Montana Fish Report

Surface temperatures are 66.5 degrees, and will continue to cool.

Clarity has been reduced to about 10 feet.

With rain in the forecast for midweek, expect surface temps to continue to decline. This cooling can only help the morning bite, which has been just Ok the last couple of days. It has been the late afternoon bite that has been producing bigger fish and more of them.

Fish have been closer to the surface with the cool down and a little breeze helps defuse that sunlight,  so some of the best fish have come down as little as 10 feet.

Last week you needed to be down 30+ feet to get into them - not anymore, good news for the leadcore trollers.

I have been out the last five days straight and here’s the scoop around Lake Almanor.

A-Frame: Great salmon action, browns and rainbow are there too.

What makes the A-Frame special? Springs, several of them. Bait fish are drawn here, followed by the feeders. Anchovy tails suspended 4 to 6 feet off the bottom for salmon. Nightcrawlers, mealworms for browns and rainbows. The salmon look like the 2 to 3 year olds and have been going 16 to 18 inches and thick. Browns and rainbows have bigger, up to 4 pounds.

However, if the bait balls at the A-Frame are thick don't waste your time moochin. Trolli  around the area to get fish lurking around trying to find the bait balls. Needlefish, and Shiners in nickel, silver, white, downrigged down no deeper that 35 feet all look like smelt running through the water.

The Hamilton Branch powerhouse is running both chutes. The additional flows have stacked fish out in front of the mouth.  White jigs and bait have been effective producing some nice fish in the 3 pound range. Salmon are around the area as well. We picked a 4.8 pound king there with a nickel/hammer finish, 1/6 oz. Speedy Shiner, rigged down 25 ft.

Canyon Dam: if you can just discipline your self enough to stay there you will get fish trolling. Canyon Dam has the largest concentrations of smelt, and stands to reason there are also the largest concentrations of fish about.

Make no mistake about it – it’s all about the smelt. All the fish we checked are full of them.

The smelt are thick, clouds of bait fish the size of school buses.

Brown trout pre-spawn activity should begin soon, especially with the incoming weather systems and shorter days.

Look for places like Rec. 2, Prattville, near the towers, Big Springs, to take off. Cured roe is a brown trout favorite treat. Also white Jigs are going to get hit as well. We had lots of hit off jigs while on anchor bait fishing and lots of fish following it back to the boat... a couple of the Browns were HUGE...not hitting, but giving it a good look.

 Access accurate Lake Almanor data at http://www.project2105.org/lake_levels.htm.  Doug Neal (530) 258-6732 http://www.almanorfishingadventures.com