The lower Sacramento is open for trout fishing all year, but understanding its seasonally fluctuating waterflows is essential to taking full advantage of its angling potential. The preceding vignette accurately describes fall and winter fishing during a typical-weather year. Mid- September finds a receding flow regime, with water levels dropping to winter standards of 4,000 to 6,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). These minimum flows are usually maintained throughout the colder months to allow Shasta Lake to fill for the following summer's demands. Fall and winter are the best times of year for wading the river.

Sixteen-inch trout are average on the lower Sac and much larger fish will run deep into your backing. The trout feed all year and grow quickly in the fertile environment.

Spawning king salmon begin invading the Redding section in October. When this happens, the trout begin supplementing their predominantly insect diet with salmon eggs, flesh, and sac fry. Add this cornucopia of protein to an already insect-rich diet and you have a wonderfully diverse tailwater fishery with incredibly fat trout.

Fall and winter are the best times to fish the lower Sac. During the heavy flows of spring and summer, a drift boat and a good oarsman will help you catch more fish.

In April, two things occur that signal the start of the spring fishing. The weather warms, sparking heavy Brachycentrus caddis hatches. These little green caddis emerge in such profusion on some days that just driving over one of the bridges in town will render your windshield a gooey mess. In April the water flows also begin to increase. Between late March and early June, the daily discharge from Keswick Dam--a smaller, secondary dam below Shasta Dam used to help manipulate flows down the Sacramento--gradually swells to a volume of 10,000 to 15,000 cfs.

From April through August, flows on the Sac are at their highest to accommodate downstream agricultural needs. A drift boat is advantageous then, allowing anglers to cover both midstream water from the boat and access wading riffles not available to bank fishermen.

The riffle-water of the lower Sac is a fertile grazing area for trout. In the summer these shallows produce caddis, stoneflies, and mayflies. In the late fall and winter, the trout feed on Chinook salmon eggs, flesh, and then salmon fry.

Much is made of the intense heat of Redding summers, and not without reason--the area experiences plenty of days over 100 degrees F. during July and August. With tightly controlled cold water temperatures, however, the fishing remains unharmed. In fact, the summer months provide some of the longest, most prolific angling days of the year, each day offering hours of productive nymphing followed by prolonged evenings of dry-fly fishing. If a 30- or 40-fish day is in the cards for you, this is almost assuredly when it will happen.