SHASTA LAKE SPRING TROUT & SALMON DERBY

By Paul J. Kneeland

The 22nd annual Shasta Lake Spring Trout & Salmon Derby took place on the first weekend of May at Lakehead on the upper Sacramento arm of Shasta Lake. The lake was full to the brim this year and absolutely gorgeous. The Spring derby includes brown and rainbow trout (only 1 brown weighed in per day per team), kokanee salmon and King salmon(only 2 kings per day).
We stayed at the lovely Tsasdi Resort at Lakehead and we had 3 teams in our large cabin, including myself and John Brassfield, Dave Barsi and son in law Mark Talkington, and Kurt and Jen Kock who traveled all the way from Wyoming to fish the derby. We moored all 3 boats at the Tsasdi docks right below the resort. Thursday evening, we gathered at our nice cabin at Tsasdi and had a wonderful dinner of barbequed steaks, combined with potatoes, green salad and red wine. What a great way to start a long weekend of fishing. The official derby is always on Saturday and Sunday, so we all pre-fish on Friday to try to get a “lay of the Land” so to speak. Friday morning was clear and beautiful, with a slight north wind and a cool temperature of 45 degrees at 5:30 am. John and I always explore on Friday, going to places we don’t normally fish, saving our “good spots” for the real derby days. We headed out in the Fish Sniffer Rogue Jet Coastal 21 and decided to run up the McCloud arm to see what it looked like. It was a long boat ride with the lake being so full. We started trolling near Dekka’s rock and John landed a nice 19 inch rainbow on a 3 inch Apex at 15 feet deep. That would be a money fish in the derby! We caught a couple black bass as we trolled downstream. After about an hour with no more trout, we headed down and turned into the Pit River arm. We ran to Silverthorn Resort, and then turned and started trolling west toward the I-5 bridge. We landed 4 rainbows and 1 brown on Friday. All the trout came on different lures, including Apexes, Speedy Shiners and Hot Ticket spoons, with different colors and different depths, so there was no rhyme or reason to any pattern. Friday evening, we convened at the Bass Hole for drinks and dinner, and good natured comraderie with the other fishermen in attendance. We enjoyed the excellent Basshole Tri Tip sandwich and also the Ruebenator sandwich with homemade fries that filled all of us to the “gills”. Back at our cabin, we had a touch of bourbon and a cigar and tried to figure out a plan for Saturday. Saturday morning, John and I headed down to the boat about 5:15 am. The weather was beautiful and calm with a temperature of about 50 degrees. We had decided to try the Salt Creek area first thing in the morning. We were trolling by 5:30 eastbound up the arm. We made one pass and hooked 2 trout right at the mouth of the bay. I landed a nicely colored 16 inch brown on a white/red dot Excel spoon behind Vance’s cannonball flashers at 50 feet deep, and John landed a decent rainbow that hit his 00000 spoon on the surface! Again, no pattern that we could follow. We tried fishing the Gooseneck area of the Sacramento arm and still no results. We had not seen any bait and only a few marks on the Lowrance graph wherever we went. Finally, we ran over to Dry Fork and trolled into the northern bay and started marking some trout. We caught a couple in the bay at 30 feet deep and also at 10 feet deep. Nothing real big, but at least we had enough to weigh in. As we started to head in to the docks, the big black clouds that had been coming in from the north started getting lower – and closer. By the time we reached the dock and started tying the boat down, it was pouring rain and some hail. We got soaked walking the short walk to the truck from the boat! The weigh in for the derby is at the Bass Hole and Brews parking lot in Lakehead. In the rain, everyone in line were trying to stay under the eaves of the building. Most fisherman had caught fish, and the top 10 folks all had at least one brown or rainbow of 3 to 5 pounds in their bag. Big fish of the day was an 6.57 pound brown caught by the Chris Dunham team. Sunday morning, we were on the boat and heading out before 5:30. The weather had cleared up overnight and cooled off a bit, but no more rain. John and I headed to Waters Gulch where we have had luck before. We trolled back and forth and only caught a couple bass. Then we headed to Dry Fork where we caught fish yesterday. We had talked to a few guys yesterday that said they were catching big salmon and trout in the area – using bait like shad or anchovies behind big dodgers – and 100 to 140 feet deep! We didn’t have any bait, but rigged up with dodgers and hootchies and sent them down deep. There was about 15 boats in the Dry Fork cove, and we only saw one fish caught while we were there. Just not our day, I guess. Finally, late in the day with only one small rainbow in the box, we headed up the Sacramento arm and started trolling in the Elmore Bay area. The big north wind that was promised showed up about noon, and made controlling the boat a bit of a chore. At 2:30 we made the decision not to go to the weigh in and be embarrassed with only one small trout. Friends Mike Burley and Jerry Ford of Foresthill told us they had caught a few trout trolling fast with Rapalas, so we switched up and started trolling at 3 to 3.5mph. John caught a couple on a red/gold Excel spoon and I got a couple on a watermelon Speedy Shiner. In an hour or so we landed 4 decent rainbows!! Finally figured something out! Too late and too little however for competing in the derby.
Back at the weigh in at the Bass Hole, there was a pretty good line up of folks weighing in which is always a good sign. To be in the money, you had to have landed at least one 3 to 5 pound trout. The winning team was the Nick Britto team with a total 2 day weight of 22.51 pounds and the grand prize of $2000. Cash prizes were paid all the way down to 20th place.
The Shasta Lake Trout derbies are always a lot of fun for all of us. Shasta Lake is an amazing fishery, not only for trout, but for bass, crappie, king salmon and now kokanee! The derbies feature an included dinner at the Lions Club in Lakehead with excellent food and great camaraderie. The weigh ins are always produced at the remodeled Bass Hole and Brews bar and grill in Lakehead that features many craft beers, great cocktails and good food. We stayed at the lovely Tsasdi Resort in Lakehead. Tsasdi features 20 cabins with one, two or 3 bedrooms, plus heated swimming pool, 230 foot concrete dock, game room, satellite TV and much more. They also have an incredible venue for weddings, retreats and reunions. For more information, give them a call at 530-238-2575 or go to www.tsasdiresort.us For more information on the Spring Trout & Salmon Derby held in May of each year, go to www.kokaneepower.org. The Shasta Lake Fall Trout Derby held in October of each year is presented by the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association. For information, go to www.shastalaketroutderby.com

Cutlines

Photo 1: Chris Dunham admires the 6 pound brown he caught on Saturday morning at the Shasta Lake Spring derby. Photo courtesy of Mary Dunham

Photo 2 Photo 2 -- John Brassfield of Foresthill shows off a nice king salmon taken from Big Backbone area of Shasta Lake. (photo by Paul Kneeland, Fish Sniffer staff)

Photo 3 Ominous black clouds coming from the north brought a downpour on the weigh in for the Shasta Derby on Saturday.
(photo by Paul Kneeland, Fish Sniffer staff)

Shasta Spring Derby 2025 Top Ten Teams

Nick Brito Team 23.51 lbs. 17.23

Dale Gibbons Team. 22.98 lbs. 16.54 Mike Giovacchini Team 22.28 lbs 16.48 Kenny MacDonald Team 22.18 lbs 14.59 Chris Dunham Team 21.94 lbs 14.45 Richard Contrearas Team 20.59 lbs 14.33 Kevin Smith Team 19.52 lbs 14.23 Dave Koistinen Team 17.84 lbs 13.91 Craig Perry Team 17.70 lbs 13.69 Butch Jacobson Team 17.12 lbs 13.38

Cutlines:

Photo 1: Chris Dunham of Roseville admires his 6 pound brown that won the Big Fish prize for Saturday at the Shasta Lake Spring Trout & Salmon derby. Photo courtesy of Mary Dunham

Photo 2 -- John Brassfield of Foresthill shows off a nice king salmon taken from Big Backbone area of Shasta Lake. Photo by Paul Kneeland, Fish Sniffer Staff

Photo 3 – Menacing dark clouds coming from the north poured rain on the weigh in line on Saturday at the Shasta Derby. Photo by Paul Kneeland, Fish Sniffer Staff