Collins Lake

We have several veterans on our staff and quite a number of military veteran campers who join us this time of year.   

Thank you to all who have served honorably in our armed forces.

This Veterans Day weekend is forecast to be perfect outdoor weather with highs in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s.  Collins Lake is 28ft from full with a surface temperature around 59F, crystal clear water and heavily loaded with trout.  Let’s start with the LARGEST reported catch of the week…

Brad Bryan from Yuba City caught this humongous 9.85 pound rainbow trout dragging crankbaits up at the north end of the lake near the bridge.  So far this fall we’ve planted 6000lbs of trout and they are huuuuuungy!  We will continue weekly trout plants though November.  I have more pictures this week than I can post so here’s a selection for you to pick through:

First we have Dominick Sciarretta (aka Fishbob @fishbobnskillet on Instagram) and Luke Taormina who fished the Anglers Press/NTAC Tournament of Champions finale each landing more than a couple trout.  Dom told us he did best with white colored power eggs and orange mice tails.  He also noticed “Bass were blasting threadfin shad” so he got out some casting spoons and landed a few bass just for fun (pictured below).  Luke caught a 7 pounder on power eggs and followed up with a second 7 on PowerBait.  Both were caught off long casts from shore.

The NTAC event produced a lot of nice trout including Lucinda Witter’s (center) and too many others to feature.  Of course you expect a full report from AnglersPress & The Fish Sniffer.

It wasn’t all tournament fish, Jeremy & Roy Franchini from Sacramento showed off a pair of 7 pounders and an 8 1/2 pound monster all caught trolling Rapalas in the top 20ft.  Jerry Bender from Lakewood showed off a limit including a 6.5 pound trout all caught from the shore near the Water’s Edge group area on green PowerBait.   Rick Bender (below, center) from Wheatland caught over 4 1/2 pounds of dinner in the same area.

Steven Schwall (above, right) caught four trout including a seven pound fish and three about 1.5lbs each (not pictured) and returned the next day to land this 5.75 pound silver beauty (above right) on a night crawler down by the dam.  Rounding out this week’s trout report we have Jael Romero from Yuba City with a 1.5 pound rainbow trout caught by the dam on red-white-and-blue PowerBait… and long time friends Carl & Glenn from Lincoln who boated 7 fished using a combo I haven’t seen in a long time, ford fenders, half a nightcrawler w/PowerBait.

Well done guys!

With falling water temperatures we’ve finally seen catfish start to taper off from the October onslaught… but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there.   Chris Rygh from Vacaville pulled up a massive 12 pound catfish using chicken liver just north of the swim beach.

Not every year but sometimes in fall we see a sudden spike in bass activity and that’s what has happened this last week.  Bass seem to be biting everything;  I’ve had more than one report of shore fishing for trout with PowerBait and pulling up bass instead.  Most people are still releasing the bass but if you hook one they’ll at least give a good fight- just follow the shad and you’ll find them!

Happy Veterans Day – get outside and enjoy it!

Ed