Once your depthfinder locates inland chinook, entice them to hit with heavily scented shad-imitation lures. Photo courtesy of Chris Shaffer.

This fall, there’s good news and bad news about catching inland chinook on Lake Shasta.

First, the good news: Right now, you can catch some of the largest inland kings of the year.

The bad news? This is also the most challenging time to catch them.

Each September, veteran guide Gary Miralles, owner of Shasta Tackle Company, takes clients onto Shasta’s deep waters in search of kings. He promises them they’ll have to work hard to catch fish.

But they’ll also have a chance of landing chinook up to 5 pounds!

Come September, those two themes -- big fish and hard work -- hold true at Shasta as well as Berryessa and Folsom reservoirs.

These three NorCal reservoirs are the best places to find larger numbers of inland chinook. And in a year when salmon fishing in the ocean and some rivers is closed, the inland kin of the kings look a lot more attractive.

LAKE SHASTA
Shasta will likely receive the bulk of the fishing pressure. Fortunately, its chinook population is stable enough to handle the influx in angling.

Keep in mind that at Shasta, three year-classes of salmon are available. Miralles and his clients look to target the three-year-old fish because they’re the largest.

Shasta’s chinook numbers are driven by the amount of shad in the water. Nonetheless, in September, shad make up a smaller part of the chinook’s diet than in winter and spring.

The chinook have other goals in mind. “In September, they’re trying to spawn,” said Miralles. “They don’t care about the shad anymore. They’re here to defend their territory, so it kind of changes your point of attack.”

According to the California Department of Fish and Game, these chinook don’t reproduce -- even though they attempt to.

During the fall, the largest kings in Shasta aren’t necessarily feeding. Instead of taking care of their diet, they try to spawn, becoming territorial and protective. They’ll strike at anything that comes into their spawning area.

To get the bite, Miralles trolls with lures that agitate and irritate them.

“I’ll bash them with different stuff and stay on them,” he said. “If you do that, you’ll get them to hit.”

This means that you must know how to use a depthfinder to find fish and target them accurately. The kings won’t be schooled up, but they might be paired. A depthfinder is the only way to know exactly where they are.

Once Miralles finds them, he’ll target the fish with an eight-inch Sling Blade in conjunction with a large Hum Dinger or some sort of rattle bait.

Miralles said that in the fall, fewer anglers are targeting salmon. His guess is that’s because catching the bigger fall fish is a lot of hard work.

But hard work can also mean big rewards, of course. In more than 20 years at Shasta, the biggest salmon Miralles caught weighed 8 pounds.

That was back in 1994. In 2007, nothing greater than 5 pounds was caught. This fall, Miralles expects 5 pounds to be the pinnacle again.

In September and October, 3-year-old kings are found in the deepest sections of the reservoir. But you can troll for other younger year-classes in shallower water.

“In the fall, I find them suspended on deep-water points and deep-water islands,” said Miralles.

Adults are usually caught in the 120- to 180-foot range, although some have been caught as shallow as 80 feet.

“In the fall, they really relate to structure,” said Miralles.

“It can be tough fishing. It’s a lot of work. You have to bounce the bottom to get them.”