Collins Lake

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Finally, we got a week of sunny weather coming and the last two net pens were released today.  Also by the end of the week we are expecting a 1,300 lb. load of trout, (1/2 trophy size) and (1/2 catchables).  Easter break brought the kids out in full force this week!  Little (pro) Gus Everhart teamed up with William Wootten using red PowerBait and they each limited out on Trout right from their campsite.  Jaryn, Lindsey, & Maisey from Placerville teamed up together as well and took a limit of Trout home and they used many colors of PowerBait.  It’s alway a thrill to take a photograph of a kid with his 1st fish ever and this week we had a few.  Trevor & Thomas Shelton of Nevada City caught their 1st Trout on PowerBait by the beach.  Connor Atkinson of Loomis caught his 1st fish on the beach.  Little Jackson Yates (Ernie Borello’s grandson) was tickled with his 1st Trout.  Then comes a smarty pants from Linden, Ca. Miss Jenna Whight , who hooked a 9 lb. 4 oz. Rainbow in the Open Area!!!

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The Squadrito & Wittler family campout was a ton of fun as they continually caught trout everyday.  They fished mainly from a boat trolling with Rapalas or red Mepps spinners near the dam, then changed to the north end with Powerbait and did equally as well.  Luke Sebastain caught fish more than once and his last one was a whopping 5lb. Rainbow caught off the beach on pink or orange PowerBait.  Randy Watkins from Citrus Heights & Jim Cooper from Alamo had good luck trolling with Cripplures between the  beach and the dam. 

Edwardo Serrato of Visalia fished from his boat on the east side and used grubs to catch a limit of Trout.  Kathleen Wertman & David Montero caught trout by the powerlines trolling a red broken back rapala.  Another great lure, sort of the default lure of Collins Lake is a Kastmaster.  Kastmasters (1/4 oz.) are weighted perfectly to just tie on the end of the line without flashers.  You don’t need anything else on the line, no worms or hardware just a 1/4 oz. Kastmaster, preferably silver & blue. 

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We are just starting to see a consistency on bass catches.  We are hearing that most of the catches are happening in roughly 15′ of water and swimbaits, roboworms, or crawdads have worked well.  Mark Fredrickson limited out on live crawdads.  Nate & Paul Johnson of Pinole also took a limit of Bass home which they caught on plastic worms near the powerlines.  With the outside temperature rising a little and staying warm for the next ten days we are hoping that the Bass would start spawning.  Ideally they require lake surface temperatures 60 degrees or above.  The surface temperature has been in the low 50’s in the morning and reaching the mid 50’s by the afternoon.  Just yesterday we had some Redear catches and a large Catfish as well.  Jim Moorehead hooked a large 7 lb. 4 oz. Catfish on a garlic dipped worm from the shoreline in the main campground.

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Yolanda Edwards & Chris Dewey caught a trout near their campsite on spring green PowerBait.  Tyler, Austin & Garet from Gridley caught five Trout trolling Rapalas near the surface on the east side towards the dam, their biggest was 2 lb. 12 oz.  Alan & Mary Lowe trolled with Kastmasters and Alan’s biggest trout was 2 lb. 8 oz.  Syvanna & Christopher of Elverta fished off the bank with PowerBait and caught a 2 lb. 8 oz. Rainbow.  All in all the week produced lots of great catches, especially by the kids.  Speaking of kids, this weekend is the annual Kid’s Camp which is put on by the Christian Bass Anglers Federation.  On Saturday they will by attending workshops and learning all about Bass fishing and on Sunday a whole bunch of pros will show up and take the kids out and put their knowledge to the test.  They do a weigh in on Sunday then each kid gets an award and lunch before heading home. 

Another derby on Saturday is the annual William Jessup University tournament which is open to the public and you can sign up early on Saturday.  You don’t have to sign up to fish the lake that day but if you want to it is $30 per adult and kids are free.

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