Unpredictable springtime weather brought two inches of snow to Lake Almanor, reported Doug Neal at Almanor Fishing Adventures. "All the snow kept a lot of people from coming up here, so the pressure has been light", said Neal. "The bite is opening up; we have seen an increase in hookups all over the lake. Trolling has been the method of choice.

"Early on, we downrigged at eight feet and 18 feet, producing some clean rainbows. Later in the morning we adjusted down to 21 feet and 31 feet and got into a mix of brown trout and a bunch of little salmon all about 12 to 16 inches.

"Bug hatches are beginning in the mid-morning and into the afternoon. The smelt have spawned and we did not mark much bait. However the browns we got were spitting out three-inch long smelt. "There has been no real hot lure, the fish are hitting everything. We have caught fish on dodger/crawler combos, threaded crawlers, cop-car color Luhr Jensen Needlefish, Seps Pro Secrets, Rapalas and more."

Neal added, "The Almanor Fishing Association released some 40,000 Eagle Lake strain rainbows into Almanor on April 20. These fish were 12 to 14.5 inches long, and were raised by the AFA membership during the winter."