Fish Sniffer readers know that I recently returned from a five day jaunt to the Sea of Cortez with the folks from Neptune Adventures and 80 enthusiastic Sniffer supporters. The question confronting me upon returning was what to do for an encore. In the end the answer was pretty simple. I'd return to my roots and that meant trout fishing.

Northern California trout anglers are a spoiled lot with a number of high profile fisheries at their disposal. For the past couple of years, my buddy Gene and I have made it a point to visit Eagle Lake during November. We both enjoy the challenge of hooking big trout and for that there is no better destination than Eagle Lake.

This year we planned on fishing Eagle as usual, but we also wanted to pay Lake Almanor a visit. I've got a pretty good handle on fishing Eagle Lake, but Almanor is more of a mystery. I'd targeted the lake's smallmouth, but I've never spent much time trout fishing there. We knew that Lake Almanor is home to some big trout and couldn't wait to give them a try.

On November 18, Gene and I rolled out of Auburn early with my 12 Gregor in tow, headed for Eagle Lake. Paul Kneeland the Fish Sniffer's advertising director has a cabin at the lake and graciously offered it to us for the weekend. This combined with the fact that I'd fished the lake with great results less than a month before had us both pretty excited.

We arrived at the Gallatin launch ramp around 9 o'clock. The moon was nearly full and the surface temperature was in the mid 40's. Traditionally a full moon makes the fishing at Eagle tough and I knew the low surface temperature would make the trout sluggish. I suggested that we dispense with trolling and try our luck drifting nightcrawlers under slip bobbers.

Gene was agreeable, so we cruised about 1.5 miles down the lake and anchored in 59 feet of water in the springs. I rigged us each two spinning rods and staggered the depths of the baits at 6, 12, 18, and 24 feet. The day was exceptionally calm and our bobbers drifted very little as we waited.

We'd been soaking our worms for about 20 minutes when my bobber began to dance. The trout was mouthing the bait tentatively and it took about a minute for the bobber to go below the surface. I set the hook and fought the trout for a couple minutes before I worked it near the boat. As soon as the fish came into sight I could see it was barely hooked. A split second later it shook the hook.

"They are biting really light Gene. When you get hit you're going to have let them run with the bait for a while to get a good hook up," I said putting on a fresh worm.

For the rest of the day we enjoyed steady action. We could have been off the water within 2 hours with limits, but we released several fish in the 2 to 2.5 pound class hoping to land something bigger. Ultimately our gamble paid off. When we pulled off the water at 2 o'clock we had 3 rainbows with a combined weight of 10.5 pounds!

The next day we hit the water just after dawn. Leaving the cabin I noted that the temperature was a frigid 19 degrees. We expected great things, but alas the fishing was a lot slower on Saturday. We had to work for our fish. By noon we had two average trout on the stringer and had released 4 or 5 others hoping for bigger fish.

For the first part of the afternoon we sat without so much as a nibble. Finally about 2 o'clock Gene's bobber dipped under the surface and mine followed it a beat later. It was great to finish the day with a double hookup after such a long wait without action.

The next day we wanted to head home around noon so we got up extra early Sunday morning to maximize our fishing time, figuring it would take about an hour to reach Almanor.

While studying a topo map of Almanor Saturday evening. Dakasu Island, a large submerged reef on the lake's south eastern end caught my eye. The island rises out of 70 feet of water and encompasses an extensive area that has a varied depth from 15 to 40 feet deep. In short, it looked like the perfect place to find a trout in search of breakfast.

We arrived at the Canyon Dam launch ramp shortly after 8 o'clock, rigged up and started trolling toward the island. I started off with a Yozuri minnow plug while Gene opted for a chrome and blue Hum Dinger.

Just as we reached the outskirts of the island Gene's rod dipped and he was into a scrappy trout. A couple minutes later the 1.5 pound rainbow was in the cooler.

I stayed with the minnow plug for another 40 minutes before changing to a threaded nightcrawler trolled without a dodger. On the second pass across the island, my light kokanee rod bent sharply and line flowed off my reel at a brisk pace. The trout was heavy and I played it gingerly on the light rod. Once at the boat the rainbow refused to give up making several dives beneath the boat and the motor.