Collins Lake

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Labor Day Weekend was a Catfish catchin week!! The surface temperatures are cooling down a little since the evenings are cooling down a bit, but the daytime temperatures are still in the 90 to 100 degree range. This means that during the day not many fish will bite so swimming or napping is a better plan for midday activities!! Plan on fishing in the early part of the morning or at night for best results.

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Ben Wienand & his little girl Violet caught a Catfish just over 3 pounds while attempting to catch a Trout with Powerbait.  Bryce Arnold of Folsom followed up with a 6 lb. 8 oz. Catfish which he caught in a cove on worms.  Carlos Gonzalez of San Francisco landed a 3 lb. Cat off the boat dock (first cast) using a worm.  Megan Marca of Cameron Park and her family hooked two Catfish in Elmer’s cove on nightcrawlers-they weighed 3 pounds and 4 pounds each.

Jerry Freeman wrapped up the week with a 10 lb. 8 oz. Cat, a 5 lb. Cat and a 2 lb. 12 oz. Cat using Sardines in Elmer’s Cove to lure them onto his hook. Nice Job Jerry!!

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Brian Bertolin of San Jose had a fantastic day of fishing on their last camping HOORAH before the kids went back to school. His stringer consisted of 4 Trout and 2 Huge Crappie. He caught the Trout towards the bridge and the Crappie at the dock using worms for both.  Patrick St. John of Yuba City returned and caught another Bass off the dock on crawdads.

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Anthony Trejo of Oregon & Jake Pulliam of Sacramento certainly had no problem finding the Trout, they each limited out trolling the east bank using Wobbler lures. Kyle Hatch of Benicia trolled worms near the dam and hooked a 3 lb. 8 oz. Trout.  Probhat Palma used green powerbait and caught a Rainbow Trout off the boat dock.  Little Gabe & Grant Garretson fished off shore by the dam using worms and caught a Redear Sunfish. The girl’s club photo is a “gimme”, they are just so darn cute they wanted their picture taken even though they couldn’t catch any fish-pictured are Ella, Mirela, Alyssa, Kristen, Amanda & Christian!!!

October is the month where we generally see lots of threadfin shad hatching. When the Shad make their appearance it means the lake is “turning”. When the lake turns, the temperature of the water is the same at any depth and topwater Trout fishing is the way to go.  Also shore fishing for Trout during the day will produce nice catches. The reason shore fishing isn’t great right now is because the water is still too warm for the Trout to come up and feed during the day. The surface temperature dropped from 82 degrees to 76 degrees in the past 2 weeks. The surface temperature will continue to drop as the night temperatures start to get cooler (and stay cooler).

This weekend it will still be around 100 degrees during the day but chances are that will change very soon as we approach the month of October.