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By: Richard Alves
It seems like life moves at a frantic pace these days. With cell phones, email, overnight delivery and the like, not to mention traffic, it's hard to escape the rush even on weekends. So when Harold Jones from Sugarloaf Cottages Resort on Shasta Lake called and challenged us to drop in and un-plug for a couple of days, we decided to accept the challenge and see what the Shasta Lake has to offer this time of year.
The scenery on the drive down from Yreka was absolutely spectacular. Spring had come to the Upper Sacramento River. All the trees were budding out and were almost fluorescent green in color. This was in contrast to the large swaths of bright magenta flowers from the blooming redbud trees.
When we arrived at Lakehead at the northern end of the lake, it was a balmy 76 degrees. We unpacked and settled into our beach front cabin. Harold stopped by and said, "If you really have to get your email, you can use the phone line in the office after 8 PM." Cell phone coverage is too weak and inconsistent to use the modem, so we decided we were definitely offline! We grilled steaks on the Weber in front of our cabin and enjoyed dinner on the picnic-table overlooking the lake.
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 In the morning even Harold decided to un-plug. He joined us for the short ten minute ride down to Bridge Bay where we met Gary Miralles from Shasta Tackle and Sportfishing. What a beautiful morning to go fishing, light jacket weather and bright sunshine. We cruised toward O'Brien Inlet, slowing down when we got there for Gary to rig the 5 new Shasta Tackle Ultra Sensitive rods. This is a new baby of Gary's and he wanted us to get the feel of them and give him our opinion on the rod action.
It was getting downright hot as we began trolling up Big Backbone Inlet. We had a bunch of salmon in the box, but not a single trout. "Usually this time of year we will be catching browns and bows with the same gear," Gary explained. "For some reason we're just not seeing them yet because they're up river, or we just haven't found them yet."
With that, we called it a day and headed for the docks. Spring fishing just doesn't get any better than this. Plenty of action, perfect weather, beautiful scenery and a huge lake with nobody on it. And for the most part, the cell phone couldn't get a signal! After arriving back at Sugarloaf Cottages, we cleaned and packed our fish at the outside fish station and stuck it in the freezer in our cabin. We cleaned up and took a stroll along the lake before heading off for dinner at the Basshole.
For appetizers, our hosts Dave and Cheryl brought out a full selection of what's on the menu, and we all voted the mushrooms and the chicken wings real winners. For dinner we had been told to try the Binos Marinated Steak and the Ribeye smothered in mushrooms and onions, which of course we did. They were both delicious with the Binos Steak winning the honors. The portions are plentiful, including their drinks, and after dinner, to work it off, Deborah participated in some line dancing! We went to bed early, tuckered out and satisfied from a full day of unplugging.
If you're looking for a quiet relaxed escape, fantastic fishing and everything you need close by, Lakehead in the Spring is only a 3 hour drive from downtown San Francisco.
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He set up a trolling array on three 
As we neared the end of the inlet Gary swung the boat around and headed back up the inlet. "I don't have a lot of patience," he said. "If we don't find a fish in a few minutes we'll go somewhere else."
Immediately one of the downrigger releases popped and the reel began to play the sweet music of a fish pulling out line. Gary grabbed the rod and handed it to Deborah (a.k.a. the Big Eraser), who was able to accompany me on this trip. The first fish, a 3 pound king salmon was on the boat within 30 minutes of leaving the dock. The Skunk Was OFF!
We made one more unsuccessful lap around the inlet and Gary decided it was time to move on. The gear was brought up and we headed south toward the dam. The fishing proved much more productive here. Over the next couple of hours we had numerous double hook-ups and boated 8 fish, the largest going about four pounds. We probably released as many as we boated, but when there are that many fish, who's counting. We felt a little guilty watching the moochers watching us pulling fish after fish, but the point was if you were fishing downriggers, you were catching fish, if you were mooching, you might get lucky.
Suddenly, the downrigger popped again and the rod doubled under the strain. I grabbed the rod and the fish responded with three hard pulls and headed straight for the bottom. This fish pulled harder than any I had fought earlier. I finally got it close enough to the boat to see color. We all could see it was a good sized fish. The fish saw the boat at about the same time then "turned and burned" pulling off wads of line. The fight went on as a bald eagle slowly circled overhead. Eventually I prevailed and we netted the 5.1 pound king.
What a fight on this new, truly sensitive rod.
The Basshole is a restaurant, lounge, and tackle shop about a mile down the road. Anglers congregate here in a friendly comfortable atmosphere swapping fish stories at the end of the day, sharing a few drinks and camaraderie. Someone actually produced a Polaroid of a trout caught in the afternoon.
The next morning Crazy Dave's Patio Boat Rental delivered an 18' pontoon barge, complete with live well and barbeque, to the Sugarloaf dock for our use. We had been so busy working for the previous 10 days, we decided to cruise the lake and find a sunny cove to just kick back and do some reading. We wound around the Gooseneck and ended up at Giordan Cove, very peaceful, very secluded. We saw only two boats all day and they just passed on by. It was the absolute perfect conclusion to our Spring Break on Shasta Lake.
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