Collins Lake

Overall fishing this week is similar to last week, but with crappie and other pan fish starting to pick up. We’ll get to the details in a bit but I want to start a great story from our 3rd Annual Collins Lake Family Trout Derby.

Chey Bernal and his wife Laura and two daughters Maria, 7 years old and Amy, 5 years old from Vacaville have a family tradition of camping at Collins Lake every year for Mothers Day. I didn’t get to meet Laura but if Mother’s Day fishing is their tradition she must be an awesome mom! Chey told me “We had no idea there was a fishing derby until we arrived Friday afternoon” but they’re big on fishing and in his own words “maybe a little bit competitive”.

Happy Mother’s Day Laura!

Heavy winds stirred up the surface waters on Friday so they didn’t get a chance to scout out the lake. Trolling F5 Rapalas at 20ft, which normally I would say is a good bet for this time of year, only produced two small trout. That’s when they noticed several fish “exploding on the surface”. I listen in on who’s catching all week long and I’d like to be able to say that my advice is pretty solid, and usually it is, but conditions can change quickly. I think the heavy wind and overcast skies on Friday may have had a big impact on the location of the trout. Chey followed his gut and pulled up to about 8ft depth and immediately hooked a decent fish, then another and then one after the other.

At the scales Laura tied 4th place and Chey took 2nd with a 2.6 pound rainbow. In the kids category Maria got a prize for 7th. I bet you can guess who took first. Chey explains:

Chey and Amy show off an early catch

“When Amy hooked into her 3rd fish of the morning I was certain this was a placing fish by the look on her face.  Amy may not have the most muscle for a 5 year old but has more determination than you can imagine.  We have taught her to just keep the rod in the holder and crank.  With a little boat maneuvering to help keep the line tight, and clear of the prop Amy was able to bring in what turned out to be the biggest fish of the derby- a 4.55 pound trout- all by herself!”

So a big congratulations to Amy and her family who all went home derby winners. And here’s my tip of the week: if I told you twenty feet but you can see ‘em on the surface, trust the trout.

There was a few folks that braved the wind last Friday and it paid off. Carl & Bill took home their limit trolling flashers all over the lake as did Lee Larson from Lincoln. Zoe from Plumas Lake caught her first trout on a Rapala down near the dam. Greg and Larry Martin each brought in a 5-pound trout trolling along the dam. And it’s not just trolling, Patrick Farley of Discovery Bay was fishing off the dam with green PowerBait and reeled in five trout including a 5 1/4 pounder.  Dale & Jeff from Forbestown visited the dam and limited out on trout and caught a bass to boot.

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Jesse Wilden found a sweet spot on the shore near the Water’s Edge group camp where he caught his 8 pounder and two others. Long time Collins Lake camper & fisherman Don Feryance also joined the 8 pound club this week trolling a Kastmaster along the main channel. The next day he and his wife Dana followed up with a 5 and a 6 1/2 pounder among seven fish caught in a single morning of trolling.

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With surface temperatures rising our planting programs are done for this spring. This week we had three trout plants for a total of 35 this spring, four more than last year, so there’s an abundant supply of trophy trout in the lake for the season. It’s likely that trout plants will resume mid-October. John Guerra sent in pictures of two trophy fish on the 16th. He didn’t tell me the story but with the number of planted fish being so high this year expect to see fish like these through most of the summer season.

Brody, Kayden, Owen & Wyatt showing us some of the Crappie they brought in

The other thing that comes with rising surface temperatures is the beginning of the panfish frenzy. Brody, Kayden, Owen & Wyatt caught 16 pounds of crappie and brought these eight fish to put on the brag board. The Rose family did as well bringing in 8 panfish on worms. If you have young kids panfishing is a great way to get ’em hooked on the sport; You can sit in a boat right over the fish and watch them take the bait. Bluegill, crappie and redear are vigorous fighters and a lot of fun for kids to catch. You can have all the excitement with the entertainment of getting to see the fish before they bite and not so much reeling as they’d have to do on a deep trolling rig. Use a small hook, even a size 14 and as long the fish don’t inhale it you’ll have an easy release for smaller fish. If you have a fishing light set it out at night and watch the fish swarm near the surface. When I was a kids my dad would put the light out to keep us kids entertained with pan fish and he’d keep a line at the bottom waiting for the monster catfish that patrol the depths.

Chris and Lori from Yuba City showed us that the bass aren’t quite done, bringing in 5 alongside 5 trout from about 20’ down on worms.

In a sense we’re in the sweetspot for our lake, trout will continue to bite, even if from deeper water, bass aren’t yet in full spawn (although expect them to taper off a bit in the weeks to come) and the surface is warm enough that the pan fish are out.

Get out there and fish!  -Ed

Do you have a story or picture from your time at Collins Lake?  Throw me a line fishing@collinslake.com!