Kokanee Salmon are a fresh water derivative of the Sockeye Salmon that hold in 50-56 degree water. They have an arctic bluish green back with silver side and whitish bellies. They primarily feed on plankton and will attack lures to protect their food source.
Kokanee Salmon are aggressive striking, hard-fighting aerobatic speed demons. Once hooked these powerful fish are a challenge for even the most skilled angler because of their soft mouth. With a landing ratio of 50%-80% for most anglers, these trips are alot of fun for all ages. The table fare of the Kokanee Salmon baked, grilled or smoked is comparable to the same quality of Fresh Sockeye Salmon from Alaska.
Kokanee Salmon will be bright chrome until about August of their third year of life. Around the first week of August is when they start getting pinkish-gray, the scales begin disappearing and they really put up a great fight. By the end of August they start turning red as they stop eating and school together getting ready to spawn.
Kokanee become very territorial by mid August and will attack just about anything that comes too close to them. Kokanee Salmon are planted as fingerling every year to grow for two to three years in the lake before they are caught or spawn and die. Bass Lake average sizes during season: April-May 13"-16" 1-1.5lbs, June 15"-17" 1.5-2.25lbs , July 16"-18" 1.75-2.5lbs August 16.5"-19" 2-3lbs.
Rainbow Trout that we catch can range from a half pound 13 inch to a 24" 5+ pound Trophy Trout! While we do target the salmon most of the season, we do get some nice rainbows too. They are more common in the early part of the season and maybe targeted the first couple monthes of the year..
The Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) is a popular, non-native game fish that was introduced to California in 1893. They are known as a challenging adversary for anglers, often growing to trophy size in larger rivers and reservoirs. Brown trout fingerlings were planted by the CDFW, in April 2019. CDFW does stock brown trout in Shaver Lake, though it's often not as frequent as the rainbow trout stocking. CDFW stocks brown trout almost yearly as part of an effort to re-establish a thriving population in the lake. However, fishing reports confirm that the brown trout population is being maintained and is producing impressive fish like the 16.15 pound Brown in the photo caught with Todd May of 2025. A massive brown trout was caught just the week before shattering the Shaver Lake record at 24.48 pounds
Initial Plant: In early 2019, CDFW planted 50,000 Golden Trout fingerlings (5 to 9 inches) in Shaver Lake.
This was noted as one of the first times CDFW had planted Golden Trout in a mid-elevation lake like Shaver, as they typically stock them in higher, remote Sierra lakes via plane .
Expected Growth: Environmental scientists expected this strain of Golden Trout to grow considerably larger in Shaver Lake than in their native high Sierra creeks, potentially reaching 13 to 17 inches by 2021..
The planted Golden Trout were diploid, meaning they were not expected to spawn but instead focus their energy on growing faster
