Montana Fish Report

Water surface temperature is 34 degrees.

Water clarity has improved to 6.5 feet.

Unusually warm January days have fish becoming a bit more active, and there's another full week of sunshine in the forecast. If you have been waiting for your shot at some Lake Almanor winter fishing action  this is about as good as it gets for January.

Roads are dry, a couple of ramps are operational, and what ice we had is long gone except for a few shaded coves and real shallow areas. Early morning fog burns off around 9:30 a.m.

We came out of Rec.# 1 yesterday and were happy to see water clarity has improved in the east basin.

With thick early morning fog we decided to just start right at Rec.#1 and started trolling toward the A -Frame.

However the clarity was still not good enough to just run lures or crawlers alone, so we ran Seps 04 Silver Dodgers with the UV flash film.

We trolled these dodgers downrigged ,only 4 ft. down, and 100 ft. back, @ .07 mph. We expected these dodgers to sink a additional 8 ft. on there own, so we estimate these dodgers to be running about 12 ft. deep.

Threaded crawlers 16" behind the dodger and covered in Pro-Cure Trophy Trout  got 4 fish, all Browns in the first hour, however they were all around. 18" and under.

The Dorado Inn and into Lake cove was about the same, all Browns 18" and under, there was action but it was  just ok....but just being in sunshine, and fishing in January was the greatest!

With surface temps at 34 degrees, these fish are moving slow in the morning, but after that fog burns off and that sun hits the water and surface temps climb, things begin to pick up.

Bank fishermen are working the Geritol Cove area at Canyon Dam with some success floating baits off the bottom, or Trophy Trout injected crawlers 42 inches under torpedo bobbers. Most of these fish have been rainbows.

Fishing pressure in general has been on the ultra light side, of course.

The bite has been late in the morning rather than early. Doug Neal (530) 258-6732 http://www.almanorfishingadventures.com