Anglers Battle Wind And Big Trout During Shasta Lake Derby   By: Dan Bacher October 30, 2005 More Articles by Dan

If you want to win first place in the annual Lakehead Shasta Lake Trout Derby, the trick is to capture a big German brown. Steve Masloff of Redding, who won first place in the fifth annual derby on October 15 to 16, secured his victory by catching a 5.11 pound brown with a Triple Teazer on Saturday, October 15.

On the same day, Masloff also caught a 2.5-pound brown on Kastmaster lure. Masloff landed both fish while trolling in the upper end of the McCloud River arm – a wise choice since the browns move into the river and creek inlets at Shasta to spawn during the fall.

Masloff couldn’t fish at the same hot spot the following day, faced with a brutal northwest wind, but he still managed to catch a 2.45 lb. rainbow while trolling a Kastmaster off “Potty Point.”  His three fish totaled 10.16 pounds, eclipsing the second place winner by only a tenth of an ounce. He took home $2500 and the first place trophy for his efforts.

“This was the first derby I’ve ever fished,” said Masloff, “although I fish for trout at Shasta regularly. I hooked the two browns on Saturday and was done at 1:00 pm. I was the first angler to weigh in both Saturday and Sunday.”

Kathy Graham captured second place and won $1000 by nailing four rainbows weighing a total of 10.15 pounds. She fooled her trout using Hum Dingers up the McCloud River arm.

Close behind Graham was Dennis Gianbastiani, who bagged four fish weighing 9.48 pounds and won $900. He caught his trout while trolling a variety of lures, including Rapalas, Kastmasters and Needlefish.

Doug Brooks, owner of Packers Bay Resort, braved 3-foot wind chop south of Green Creek to take fourth place with 9.05 pounds of rainbows. He nailed his fish while trolling Hum Dingers from 0 to 40 feet deep. He took home $800 for his catch.

Greg Graham landed four trout weighing 9.01 pounds good for fifth place, winning both $700, in addition to a $100 cash from Walker Downriggers. While most anglers found slow fishing conditions, Graham experienced surprisingly hot rainbow action.

“We nailed 13 fish on Saturday and 12 fish today,” he explained. “We bagged our fish while trolling silver Cripplures behind Sling Blades in Digger Bay and the Squaw Creek arm.”

The derby paid to 25 places, with the 21st through 25th place winners taking home $150 each.

Bruce Dyche of Santa Rosa, who took 24th place on Sunday with two fish totaling 5.71 pounds, had the most gorgeous fish I saw captured during the derby, a 3.65 pound wild rainbow. Gary Miralles, owner of Shasta Tackle Company, and I saw Bruce hook the fish above Bridge Bay on a black and white Hum Dinger.

However, he didn’t weigh in the one rainbow that he had caught the day before, which would have put him further up in the derby standings.

Although some beautiful fish were caught and a few anglers got into numbers of trout, the overall action was very tough. A storm front on Saturday, followed by heavy northwest winds on Sunday, forced anglers to work hard for each fish they boated.

For example, fishing was still great on Thursday, when Miralles and Gary Coe, president of Kokanee Power, landed their limits of rainbows while trolling Hum Dingers and Cripplures. However, the bite had slowed down by Saturday, when Miralles ended up with just two rainbows.

The derby was a sold out event, with all 200 spots filling up. Anglers were allowed to weigh in two fish per day, limited to rainbow and brown trout.  Before the derby, Gary Miralles gave a fishing seminar on Friday night from 7 to 10 pm at the Basshole Bar in Grill in Lakehead.

The $85.00 entry fee included a steak or chicken dinner, no host bar and door prizes and an official derby t-shirt.

The sponsors of this derby were Shasta Tackle Company, the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association, the Fish Sniffer Magazine, North River Boats and Walker Downriggers.

For information about next year’s derby, contact:  Harold Jones of Sugarloaf Cottages, Harold@Shasta-Cabins.com, 800-953-4432 or Dave Dulon of Basshole Bar & Grill, Dave@BassholeBarandGrill.com, 530-238-2170. You can also write to Basshole Bait & Tackle, PO Box 626, Lakehead, CA. 96051. 

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