Collins Lake

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Today’s double plant combined with a net pen release, adds up to a triple plant of Trout received today and the weekend fishermen will have plenty of chance to catch fish.  From here on out you can expect at least two to three plants a week until mid May.  Ken Harris of Marysville got to spend a day on the lake with his son Zach who is on leave from the U.S. Army (stationed in Alaska) and they had a blast.  They released 7 Trout and took home three.  Zach’s biggest weighed 4 pounds which they caught by trolling worms. 

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Little Raedon Walden from Quartz Hill was ecstatic to catch a trout by the dam on PowerBait.  Cousins Macy & Makayla proudly displayed their grandpa’s fish that he caught using worms from a boat.  Later on Makayla’s brother Trevor Azadian caught a trout while fishing close to shore with his cuz Tanner Rose in their 2 person bass tracker boat bouncing Powerbait off the bottom.  All week long I have been told that even the boaters are fishing shallow, near brush, on east or west side and up by the bridge on worms or PowerBait.   Mando Palacios proved them all wrong by catching a limit of trout on a crappie jig in the Open Area!!

Bobbie, Dennis, & Brandon from Plumas Lake had a lot of luck trolling Needlefish (all over the lake) netting a stringer of 8 Trout. Xander & Elias Davis from Olivehurst “slayed the trout”  on 4/10 they took home 9 total.  They trolled Rebels or bottom fished with PowerBait and the biggest was 3 lb. 8 oz.   Bob Crawford of Chico limited out fishing from a boat on the east side near the brush with PowerBait and his biggest was 4 pounds. 

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Kim Battenfield of Grass Valley landed a 2 lb. Rainbow on a Kastmaster and Austin Soucy of Dixon caught one off the beach.  Jett Dawson & Timmy brought a limit of Trout up for a photo and they fished the beach with PowerBait. 

A couple of days ago the surface temperature was 53 degrees in the morning and 56 degrees in the afternoon.  We are getting closer to reaching the ideal temperature for Bass but it is still a little early they like about 62 degrees.  Bascal Davencourt from Paradise snuck up on a big Perch while tempting it with a worm near the island and it weighed 1-1/2 pounds.  Dustin Smith read my fishing report and picked up on the “corn PowerBait” stories so he went and got some and caught some gorgeous trout along the Open Area shoreline on the corn yellow PowerBait.  Chartreuse has always been “The FAV” color of powerbait but it seems this year every color is working!

Jim Walden of Antioch dips his Powerbait in a stinky Trout Dip to increase his chances of catching a trout and he did catch two trout over two pounds along the shoreline with his method.  Carmen Salazar and Kathy used orange Powerbait and caught some hefty bows along the shoreline in the Open Area.  She took home some beauties but left behind a cell phone (she lost) so if you find one please bring it to the office!!  She cleaned her fish and it wasn’t there!!

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Chico residents Brad Kuempel & Kristy Hickman took home 7 trout which were caught off the beach on pink powerbait.  Seven was a lucky number for the Wills-Pendley families also, who caught 7 trout trolling Kastmasters.  My little buddy, Waylen McCutcheon caught his first Trout from his Grandpa Mo’s boat, he called me on the cell phone to tell me he caught “a shaker”!  He’s already picking up on the fish lingo….

Dave Wiens & John Christienson scored two days in a row on trout catches, one day their total stringer weight was ten pounds for six fish.  They fished with pink or red PowerBait from shore.  Kathy Russo of Rio Vista also used red Powerbait by the dam and caught four really fat trout by the dam.  Leif Lindgren of Roseville  caught one of the biggest trout of his life, a 4 pound raving beauty and he used rainbow PowerBait by the dam.   Two more limits were taken this week- one by Kayla Tillis of Elverta and one by Alan Hendricks of Bangor. 

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The trout are shallow and they seem a little more aggressive than they’ve been through the winter.  Be sure and bring a net, it’s much easier getting them in the boat before they spit the hook and “smile” as they leap back into safe water!! 

The California Inaland Fisheries Foundation, Inc. is holding their annual Collins Lake Derby here on Saturday.  We’ve had some calls asking if they can still come and fish without entering the derby and the answer is yes.  If you do want to enter the derby they leaders of the event can be found at the far end of the beach at campsites 172 and 174 and you may sign up Friday night or early Saturday morning.  The official website, to apply online is www.ciffi.org -just scroll down the page in the middle where it says Collins Lake derby.

Looking forward to great weather and fishing this weekend, if you take some pictures out on the lake and send me I would love it.

Thanks,

Kathy Hess