Oct
There is still no precipitation here in Plumas County with none in sight for the next seven days. Afternoon temperatures are reaching into the 70’s while night time temps are in the high 30s.
Shorter days and cooler mornings have water temps hovering in the low 60s. We should see high 50 degree water temps within the next week. Water clarity varies throughout the lake, 6-10’ between Prattville & the Peninsula north and 10 plus feet of vis on the East shore.
Fish continue to feast on pond smelt. On calm days you can see smelt boiling on the surface and getting airborne when chased. You will also find floating smelt being picked off the surface by seagulls. Fish are scattered throughout the water column. We caught fish on the surface and a few feet off the bottom this past week.
Find the bait; if you are marking fish stay on them, they will eventually eat. Trolling Gulps at 1 mph and hardware at 2.5-3 mph will catch fish. So too will Jay Fair trolling flies,.
I spent a day on the water with Denis Pierce of Arctic Fox & Jay Fair trolling flies and Justin Wolff of Angler West TV. We fished a little over 6 hours and pulled flies the entire time. We caught 9 fish trolling between 1.5-2 mph.
We had four rods in the water, two on downriggers and two on the surface. Denis and I were changing flies, patterns and colors attempting to figure out a preference.
After a couple of hours the Jay Fair Tui-Chub fly stood out. We ended up catching 6 rainbows between 2 ½ and 3 ½ pounds each on the Tui-Chub. The downrigger rods had wiggle discs and the top lining rods did not. We were working the top line rods in a variety of motions and confirmed Jay Fair’s figure 8 trolling method works on Almanor as well as Eagle Lake, with the top line rods catching seven of our fish.
We will be closing soon. The weather will be spectacular for at least the next week as is the Plumas County landscape. Now is the time to enjoy a fall trip to Lake Almanor.