Featuring roughly 26 square miles of surface water
area and 145 miles of shoreline, Trinity Lake is one of the
largest in California. Its location, however, keeps the traffic
light, allowing anglers to pursue some of the best bass fishing
west of the Mississippi in peace and tranquility. It's not uncommon
for your only "competition" for the morning's catch
to be a family of osprey and a lone bald eagle. We're happy
to recommend some spots and tactics, or arrange for an expert
guide to spend the day showing you.
Best times of the year to fish Trinity
Lake
Mid-March to Mid-June
The bass bite is best from mid-March to mid-June during
the pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn. Trout are catchable
using bait, spinners and flies, particularly where streams enter
the lake. King salmon can be taken trolling deep with
downriggers.
September to Mid-November
The bass fishing heats up again as the warm summer months
yield to cooler weather, and the bass again move into shallow
water to fatten up before the cold winter water temperatures
turn off the bite. Trout are catchable using bait, spinners
and flies, particularly where streams enter the lake. King
salmon can be taken trolling deep with downriggers.
The Summer Months
Bass can be taken throughout the summer using deep-worked
jigs, as well as deep running crank baits. Rainbows, browns
and king salmon can be caught throughout the summer months
trolling deep with downriggers.
Winter Months
Considered the off-season, although some die-hards to have luck
with deep verticle jigging for bass around the rocky
ledges and stumps. |
 |
 |
| Distance from Eagle Creek Ranch |
|
| 8 minute drive to the north end of the lake. 15 minutes
to boat launching facilities. |
|
| Highlight Species: |
|
Largemouth up to 14 lbs
Largemouth can be caught up to 14 pounds on bait,
flies, spinners, surface, shallow and deep running plugs,
and on a variety of soft and plastic baits. |
| |
Smallmouth Bass up to 9 lbs.
The California state record smallmouth was taken out of
Trinity Lake. Smallmouth will respond to the same fishing
techniques as largemouth. |
| |
Rainbow Trout up to 10 lbs.
Both wild and stocked rainbow populations thrive in the
lake, with anglers taking them bait, spinners and flies.
|
| |
German Brown Trout up to 20 lbs.
Browns can be caught using the same methods successful
for rainbows. The old state record brown (22 lbs.) was
caught on Lewiston Lake, which serves as Trinity's forbay.
|
| |
King Salmon up to 14 lbs.
(King Salmon were stocked in the mid-nineties, in order
to control excessive populations of stunted kokanees.
They can be caught trolling using downriggers. |
| |
| |
|
