Lake Almanor

CHESTER – Here’s my answer this month when I’m asked if fish are on the bite at Lake Almanor: “You bet!”

Summer has just started here in Plumas County, but a big winter has this lake filled to the brim already. This past winter packed our Mt. Lassen watershed with a thick snow pack, like most of the state, and this 4,500-foot-elevation lake is benefitting.

Around these parts, we’re just starting to tap into the snowpack, and Lake Almnaor is already full of clean,clear, cool waters. Everything is running a little behind schedule this year, and that’s a good thing. Areas that have not been underwater in a decade are now covered over, and were just talking about the runoff: 70 percent of Lake Almanor’s water is spring-fed, so the rest is just a cherry on the top of the sundae. And this year it’s a pretty big cherry, sitting on a pretty big sundae.

King salmon, rainbows and huge browns thrive here anyway, but this year it’s sizing up to go ballistic. As a matter of fact, it already has.

Focus on the many underground springs bubbling into Lake Almanor this month for your best shot at trout and salmon. (Photo courtesy Almanor Fishing Adventures, almanorfishingadventures.com)

A buggy hatch schedule: Almanor is considered to be a shallow lake when compared to others in the north state, as the deepest areas are barley 100 feet deep. Most of the lake, especially the east basin, the depth averages around 55 feet. The west side is even shallower, and that water is the first to warm.

This year, though, the lake stands taller, cooler, filled with cold water from the record snowfall, and more good water is on the way. All this extra wet stuff is good.

Green and red midge larvae that have been dormant all winter and early spring are finally merging up from the muddy depths as they go full bore into the reproduction mode. And the fish are right there, picking them off as they struggle to make their way to the surface.

There are no skinny fish in Lake Almanor these days, and all the hatches are far from over.
The famous Almanor hex hatch, which usually peaks the first week in July, has been anything but usua this year: I expect it to start going off around mid-July, and most likely push well into August.

Looking forward, this really benefits the fishermen, because an extended bug-hatch season can only keep the bite going stronger, longer.

Pond smelt rising: With fish so focused on the abundance of insects available, the pond smelt populations have quietly spawned almost unnoticed and unharmed. These hatches will be in decline soon enough, though, leaving behind a hungry trout population that now has to look for the next chow line. It’ll be the smelt they focus on as we go forward into what could be the best fishing season in many years.

How to catch ‘em: Targeting Almanor’s kings and trout is really not that hard. Needlefish, Shiners, Pro secrets, Rainbow Runners and threaded ‘crawlers all are sound presentations, but it’s just a matter of getting them down to where they need to be.

Downrigging and lead core applications are necessary to get your presentations down below the warmer surface areas. Fish won’t be on the surface very long when it’s 65 to 68 degrees – they will be looking for that thermocline, where temps are in the 53- to 58-degree range.

Almanor’s many springs are a big draw for the salmon and trout populations when the top water warms, suspended offerings fished off the bottom are way better than trolling some days. Crickets and mealworms are great for browns, anchovy tails are best for salmon. Nightcrawlers are effective, too.

Getting down there: It’s important to get your trolling rigs down to where the action is, and to fish your bait fish effectively. As we roll into mid-July, we often find our fish below 30 feet, and leadcore just won’t get you that deep. And the deeper you go, the darker it gets down there.

Dodgers and flashers are often employed to help the fish find your stuff.

Some guys just troll and some just like to bait fish, but if you can do both, and know when it’s time to switch, you will have a better catch rate than the guys that just don’t get it.
It helps to be diversified, open up the entire playbook, and do what’s needed to successfully be on top of you game.
-Doug Neal