Most folks arrived Friday night to go to the Basshole Restaurant and Bar which is the headquarters of the derby for the weigh-ins and awards ceremony. Gary Mirales of Shasta Tackle Company gave a short seminar Friday night to help people get a feel for the attitude of the trout in the lake.

Gary said that the cold nights the previous week had started the fall turnover and put the trout on a surface bite, but the last few days the weather had warmed up again and the trout had spread out. His best advice was to watch for bait boiling on the surface and in the coves and then focus your fishing in that area.

Ken, Bruce, Al and I enjoyed a great dinner at the Basshole – their house specialty of sautéed and barbequed prime rib – it was delicious! We had some cocktails and traded fishing stories with many of the participants, all of us excited and anticipating some great fishing the next day.

Saturday morning we were wide awake in our comfortable beds in the beautiful houseboat moored at Antlers Marina at 5 am. We got up and had breakfast and coffee, anxiously awaiting the first hint of light in the east.

We finally headed out in the half light about 6:30 and slowly motored down the Sacramento River arm until there was enough light to run at full speed in safety. Bruce and Al headed over to the McCloud arm to try to find a big brown, while Ken and I decided to stay in the Sacramento River arm.

Ken and I started trolling in the Alumaweld Intruder with the Mercury 9.9 hp Pro Kicker motor off Marshmallow point using Shasta Tackle Humdingers and Luhr Jensen Needlefish set at 5 to 20 feet deep off the Canon downriggers. We caught one 14 inch rainbow right off the bat and then nothing for another hour or so.

We ran all over the southern section of the Sacramento arm – to Slaughterhouse Island, O’Brien Inlet, Toupee Island and more. We ended up with 3 trout to 15 inches for the day. Bruce and Al came back from the McCloud arm with only one small trout in the box. It was obviously a tough bite all over.

At the weigh in at the Basshole, the tough bite was reflected in the small amount of fish weighed in. Many people didn’t catch a fish, and others were checking in small ones like we caught. The lake was beautiful and in great shape – the trout just weren’t cooperating.

The derby banquet was held at the Lakehead Lions Club across the street from the Basshole. The dinner was delicious as usual, serving tri-tip steak or chicken with vegetables, red potatoes, green salad and cake for dessert. The derby committee had come up with a ton of prizes for the raffle, including a houseboat rental from Packers Bay Marina, color TV’s, electric downriggers and a whole lot of fishing tackle.

Sunday morning Ken and I decided to go back to the Marshmallow point area and concentrate of efforts there, instead of running all around the lake like the day before. The bite was again pretty tough, but we did manage to boat 4 fish, including a couple rainbows to about 20 inches and two and a half pounds.

They were caught on black and silver Humdingers and purple and black Mepps Syclops spoons at 6 to 12 feet deep. We went back to the weigh in hoping that we might be in the money.

The Shasta Lake Fall Trout Derby is sponsored by the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association, Shasta Tackle Company, The Fish Sniffer and North River Boats. Special thanks to Antlers Resort and Marina for donating the houseboat – see them at www.shastalakevacations.com or (800) 238-3924.

For information on the Shasta Lake Spring Trout & Salmon derby or the Fall Trout Derby, go to www.shastalaketroutderby.com or contact Harold Jones at Sugarloaf Resort at (800) 953-4432.