Montana Fish Report

Water surface temps are 35.5 degrees, water clarity is 7.5 feet.

Cold mornings, averaging  27 degrees and north winds make it feel even cooler than that.

It has been sunny all week with the afternoon highs moving into mid to low 50s, and more sunshine is on the way, with the next possibility of some rain near mid week.

Lake Almanor access is excellent.

Canyon Dam and the USFS ramps are open.

Private ramps on the peninsula's Rec. areas #1 and #2 are also open. both basins are ice free.

Lake Almanor is still cold, water surface temps are holding below 36 degrees. 

The fish are moving slowly and they are scattered all over the lake, and it seems like there are no real hot trolling lanes established yet.

We caught a fish here and there, just trolling around the entire east basin... in a word..random.While trolling we passed several other boat  this week, and the story was the same, you have to work a little longer for your dinner these days.

Silver Needle fish and Speedy Shiners rigged from five to 15 feet down seemed to be the trolling ticket, hooking a mix of rainbows and browns.  We also ran stuff deeper for a couple of hours but never got a bump, so we brought it back up and got right back into the action, with most of our catch averaging  around 1-1/2 lbs. That's small for Almanor.

Most of these fish were plants from last year and are looking pretty good for February... plump rather than slender.

Geritol Cove has been the most pressured area the past week, from boat or shore line, there's always a few anglers around, and they are catching fish on a variety of bait applications like Power Baits, salmon eggs,crawlers and even jigs. It’s not hot action, but you never know, two Browns over three pounds took white jigs right here in the cove, in shallow water.

The second most pressured area this week is the cove in the back at Big Springs, Salmon eggs worked back along the bottom get rainbows  to occasionally strike.

In general fishing pressure has been on the light side, as usual for February.

However this years winter access has never been better for this high elevation lake, and fishing on sun sparkled water sure beats watching another re-run of Caddyshack.  

 For Lake Almanor details and projections check out this link.

http://www.project2105.org/lake_levels.htm

Lake levels are still low, watch for hazards.

Feather River is clear and fast.

Hamilton Branch powerhouse is starting to clean up, no fishing reports.

Bailey Creek is running , but just a little as the snow pack is all but gone .

Safety first.

Almanor winds can be dangerous. Watch for hazards, there's submerged stumps all along the shoreline and known shallow areas these days.

Smaller boats not advised if wind is forecasted.

Dress for cold morning conditions. Doug Neal (530) 258-6732 http://www.almanorfishingadventures.com