Collins Lake is still pretty full- less than 9ft from spill but the surface temperature, at just above 80ºF, tells us it’s surely summer time! The trout bite has fallen off a bit- or else there’s just fewer fishermen on the water but we’re still seeing occasional big catches, and a few limits …and some surprising shoreline successes.
Mark Yanuskiewicz made this Collins Lake catch – beautiful 9.5lb rainbow trout, using PowerBait.
Stetson and Grayson caught a pair of Lightning Trout and three Rainbows also on PowerBait.
The Batham Family loaded up a brag-board’s worth of big trout that they hooked using a variety of Garlic PowerBait and Salmon Eggs- and looks like someone even made a First Catch. Great Job! It’s time to celebrate with a Collins Lake Giant Ice Cream!
Ilya & Anatoliy brought in four trout using PowerBait down by the dam including one that weighed in at over 4 pounds! Ronald Counts caught a 1.5 pound Redear Sunfish using Berkeley’s Jointed Rat-L-Trap. The Zaski family are long time Collins Lake Crappie Catchers and they didn’t disappoint this year- showing off seven good sized crappie caught using worms! I bet they were Redworms!
Mid-June Sonny and Mark from Colfax caught a double limit of trout including both Lightning Trout and Rainbow Trout trolling worm on an old catfish classic…. Hot Dogs! But it was Tyler from Roseville who caught the catfish. While Ethan, also of Roseville, showed off another rainbow trout:
Finally Roman & Tim from Antelope caught a matching set of Rainbow Trout and Lightning Trout to fill a double limit, all caught using PowerBait down by the dam.
Keep an eye out for catfish to come as summer is traditionally the best time to catch the biggest ones. We expect warming water to continue to push trout deeper, so even though most of the trout in this report were caught from shore, come prepared to troll and probably best to bring downriggers if you have them. Crappie and Redear are off their beds but still biting too!
Stay safe, have fun and enjoy your Independence Day!
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