We had some snow since the last report.  There is about 12" of settled snow around the lake.  I took a couple of weeks off to clean up some obligations in the duck blind and deal with the snow.  The weather is going to continue to be unpredictable but there are currently no additional significant storms in the forecast.  We have continued to fish in the south end of the lake around Canyon Dam.  Ice is becoming an issue as calm wind and cold overnight temperatures have blanketed much of the lake in a sheet of morning ice.  Be prepared with nighttime temps into the mid 20 and morning surface water temps barely above 32 degrees.

Fishing has been good, but spotty.  Today might be solid, and tomorrow maybe not so much.  As usual, the lake will dictate, and we will follow.   We've concentrated on fishing slow as the fast bite on hardware is an uphill battle.  Pulling smelt imitations down about 20' seems to be the the most productive depth.  If you read my last reports, the bite has moved down from 14' to 20'.  Water clarity is about 6' and the lake is beautiful.   Lassen is easily seen glowing in the sunrises with it's blanket of white snow.  Although it's cold and the weather can be challenging, those who are getting on the water early have been getting rewarded.  It hasn't been uncommon for the bite to significantly fall off between 8 and 9am.  It can stay mostly flat through the rest of the day.  Last Saturday the bite died at about 8am.  We stayed the course and tried to grind them out, but by 4:30pm we had only had a handful of additional takedowns and it was time for the barn.  Short striking finicky fish were the talk of the day.   Please practice catch and release and help us preserve this beautiful fishery.  Good luck.