Collins Lake

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Not next week, but the week after we are planning on starting our Fall Trout Planting Program which will run through Thanksgiving weekend.  We sincerely hope that many of our wonderful campers can return during that time and get in some great fishing before having to hang up those poles for the winter!!  I’ve talked to many of you on the phone this past week and the main question everyone is asking me is “do you know what day they will plant?”.  We really don’t know the exact day of the plant because of the hatchery’s schedules and factors involved for them, we don’t know until the day of the plant when they call to say they are one their way.  We can only tell you guys after they have arrived and not before.  One thing I can tell you for sure is that just this week we are seeing signs of the shad hatching and the Trout are coming up and feeding on them.  Just this past Wed. there were 2 limits of Trout taken on trolling Rapalas or Needlefish and 2 limits taken from the shore by the dam on chartreuse powerbait.  Fall is officially here when the shad hatch and the next giant step will be the lake “turning”.  When the lake turns, all the water at the bottom (the cooler water) and all the surface (warmer water) blend together causing all the water in the lake to be the same temperature.  Once this occurs, the Trout will be at any depth, not deeper where they have to hang out during the summer months.

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Although we didn’t see a lot of fishermen this past week, the number of fish caught by the ones that did come was fantastic.  Wednesday was definitely the best day.  Wes Brown & Vern Felker of Rocklin brought in two limits of Trout with the largest being a German Brown.  They were trolling with Needlefish & Rapalas but I’m not sure how deep they were.  The same day a man & wife (Howard & Doris of Angwin) also caught 2 limits of Rainbows from the shore in the Open Area using chartreuse powerbait.

Justin & Jake Leonard of Grass Valley teamed up against a 7 lb. 8 oz. Catfish and won the fight!! They were shore fishing with worms when that big ol’ whiskerfish took the bait.  Dave Zaski & his son Mark had their last camping hoorah and found Crappie near the dam using live minnows for bait.  They also love to catfish at night and were very successful on their cat trek, landing three Catfish and the biggest two were 8 lbs. & 6 lbs.  For the Cats they used frozen anchovies to lure them in.

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Evan Woodgrift fished in a cove with a gold lure he said, and he caught a Bass almost 2 lbs.  Carmen Salazar and her daughter Kathy had a great time fishing by the dam using powerbait and netted 4 Rainbows.  Tim Penn of Marysville trolled with wedding ring spinners and caught two decent sized Rainbows but got an extra thrill when he caught a 5 lb. 12 oz. Catfish too.

Last, but certainly not least, brothers Alex & Tyler hooked a 1 lb. 4 oz. Rainbow by their campsite on rainbow powerbait!!

The lake temperature did not drop this past week, it’s still holding at 73 degrees but we expect that will soon change since the daytime temperatures are dropping from the 90’s to the 70’s and the nighttime temperature has consistently been dropping too.