Sacramento River rainbows still taking egg patterns!

Sacramento River rainbow trout trips are lots of fun and March-May will be your best time to book looking ahead!
Photo Credit: JGGS Fishing Team.

by Jeff Goodwin
2-5-2020
Website

I love catching big Sacramento River rainbow trout and steelhead on plugs, but with all the floating vegitation on the river right now, plugging just isntan option.  Plugs foul within minutes and bites at that point become unlikely.  We've been doing really well on egg patterns the past few months, but with many of the fall and late fall King salmon having finished spawning, egg patterns havent been as hot as they had been.  They'll still take them, they always do.  Its just not a hot bait as of now.  March, April, and May will bring some really good fishing to the lower Sac once again, especially if the flows begin to ramp back up.  Dry weather is not our friend this time of the year.  Shasta water is held back in an effort to fill her, so that means low flows into the Sac. When we have wet weather systems dumping rain here in Redding, water conservation isn't on the minds of water managers and we get big flows.  Thats not the case at all now, and flows are currently set at 4,000 cfs, beginning tomorrow.  Hopefully the low flows will be short lived and we'll be seeing the spring flows in another month or two.

Jeff Goodwin is a full time Northern California fishing guide.  He guides year round for salmon, trout, steelhead, Kokanee, and bass on Northern California rivers and lakes. He fishes many bodies of water in the Redding area, but also guides the Sacramento River and Feather River during certain times of the year. Jeff can also be found on the California coast chasing ocean fresh King salmon and steelhead each year. To learn more about the fishing trips Jeff has to offer, please visit Jeff Goodwin's Guide Service.  You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or please feel free to call him anytime at (707) 616-1905.