Limits of 18-inch rainbows at Frenchman Reservoir

LAKE ALMANOR, CALIF: Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association (530-365-7500): Trout action good for a mixture of browns and rainbows to 3.5 pounds on the west side of the lake with Uncle Larry's in Bloody Mary tipped with an orange grub, 3-inch orange grubs or 2-inch black/white grubs, slow-trolled 150 feet behind the boat in water 10 to 20 feet.

Deeper water is more productive in sunny conditions. Trout are holding near the surface and at the bottom.

BLUE LAKES AREA, CALIF: Dave Kirby of the Woodfords Station (530-694-2930): We've got 4 inches of "Partly Cloudy" with 30 knot winds blowing the snow to Utah (Monday). Over the weekend, we had road closures, heavy winds, snow and no humans.

FRENCHMAN RESERVOIR, CALIF: Wiggin's Trading Post at Chilcoot, Calif. (530-993-4683): Most of the water is open now and we've heard that the fishing is great. Adam Denker from Fernley and several of his friends all caught limits of 18-inch rainbows with nightcrawlers and marshmallows last Saturday.

PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Valerie or Linda at Crosby's Lodge at (775) 476-0400 reported: We've all been sick with the flu. The fishing last week was awesome.

There were a lot of fish being caught at Pelican Point. The fly fishermen at "The Nets" were catching a lot of 8-9 pounders.

We had a report of a 12-pounder caught by a fly fisherman on a ladder at The Nets.

PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Andy at the Gilly Sporting Goods Store in Sparks at 358-6113: No fishing report for Pyramid, but if anyone is interested in fishing the Sacramento Delta (bass, striper and sturgeon), bass fisherman Bobby Barrack will be here on March 3 at 6:00 p.m. to give a program.

PYRAMID LAKE, NEV: Carla Molino of the Pyramid Lake Store at (775) 476-0555: It has been windy all this past week. The wind is killing us.There is no moisture, the roads are clear and the ground is dry but not very many fishermen.

SHASTA LAKE, CALIF: Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association (530-365-7500): King salmon action picked up in the area near the Dam, the Backbone and Dry Creek at depths between 40 and 120 feet below the surface.

Brown trout action continues in Hertz Bay and the McCloud Arm on Humdingers or Kozi Minnows.

The reaction bite for bass is starting to show promise, as the fish continue to move into shallower water.

SMITH AND CHETCO RIVERS: Dave Jacobs of Professional Guide Services (800) 355-3113: Steelhead fishing on both the Smith River and Chetco River has been good this past week with excellent fishing conditions most of the week. Both the Smith and Chetco Rivers have been producing nice hook-ups of both fresh winter run Steelhead and run back fish averaging 8-12 pounds, up until this past weekend.

Angler's can expect chrome bright Steelhead 6-9 pounds on average on the Chetco and 8-12 pounds on the Smith. Big fish hook-ups on the Smith can be in the mid teens to low 20 pound class. Best bets this past week were side drifting a small piece of roe or yarn fly with a Quickie puffball from a drift boat or the bank. Hot colors have been light pink, light orange, hot pink and shrimp pink colors. Backtrolling Hot Spot Nos. 30, 35 or 40's in various color combo's have also produced some nice Steelhead on both systems.

LAKE TAHOE - North Shore:

Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters and Tahoe Trophy Trout at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (530-544-6552): Fishing has been good to excellent dependent on the day. We have been trolling at 150-300 feet with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows in a "Figure Eight" pattern. I've been fishing mostly at Cal-Neva Point and Dollar Point.

LAKE TAHOE - South Shore: Gene St. Denis: Fishing has been slow to good. I've been trolling at Ski Run Shelf at 150-280 feet with silver Herring Dodger flasher blades and live minnows. The jiggers are jigging in water 160 feet deep with Crippled Herring Jigs, tipped with a live minnow. The Macks are running 2-7 pounds.

LAKE TAHOE - East Shore: Gene St. Denis: Toplining with Rapala lures has been good for mostly rainbows and some Macks at Deadman's Point, Logal Shoals and Zephyr Cove. Shore fishermen at Cave Rock have been having good action for 10-20 inch rainbows with worms, Power Bait or live minnows.

TOPAZ LAKE: Chuck Fields at the Topaz Lake Marina (775) 266-3550 reported: There is no snow and the trees are barely moving in the wind (Monday morning) but we are supposed to get hit hard later today.

A lot of fish were caught over the weekend with lots of limits for lots of people. Shore fishermen were not doing that bad with nightcrawlers.

Biggest fish was 5-pounds, 6-ounces. It was caught by Jerome Gillan of California while trolling at the south end with a rainbow-colored Rapala lure.

WILDHORSE RESERVOIR, NEV: Dennis Dunn at the Wild Horse Resort (775) 758-6472: We've got 8 inches of snow on the ground (Monday morning) and 2 feet of ice with no slush.

Trout fishing has really picked up and both the trout and perch fishing is red-hot, right now.

The fishing has been excellent and we've had a lot of ice fishermen. The perch are down on the bottom (18-25 feet) and the trout are shallow (in about 3-4 feet of water, along the shoreline). The best place is still by the island in front of the state boat ramp. The biggest Perch have been 11 inches, and the rainbows are running up to 20-21 inches.

Fish with small Kastmaster lures or small, white-colored, lead-head jigs with a plastic tail, together with a tiny piece of worm, mealworm or cocktail shrimp on the hook. Drop that combination down to the bottom, bring it up about 1-2 turns on the reel handle and slowly jig, up and down.