Whiskeytown Lake and Reports

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Tuesday, Mar 19
Hi: 72 ° F
Lo: 48 ° F
Today
Mostly Sunny
Precip: 1%
Tonight
Mostly Clear
Precip: 1%

Saturday, February 5th, 2022

  • Water Temp: 48-50

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished Whiskeytown on 2/3/22 with my son. We decided to try the mid-morning through the afternoon. Got on the water at approximately 10:30am and went to the big curtain to check water temp and water clarity. Clarity is 18-20' and water temp there was 50. Marked a few suspended fish on several chains at around 40' in 100' of water. We saw 3 big fish on bouys, backed off and gave em about 20 mins and then started fishing. Couldn't get them to bite. We threw senkos, drop shot rigs, keitechs, glide baits and jerk baits along the entire curtain with no bites. Saw one big spot in about 14' of water on a shoal.
    Moved to some other deep water, winter haunts and marked fish on the bottom in 30-40'. Was able to catch several, all about 14", drop shotting an easy shiner at around 40'. Threw the glide bait quite a bit but never had a follow. A week prior I had a 4+ lb spot in the same location come out of 60' of water and nose right up to the bait but she broke my heart and turned down that offering.

    Tips: Fish in 25-50' with finesse presentations. If you can find a school of 5 or more you can get a few reaction bites. We didn't throw any real big baits but you know those work on the right day, right time.

Wednesday, May 6th, 2020

  • Water Temp: 62-64

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I finally got the chance to wash the delta slime off and launch the boat into some clean lake water. For anyone that is looking to do some lake fishing. Whiskeytown and Shasta are both still open. I would just say try to be smart and go straight to the lake. Don't stop anywhere and don't bring anyone with you who isn't from your immediate household just to be safe and abide by the states regulations. The bite was okay for me. I'm not going to tell you it was off the hook because that would be lying. It was pretty slow to start and I was hoping to get on some bigger spots with big swimbait's but ended up busting out the spinning gear and throwing a neko rig. which if you are familiar with spotted bass, they freaking love eating neko rigs. I started out the day launching at 0700 and fishing the back of a couple wind blown pockets. Alternating between a Gan Craft glide bait and a whopper plopper, I managed to pick up two small ones with the whopper plopper. The Gan craft pulled some fish up to take a look but wasn't what they were looking for. With the wind blowing 10-15 mph out of the north I decided to make a run to some calmer waters and a potential transition spot for these fish to move in and out of a spawning area. I started making long casts with a neko rigged yum dinger and it didn't take long for me to realize that was the ticket. First cast I picked a 3.06 and then two 2 pound spots.
    When the fish came up each one had friends with them. one follower was a solid 5 pound class spot. So needless to say I stayed on that spot most of the day. I continued to catch fish but in intervals, almost as if new fish were moving up every hour or so. I caught around 30 fish but only 6 or 7 fish were actually keepers. I ended the day with a 5 fish limit of 14.04, anchoring the limit was a 3.72. No giants but they were definitely around, I just hope next time I'm able to fool one. I got off the water at 2:30 pm to make the long drive home. This trip was fun but it also confused me, and feel free to message me if you have a theory or know something I don't because I kinda want to figure this out. I started fishing and the water temps were 63-65 degrees in most areas, so I expected to at least see empty beds from the spotted bass spawn, and probably some largemouth doing there thing. I searched a couple different spawning areas but I didn't see any beds, not even empty ones. I wondered if maybe they just spawned very deep like 15ft-20ft due to the water being so clear, but I still don't know for sure. it was a new experience for me and I need to do some more research to figure out the truth. Anyways I plan on getting back out on the delta this week and do my best to get on a bite. I just need to avoid the spray boats and all of the other bass fisherman out there lol. Until next time keep on living fast and catching bass.
    Instagram @livefastmovement
    website: https://www.livefastmovementoutdoors.com/

Monday, September 7th, 2015

  • Water Temp: Low 70's

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Water still crystal clear and cold, Spotted bass can be seen is areas wheres there's absolutely no pressure, lots of hydrilia. Blue Gill are still aggressive in those heavy pressured areas as well as from the bank. Fish are being caught mid to late in the evening once a lot of the water activity has died down. A few topwater evening strkes but nothing big. Drop shotting and shakey heads seems to get fish in the boat. Crank bait fishing is slow to none but lots of smaller fish are chasing cranks acting real aggressive.

    Tips: Fish hard, never give up.

Saturday, June 6th, 2015

  • Water Temp: 73

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Friday night the wife and I slept on the boat out at Whiskeytown Lake. We fished from sun-up through about 2pm Saturday. We targeted Kokanee salmon using down riggers between 20-30 feet under the boat. Most Kokanee we brought into the net were under 12” however; we did manage to hook and keep two for dinner that went over 15”. Most take downs were on large silver dodgers and pink / orange spoons trailing 16-18” behind the dodger. We tried all color combinations and at different depths but the bright pink or orange is what they wanted this day.

    Between sun-up and 2pm, we caught:

    19 – Kokanee Salmon
    1 - 15 inch rainbow trout
    1 – 2.5 lb small mouth bass

    The bass was caught (accidentally) on a flasher and my father’s home-made lures (orange colored). I say accidentally because while we had our down-riggers set at 25 feet, I failed to notice that we trolled over a knoll or hump that was only 19 feet deep. All of the sudden our down rig balls were bouncing bottom and the lines came off the down rig clips. It was mass confusion trying to pull up the huge weights and my line became snagged on bottom. All of the sudden the wife's pole was slammed hard. I thought it too was stuck on bottom. While I broke off my rig and lost $10 worth of gear, she reeled in a nice 2.5 lb smallmouth.

    Tips: Flashers/dodgers and bright colored spoons. Running 20-30 feet down and about 150 feet back behind the boat. Troll slow 1.00 - 1.4MPH

Sunday, June 22nd, 2014

  • Water Temp: 69-71

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: The wife and I launched out of Oak Bottom at approx 8am. Water was clear and about 12 feet of visibility. Dropped downriggers to 20 and 25 ft just outside the no-wake zone and hit our first Kokanee within 5 minutes. Using a Shasta-Tackle single UV flasher with a little Cleo 18" trailing behind, we hooked 18 kokes but only boated 9 that day. Three times we had double hookups which made for exciting and competitive fun. Surprised we didn't hook any rainbows but with having nice shinny fish pull the lines off the downrigger snaps all day long, who cares? Biggest was only 14" but the bright orange meat was sure tasty!!
    City: Cottonwood

    Tips: Most fish hit between 60-40 feet of water and while bottom was transitioning upward (around submerged knolls. Also use a shad gell on your shinny targets for attractive smell.

    Take a kid fishing! They will never forget the experience!

Saturday, June 9th, 2012

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    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Launched at Oak Bottom at 8am and ran out approx 1/2 mile around the islands. Wind was at a slight breeze and water calm. Used a UV flasher (Shasta Tackle) with a 3 foot leader and a silver kastmaster. Ran downrigger down only 15 feet and trolled around the shallow points in the middle of the lake. Every pass I hit a 20-24" rainbow. They were hanging around sides of the shallow points. In 3 hours, we hit 9 rainbows over 20" and almost a dozen Kokes (biggest 18"). After cleaning the trout, the males had nothing in their stomachs and the females were will of snails and grubs plus full of roe. It looks like they are spawning on shallow water beads and the males are protecting the beds. Lots of fun with double hookups at times!
    Take a kid fishing, he or she will remember it forever.
    City: Cottonwood

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Didnt do serious fishing. Was up there for a camping trip and wanted to dial in my new downriggers. Locked on to a few rainbows and 1 squaw trolling in between depths of 35 and 50ft. Was using a seps leader in pink color with an orange spinner behind it.
    City: Rocklin

    Tips: Time of day didnt seem to matter at that depth.

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

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    Water Temp: 78

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Fished morning from 7 to 11.Boated 6 Bass ave 12", 3 Squaw fish, 1 Trout which was suprising as surface temp in near 80.
    All fish caught on Shad Raps either Plugging or trolling. Nothing biting on Plastics.
    City: Redding

    Tips: Shad Imitation Lures.

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

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    Water Temp: 47.8

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Day was rainy and windy. Fished breaks and rocky points. Caught a 4lb. largemouth in 4 ft. water off of a break the first five minutes of the day. Using a suspending rip bait. No other fish, missed one off a rocky point. Tried to fish the bridge pilings but it was too windy to stay on them.
    City: Weaverville

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Any recent info on Whiskeytown? I'm in the area for the summer, armed with a float tube, and any advice that would save me some kicking time would be much appreciated.
    City: Anderson

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

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    Water Temp: 52-55

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: fishing was tough caught a few rippin in the mmorning on river 2 sea fetch minnow an then flipped jigs and brush hawgs in fallen trees for largemouth once the water warms around 2pm we skipped senkos under docks for a couple more bites.
    City: medford

    Tips: fishing is still tough and the water is very clear 12-14 foot visibility in most places be stealthy when you go up on the trees and the docks.

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Hey Robert, Whiskeytown lake is an extremly clear, and cold lake. It is a very difficult lake to fish so you don't get a lot of weekend fishermen there, they usually go to shasta. Whiskeytown is fished by mostly tournament guys, that is why no one reports. Try using watermelon baby brush hogs on a c-rig or watermelon red flake senkos in the the fall downs in the coves. Some guys do well throwing trout swimbaits and D-shot halogram shad in a 4 one half inch curltale.
    City: Redding

    Tips: Use the latest line possible, has to be flurocarben, and oil your reels for extremely long cast, and good luck, if you don't get any success shasta isn't that far from W-town!

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I will be fishing Whiskeytown for the first time this year in the end of April. I am just looking for any info on the lake. Forage, will the bass be spawning, pre-spawn..? ect.
    Thanks guys any info is helpful.

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

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    Water Temp: sorry, didn't c

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Four of us in the boat. Each of us caught our limit on Rainbow Trout in less than two hours. Also caught a few Crappie and Bluegill. Hits were extremely fast.
    City: Cottonwood

    Tips: Mostly fishing with live worms but trout were hitting on plastic and spinning lures.

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: turkey shoot on 7-19-08, brandy creek, team event
    6pm to midnight, sign up at the ramp by 530pm
    City: whiskeytown

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: This lake is so clear you can see for the bottom in 20+ feet of water. Fished from 0700 to 1400, all over the lake. Just one small bass when trolling from one area to another. Basically no other fisherpersons on the lake but us. I guess we didn't get the memo....
    City: Redding

Monday, October 8th, 2007

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Will be going camping and boat fishing on Whiskeytown later this month. I have never fished this lake this time of year. Any helpful hints?? We are particularly interested in a bass bite. Thanks for any help.
    City: Redding

Saturday, August 18th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: the day started slow,first fish came on a senko in rainbow laminate along the rocky bank of hyw 299 near the whiskey creek bridge,a nice 2.4 spot then next 3 came from the rocky dam area
    on a darthead watermelon yamamoto kreature bait
    very windy boat control tough off the water by 10 am
    City: redding

    Tips: be slow and deliberate,patience is a virtue
    tight lines a must

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    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: the day started slow,first fish came on a senko in rainbow laminate along the rocky bank of hyw 299 near the whiskey creek bridge,a nice 2.4 spot then next 3 came from the rocky dam area
    on a darthead watermelon yamamoto kreature bait
    very windy boat control tough off the water by 10 am

    Tips: be slow and deliberate,patience is a virtue
    tight lines a must

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

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    Water Temp: 75

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Went out in the afternoon and got hit on my first and cast and wouldn't you know it was my biggest spot yet, 6#. I ended up catching 15 fish in about four hours, nothing big accept for the first one.
    City: Redding

    Tips: Through clear line and cast far from the boat so the fish don't see you.