Although it has already felt like this for three months, Spring has finally arrived in earnest and with the oaks bright green the, fremont cottonwoods rustling along the shoreline and proliferation of trout activity all over the lake. After a few brief showers the lake sits at about 18.5ft from spill with a surface temperature nearing 55°F. Weather has been moderate and fairly consistent, sometimes with afternoon winds. This week’s forecast includes highs from 70°F to 80°F until Sunday when we are hoping for some additional rain.
using Green Powerbait, including this massive 6.5 pound Rainbow!
Over the last couple weeks we’ve seen the best trout bite move from PowerBait a bit further off shore- about a week ago shore fishing slowed and lots of fish were caught 15-20ft down. Now it seems they’re back near the surface with lots of action on everything from PowerBait on the shore to Rapalas, spinning baits and Kastmasters.
Joe, Paul & Dan of Lincoln (above) had a great day fishing from the beach using a variety of baits and methods and finishing the day with a triple limit. Much farther north off of the Hidden Spruce hiking trail, Thor, Dylan & Alivia had an impressive showing rainbow trout caught using powerbait from the shore along the along the main channel.
Bradley Mooers was (below, left) was in the same area, near the powerlines, with the same bait on a different day and he caught a limit of eating sized rainbows. Rylan & Cory Deaughter (center) used worms. Craig Sani (right) caught a limit from shore including a 6 pound fish; His buddy Jeff Booth caught 3 more.
Laila Collins is holding up her fish proud like she owns the place – she caught those two trout using a Panther Martin spinning bait down near the dam. Joe Pajune of Rocklin showed us his biggest fish of the day caught on Powerbait from the beach. Finally, although we are sparse on the details, yesterday evening Bryan from Live Oak caught this 6.5lb rainbow.
As of late, Bass have taken a back seat – they’re still out there, and still biting so presumably everyone is just preoccupied with all the trout action. Simple nightcrawlers are a solid bait for bass this time of year if you know where to drop in, even better is live crawdads or failing that, try a roboworm. Still, for now the news (and pictures) of bass have dropped off. Keep an eye out, we are still pre-spawn so there ARE hungry bass out there.
If you’re catching & releasing please snap a picture and send the details to us fishing@collinslake.com … in fact the best pictures for any fish are the ones right out on the lake, usually we like to know:
- Names of people in the picture (optionally where you’re from)
- If it’s a big fish, the weight (optionally the length)
- Where on the lake you caught it
- What you used for bait
- When you caught it
- Include the full quality, biggest picture you can
That’s all for now- I’ve got to get out of the office and get my wife and kids down to the shoreline- I hope you’ll do the same!
Available near our general store. 45 minutes free each day.