Paradise Lake: Super good trout fishing right now! 1/4-ounce Kastmasters in blue/silver are best. Also try PowerBait or mini crawlers with a marshmallow.
Lake Oroville: The salmon bite is good (and planted Eagle Lake trout too). Try trolling at 45-55 feet using a green/silver flasher and white hoochi. Pro tip: cut anchovies into dime size pieces and put one on the hook with the white hoochi. Troll at 2.2 – 2.4 mph.
Lake Oroville bass are on fire! Try 3” green craw grubs on 1/8 dart heads, or drop shot 4” finesse worms in salt and pepper. Ned rigs in pink, morning dawn, and brown pumpkin have been just fantastic. Some guys reporting 60-plus fish days!
Sacramento River STRIPERS! Use sardines, anchovies, swim baits, minnows, or trolling plugs with worm tails. It’s so good right now, from Colusa to the Delta! I fished Colusa on 4-3-25 and had limits for five people and let several go. We got ours on minnows and swim baits using 1/2 oz white leadheads with chartreuse tail.
Black Butte Reservoir: The crappie bite is excellent, and bass are biting like crazy this week. Use small minnows towards the dam for the crappie, and twin-tail mops in salt and pepper and watermelon for the bass. Deep diving crank baits are working too.
Local ponds: Largemouth bass are off the hook! Buzz baits, spinner baits, beavers, 5″ twin-tails, and 6″ finesse worms all are working.
Shasta Lake: Insane bass fishing right now, using twin-tail mops in cinnamon with purple flake! Brown and rainbow trout are active up the Pit arm. Try working at 10-20′ with trolling spoons. Minnows and night crawlers working also .
Feather River: It’s on fire for stripers here too, from Shanghai Bend down to Verona. Fish are being caught with minnows, or try trolling deep divers with worm tails.
It’s time to go fishing!