Baum Lake, Hat Creek

Visiting Fly Fishing Country

by Matt
Baum Lake Run

I wasn’t able to get out very much last month and haven’t had too much time to work on my writing, I blame it all on adulting. Thankfully things have settled down and I can finally get out and fish again.

June in my opinion is by far the best month to go fishing. This is the last month before summer kicks in and the fish and bugs know it. Many of the most famous hatches such as the Hex hatch and damsel migration occur during this month and the top-water bite for bass can be phenomenal.

My wife and I just recently purchased a new SUV more suited for our outdoor adventures and I believed that it was my job to put it to the test. The Cassel/Burney area was my destination and I planned on visiting both Baum Lake and Hat Creek.

Pelicans Stalking Me

This is my second visit to Baum Lake. The fishing was so much fun the last time that I just had to do it again. The lake is accessible and pretty easy to figure out even for a novice angler. You will need to bring some sort of floating device like a float tube or pontoon to effectively fish the lake because it moves like a very slow spring creek. A pair of waders also goes a long way because the lake is spring fed meaning it remains cold all year around.

I caught fish all day on Baum Lake using a variety of methods: dry flies, indicator nymphing, and slow strips got the job done. In the morning around 10am there was a good Trico hatch/spinner fall that had several pods of fish rising to the surface. I didn’t have an exact Trico pattern match so I jumped the gun and threw on the closest thing I had in my fly box, a size 16 mosquito dry. To my surprised the fish were very receptive to my dry fly and I rose several fish for the couple of hours that they were feeding.

Baum Bow
Nice Brownie

After the dry fly bite died down in the afternoon I switched to indicator nymphing and caught many more fish. The quality of fish this trip was consistently good however I didn’t see or catch any monsters like I did during my first visit. Still, the fishing was great and the catching was fun.

Hat Creek

All my visits to Hat Creek have either been a hit or a miss. Sometimes the fishing will be really good and the fish aren’t as picky and then sometimes the fishing will be extremely difficult with fish ignoring every offer you throw at them. The first night around 8pm there was an epic PMD hatch in the lower section where I hooked fish but was only able to land one. It was like heaven being alone in the middle of the creek during last night with what felt like hundreds of fish rising to feed on duns.

The following day I tried a different spot closer to the Powerhouse Riffle hoping that the same PMDs would be hatching. In the late afternoon I found fish along the edges rising for small size 18 yellowish mayflies. I didn’t have any thing that size in my box but tried anyway and failed to interest any fish. In the evening instead of PMDs I got Yellow Sallies both depositing eggs and hatching. I didn’t have any Yellow Sally patterns and struck out my last night.

The new SUV definitely did its job. I was able to get through unmaintained roads that I would have never been able to get through in my Altima. I also slept in the new SUV and found it much more comfortable with plenty of room to spare. Now that I have a better vehicle I want to plan a trip to a place fly anglers consider the Holy Cathedral of rivers, the Lower McCloud.

Baum Lake

First Trip To Baum Lake

by Matt

Nestled just a few minutes outside beautiful Burney, California lies Baum Lake a spring-fed lake that is interconnected with the Hat Creek watershed as well as the Crystal Lake hatchery. The lake hosts both wild rainbows, hatchery rainbows, and brown trout that are all known to get hefty due to the abundance of aquatic life. Baum Lake has been on my radar for quite some time and I was finally able to make my way up there to check it out.

Mt Lassen Background

I made base camp at Cassel Campground which was about a four minute drive from the lake. The weather was pleasant and I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful two days to go fishing. In preparation for this trip I found that there wasn’t very much information on how to fish Baum Lake aside from what flies to use. I was strictly prepped for still-water fishing and was surprised to find myself fishing more of a spring creek than a lake.

Once I set up my float tube, rigged my rods, and got into the water I quickly realized that this lake had a current. Although the current moved very slowly and wasn’t too difficult to kick around in, it changed my perspective on how to fish it entirely. Before setting out to explore and getting to know the lake I kicked my way towards the small powerhouse to gain some confidence. It didn’t take long before I landed my first Baum Lake rainbow. Now it was game time.

Wild Baum Bow


Much of the lake is crystal clear and covered in mud with aquatic vegetation. There were many shallows points throughout the lake that wouldn’t hold trout mid-day therefore I had to look for deeper water. After a few hours of fishing and exploring I floated past a nice deep channel were I could literally see the fish cruise around me. This is where I spent the rest of my late afternoon and evening. In order to not get caught fighting the current I fished from the furthest point of the bank I could anchor my feet on. I then used an indicator rig to make the slow current work for me. This technique worked well and I caught several nice fish throughout the rest of the day including my first Baum Lake beast.

Baum Lake Beast

Many of the fly anglers that I observed fishing Baum Lake were dry-fly only enthusiast. I talked to one gentleman who told me, “Those numbers don’t impress me, nothing personal” after he had asked how many fish I had caught. These dry-fly aficionados didn’t do too well due to not having any solid targets to cast to. Trout spend most of their lifetime feeding underwater therefore there is no shame nymphing for them. You still have to give the fish the perfect presentation; depth, fly pattern, tippet size, and drift all come together to make nymphing just as complex as any other technique.

The following morning was a bit slower possibly due to a colder than usual night. I tried to fish the spot that I had fished yesterday however it wasn’t nearly as productive. I decided to explore a bit and floated a new section. This is where I found some of the biggest trout throughout the lake. Using the technique that I had learned yesterday I fished this section and was able to land one nice rainbow within a few minutes of fishing. I continued covering water and broke off two powerful leviathans that ripped my flies from their tippet.

Beautiful Hefty Bow

The last few hours before sunset there was an epic midge hatch. I managed to find a spot where I could see brown trout stacking on top of each other in anticipation of the hatch. I tried drifting a midge emerger several times over them however they just ignored my offer. There were fish, mostly browns, jumping all over the place; my guess is that they were exploding out of the water to chase the emergers that were coming off the bottom. I tied on an midge pattern, threw on some splitshot, adjusted my indicator, and probably caught over twenty arm wrenching browns within an hour. The only other angler out on the lake at this time was a dry fly fisherman who was trying to rise trout. Each time he looked over he saw me either hooking, landing, or releasing a fish. I was hoping he’d come join the party but I guess it’s better to go home fishless on a dry than to tie on a nymph.

Midge Central
Baum Brown

Baum Lake is awesome body of water that feels more like a hybrid cross between a spring creek and lake. It fishes like a spring creek but doesn’t reveal it’s secrets like a lake. I had a great time out there and can’t wait to go back someday and hook into a another Baum Lake beast.

Drifting Past Pelican Island
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