Collins Lake

It’s been hard to pin down the weather lately.  One day last week we had bright sunshine and blue skies followed by a drizzle a spat of hail, overcast and then clear skies again.  It is impossible to summarize such events with a single infographic so it seems the meteorologist seem to have settled on “Partially Cloudy” albeit with highs up to 86F (!) this week.  That probably means lots of blue skies, occasional clouds and always a chance of a quick drizzle.

My advice?  Come and see for yourself but bring a jacket, just in case.  One of the nice things about late rains like this is that the air is as clear as you’ll ever see it.  Importantly the water has maintained its clarity all week and the temperature seems to have stabilized.  After a few slow days last weekend trout and bass are back at it.  Folks have stopped by to show us a number of large fish- most caught trolling between 20 – 30ft down but a good number caught off shore as well.  Left to right (above) we have Greg Harris from Yuba City showing off a 6 1/4 pound Rainbow Trout he caught fishing from the bank with worms, then Connor Dowd again with worms but from his boat, and Cito of Rancho Cordova who caught his on chartreuse PowerBait at the South end of the park.

We’ll be going into June with a completely full lake, today it’s gently spilling, not quite an inch.  Surface temperatures are climbing again after the strong winds last Sunday, yesterday I read the surface at 69.8F.  Even with all the turbulence and occasional rain the water along the shoreline remains crystal clear.

Joe McAtee from Vacaville was off the water before noon with four large trout including this 6 pounder all caught on Speedy Shiners out along the main channel in front of the main marina.

Bass activity continues to be good, we don’t get a lot a bass pictures up at the store since so many pros are practicing C&R but keep an eye on our the Facebook comments.  I always appreciate the pictures you send in to us, fishing@collinslake.com.

Harley Matney (above, left) told us the day started off slow but he brought in two 3 1/2 pounders and a few 1 and 2 pounders dropshoting Sencos.  Richard Dedmon (above, right) seconded the sencos with this beautiful Spotted Bass caught on a Tokyo rig with a pink & black worm.

Crappie, and small panfish has been slower than normal for the end of May but this is likely just a side effect of the late rains and intermittent cold weather;  Look for a late start mid-June.  Still, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the beautiful one-pound Redear Sunfish that Nicholas Durbala caught along with Zachary & Elias:

Nicholas said he caught this beauty near the marina on a worm.

Now that I’ve gone over this week’s fishing it seems that one way or another using worms is solid advice!  Nightcrawler for trout, red worms for panfish and Sencos for bass!

The weekdays up here are still pretty quiet, if you can make a trip on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday you’ll probably have a pretty quiet lake and a good chance at bringing home dinner.  Once school is out all bets are off for the weekend RV camping but you can always just come for the day and I know we still have some good campsites available on weekdays throughout June.  Give us a call or check availability online!

Ed