The Shasta River winds through the open volcanic valley below Mount Shasta, a spring-and-meadow river that punches above its size as one of the Klamath's most important salmon and steelhead tributaries. The spring sources and rich volcanic ground give it real productivity, and where the cold water holds, the rainbows and steelhead do well on it. But the Shasta is a river defined by its summer struggle: agricultural demand and heat can draw it down and warm it badly through the dry months, and the fishing should follow the water's welfare, not the angler's appetite. It comes into its own in the cool shoulders and on the autumn and winter flows that bring the steelhead up from the Klamath. Fish it when it's cool and carrying water, treat the fish gently, and leave it be when the heat is on.

• River
• Mixed