Collins Lake

The lake is warming up which tends to push the trout down deeper and usher in a wave of spring bass, crappie and redear activity as they hit the pre-spawn. Last week was very sunny with almost no wind and lots of pollen on the water. All of these factors combined to push the surface temperature up to around 70°F. For reference, last year we didn’t hit that level until well into May. Granted it was literally only that warm in the top 18 inches but never the less it will affect trout activity in the topwater. The forecast for the coming week shows moderated temperatures, and with a little wind we may see that surface temperature take one more dive before it warms up for summer. In fact it’s already down below 68°F as of this morning, good for trout!

Cody & Nick from Shingle Springs caught some huge fish out near Elmer’s Cove a couple weeks ago. They were casting 3″ Swimbaits and caught a pair of 8+ pound Lightning Trout, and a chunky bass. Thanks for sending in the pictures, those trout are magnificent and we don’t always get treated to proof-of-bass as they are often released (rumor has it this bass still patrols Elmer’s, even to this day)!

Send in your pictures and stories to fishing@collinslake.com

Angler’s Press had a successful NTAC event with a winning catch by Brandon Aguirre’s 7.98lb trout:

We’re still watching the surface temperature but it’s likely we’ll have to accelerate our trout planting schedule, which would mean the same amount of trout planted, but larger loads and finishing a week or two earlier than previously planned.

Kevin from South San Francisco & Rudy of Trophy Catcher Guide Service (Granite Bay) took home a double limit of rainbows including a 6.5lb lightning trout, caught trolling with Rapalas.

Jace & Anthony took home more that dinner dragging a nightcrawler behind a dodger along the main channel. Matthew Khang caught his 6.5lb long-jawed lightning trout using a jig on the far side of the dam.

Shaun, Conner & Lilyanne from Grass Valley caught three great smiles and seven trout including a lightning trout on Powerbait.

Randy Wright caught this huge orange fish on orange PowerBait down in front of campsite #416…. and we thought that was the secret for catching lighting trout, orange for orange but then Joanie Tuner brought up an 8.5lb golden rainbow “lightning” trout caught using a SpeedyShiner trolling out in the middle of the lake. I

t seems the trout are spread far and wide for now. Last week I witnessed a trout plant and sure enough, within 3 minutes the fresh planters were jumping out by the buoy line and within 15 minutes you could see them surfacing near the open area. The osprey didn’t miss it either.

Just yesterday long time Collins Lake fisherman Scott Bergenstock caught this trophy sized rainbow trout mid-lake using an Orange Berkley Trout Worm.

And finishing out the trout report, here are some more familiar faces, Charlie, Cheryl and John caught a fist full of lightning and John is holding a monster 9.5lb lightning trout on Dark Green PowerBait out on the east side of the lake.

Now for a harbinger of things to come:

It’s a little early for summer fun but that didn’t stop the Yang group from reeling in this big cat while they were shore fishing with night crawlers in the evening. They’re out there folks, and I bet it’s gonna be a great year for catching catfish!