Collins Lake

The weather around here has been a little like a rollercoaster all month, from heatwaves to rain, and finally now some stability. It’s the perfect time to beat the summer crowd, especially for weekday campers! I was surprised to see that surface temperatures continued to fall this week, now back down to about 62ºF. This was a critical reprieve for our trout planting program- a month ago it seemed we would have to stop early, but we’ve been able to get big plants in every week of the month and now it’s all but certain that conditions will allow us to finish in May as originally planned!

For trout there is still good shore activity, especially where the shoreline is steeper, and trolling is good especially along the dam.

David Barley of Rocklin took advantage of the nice weather, trolling Rapalas at about 10ft down to catch a beautiful pair of 6 and 7lb rainbow trout from hisboat. Tim Dollahite caught a chunky Collins Lake Lightning Trout from the shore at the south end of the park in front of campsite #418 using PowerBait on a 2lb leader with a single splitshot. Jacob Trejo caught a 5lb rainbow trout for the Anglers Press NTAC Event. Great work gentlemen!

David & Dan reeled in a double limit of trout including three big lightning trout and seven rainbow, two of which are monster class fish. They were using green PowerBait down near the dam.

Kinley caught her colorful rainbow trout by the dam as well. Ryker caught this huge 6 pound rainbow near the dam using needlefish. Annie (with a little help from dad) caught her big rainbow trout fishing by the dam with worms. Doug and his friend Tommy caught six trout (five pictured) including a lightning trout trolling speedy shiners!

Jack and Kathy Russo caught 7 rainbow trout near the dam using PowerBait. Josh & Hunter teamed up for a double limit of all big trout, including a lightning trout, all caught trolling near the dam.

Enzo had a great day fishing, and made a super first catch- a rainbow trout. Ryan Miller caught a good sized fish using nightcrawlers along the eastern shoreline. Angelina & Julian brought in a 5.75lb lunker rainbow trout while fishing green PowerBait along the Water’s Edge group camping area. Hudson caught triplets from the swim dock on the beach.

Bass have also been biting-

Harrison Kennedy’s first fish was a good sized bass. Finally, Titus Bingham sent in what I think is the best photo so far for 2026, a big bodacious backlit bass that he caught on the east side with a Bumblebee Rooster Tail. Looks like sunsets with smiles after a great day on Collins Lake!

If you make a Collins Lake catch in the next couple weeks, send us a photo to share at fishing@collinslake.com and let us know where you caught it and what you were fishing with!