever caught or eaten was from Lake Ontario and it was excellent. 

Beautiful fat browns and amazing trip Doug. Your trolling system is off the hook.Thanks for the report!

Congrats on the browns Doug!  Was wondering how you were doing up there all week.  Very cool downrigger!

Doug,

That German Brown Trout you gifted me was freaking Delicious! I took a before prep shot but never had a chance to take a after shot. I steak-ed it and seasoned it with some garlic, salt and pepper and crumbed it with crushed cheddar gold fish crackers then pan fried it to a golden brown. My nine year old daughter, who just started to explore what big people eat, took a taste and ended up eating two trout steaks with rice. How fast they grow.

Thanks again for the Treat

Alex

Nice report Doug. Wish I could have made it up there. sounds like you made good use of the weather and explored. Hopefully you will be back. I love that area and I think you can see why now.
 Randall

Wow!!     Congrats on a great trip.  Glad you had a productive outing

Any more pics of that non-brown trout in the picture (tripple.jpg), it looks like a coho salmon (landlocked of course).

Blue, those are landlocked Kings. Almanor has a pretty good pop. of em. I think they only get to 4-5 lbs max but are a great treat. AOTY pts!!
Randall