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Collins Lake and Reports

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Sunday, November 16th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 54 degrees

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Caught 5 fish. 1 on a salt and pepper grub back in the river at 7:30 am in 16 feet. Took 3 on the face of the dam at late morning all on sinko's natural shad with 4 lb test and a red circle hook. Last fish caught in front of the regular ramp in 16 feet also used a sinko,early afternoon.
    City: Granite Bay

    Tips: Dead stick fish and fish slow. Recommend 4 lb test and back reel. I partner used 8 lb and didn't catch any fish.

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Thought with the nice weather we have been having to hit Collins again. Well it started off slow, we did not hit the water till about 12:30 or so. First fish came at about 2:30 or 3:00 on a jig being reeled back the boat, so we tried spinner baits, with no hits. We continued without a fish until right at dark, T-Rigged Sekno caught the big fish a 4-4. All the rest came off the dam with the same set up. All after dark.
    City: Grass Valley

    Tips: GPS this lake while its low!

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 58-60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Well, Larry was right on the previous post. The fishing was better on Sat. Hit 35-40 bass up to 4'15. Total junk fishing day. Caught em on spooks, rip, jig and drop shot. The 4'15 was a beautiful l-mouth that inhaled the rip bait. Had a 2 pound spot on the spook and had a trout that was at least 10 pounds fly right over the top of the spook. That thing was huge! Wish it would have hooked up. Don't know what it is about those collins lake trout and topwater baits. It's the only lake I ever catch top water trout on bass tackle. Overall, the jig and d-shot ruled the day. The fish were deep and have never seemed to come up this fall.
    City: Roseville

    Tips: It drizzled on me a little Sat, but for the most it was a nice day. I was suprised the reaction bite wasn't a little better, but it was good enough to spank em on the jig and d-shot.

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    Water Temp: 62-63

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Missed a cloudy day by one day - fishing would have been better today (Sat - cloudy). I took a grandpa/grandson team today for a 6 hour trip and found fishing slow because of bright skies, calm wind, and high barometer. Bait balls were suspended and scattered. We spooned several and caught one or two on 4" Power worms. The big event was the 10 year old hooking and landing his first spoon bass - a nice spot at 1 3/4 lbs! He did that after 5 minutes of spoonin' on his own!! I thought the late afternoon bite would turn on, but it didn't. I tried some topwater to see if they could try that technique but only had one taker. Fall fishing is hit and miss and I guess we were in the middle with 7 bass total and several missed.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: The staff at Collins Lake again has done an excellent job of maintaining their low water launch at the dam. No problem launching a 20 foot Ranger bass boat! And the walk up the hill to get your truck isn't as bad as other lakes!! I thought the jig bite might work but no takers. You just can't beat a Duh! spoon in the black shad color. I use the 1 3/4 oz size but a smaller one will work too.

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Found them today. We put 20 in the boat. Using 1/16 oz Texas rig 4 inch magic worms in 15 to 25 feet of water. Most fish came on sharp breaks of road beds and points dropping off into 30 feet or more of water. 1 LMB the rest 14 inch Spots ..... all twins. Took about 5 early, then worked other areas, came back in afternoon to area we fished in the AM, and the bite was on. Work the baits SLOW and very very light bite.
    City: Woodland

    Tips: Slow is the rule, fish were hitting on fall off of the breaks into deep water. Super light bite. 1/16 oz weight, and 4 inch worm 10 lb test.

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 65

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Tough bite. Topwater way slow, only a couple of strikes. Fished topwater hard till about 10:00. Partner fished plastics and caught a two keepers, and several dinks. After 10:00 I switched to plastics caught 2 keepers. All keeper fish under 14".

    Fish seemed to be very shallow in only about 6 feet of water. Bait balls in about 10 feet.
    City: Woodland

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 71

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Early topwater smoking hot. Bite died off after about 11:00 AM. Lots of small fish schooled on bait driving them to the surface. We could not get anything over 10 inches on the shcoolies.
    City: Woodland

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 79 ish

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I took my 5 year old out on a very hot, still, sunny afternoon. Went
    looking for some underwater structure, but there was no bait and no fish on it. Finally got bit on the launch ramp road by the dam. Several 13" fish for the skillet and then no more bites. Fished the riprap on the dam and had several bites and managed a 12" fish there. My daughter caught a nice bluegill on the dam which helped keep her interest up. The evening topwater sucked as I only caught a couple. Smaller fish were eating bait, but the larger fish were not playing on this night.
    City: Yuba city

    Tips: Just dropshotting in 23'.

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Lousy day of fishing...Partly our fault...We put in in mid-afternoon (about 1:30) the air temp was only about 80-85 and we tried everything. I missed a couple on Senkos and that was about it for the firstseveral hours. My Uncle landed one on D-shot and another couple on flukes. I however got blanked until the sun started to set. At that point I switched over to top water and had 2 quick blow ups. Both were 2lbs or so, 1 LM 1 Spot, and that was that.
    City: Grass Valley

    Tips: This lake is way down, 10-15 feet lower than the last time we were on the water. All decent structure I was aware of is now out of the water. If you have GPS now would be a time to go mark way points for when the lake fills again.

Friday, July 4th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 77-80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Decided to try Collins again due to the good bite we had there last week, not so lucky this time. Found fish, just not to many takers. Caught 0 fish in the morning on top water, it was an odd morning to say the least. Starting throwing soft plastic and crank baits and caught fish. The fish we caught ranged from 5-10 foot deep. Nothing over 2.5 lbs.
    City: Grass Valley

    Tips: Collins is busy with recreational boaters, this helps create some mud lines but not much else. Watch out for them, had 3 boats nearly colide right infront of us. We decided to call it a day at that point. Just BE SAFE and have fun.

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 76-80

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Water was stained...Had better clarity 2 weeks ago I guess the recreational boaters have helped that out. Anyway fishing was good, put in around 5:45 am and the top water bite was good, had 2 fish hit spooks just as they hit the water, also buzz baits were effective, nothing big in the morning but a fun way to start the day. Soon as it warmed up had some success with crank baits, but most bites were on soft plastics. The reaction bite was great, the day was great except the $19.00 it cost to fish there. Top 5 went close to 15 biggest being right around 5.
    City: Grass Valley

    Tips: Find some offshore structure, with these warm days the fish are moving down, not too deep but down none the less. Bring the bait to the fish.

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Top H20 in AM and plastics rest of day.
    City: Cameron Park

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 70-82

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I decided to try Collins for a change. Water temp was warm for the middle of May. I looked for beds but found none. I did find some brush and saw 3 or 4 bass, but couldn't get them to bite. It was about 90 degrees when I started fishing at 9am. I switched to a fancy jointed wake bait and got slammed by something silver? 5 more hits and no hook ups. I guess they were trout biting at the spinning propeller on this lure. I saw trillions of trout chasing bait, but caught none that I cast toward. Finally picked up a 13" fish on a ripbait. Went up the river and caught another on a senko. Had numerous follows on the wakebait and a swimbait, but only had two fish by 2 pm. Seems collins is like this for me. I went back to the brush pile w/ the fish on it earlier and threw the wakebait. Bam, a nice 2.5 nailed it and I landed it. I then proceed to dump one on a senko. I did find a brush line on a point that the wind was blowing into. First cast with the wakebait and a big one follows it but does not commit. Several casts later, I look away from the lure as I have it half way back to the boat and the water explodes. Wow, a spot almost as long as my arm takes of w/my lure. I stick it, it pulls for a couple of seconds, and then comes unbuttoned. Rats. I then catch a nice spot off a different part of the brush line and have another bite it but miss the hooks. I went around on the downstream side of the brush and picked up 2 more keepers. Interestingly enough, I hit 5 or 6 more brushpiles and never caught another fish.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I dont have any tips on this place. I have to hunt and peck for every bite. The lake is low enough that 90% of the brush and trees are up on the bank.

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 69-70

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Lake was pretty busy with people playing on the water so watch out for that. Caught one right off on lipless and missed a couple on senko's. Both in se corner of lake. Moved around stayed mostly on the east with no luck, went back to se corner and caught 4 more on senkos no fish was over 2lbs.
    City: Grass Valley

    Tips: If you find the fish stick with them till they all out stop, seems as if they are schooling up a bit.

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 63 to 68

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Evening fly fishing with beaded flys,dark colors, drop shotting with kut tail worms and wacky rig, 4-6 inch. One bass on swim bait at dusk. Bass are shallow near rocky shore.
    City: Brentwood

    Tips: grn pmkin, watermelon red flake, slow slow down

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 58-61

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Congrats on the monster spot - maybe 2nd biggest in Calif?! My client and I had a better than expected day today after the rain and cold front with north wind today. Since the lake is down some, I decided to try some offshore structure - and - there they were!! My client caught 7 and I caught 5 in about an hour up to 2 1/2 lbs - 8:30 to 9:30 am. He was using a MMIII Robo worm and I was using a Berkley green pumpkin Power worm. I spent the day showing him good areas to fish and we wound up with 2 largemouth and 21 spotted bass - the biggest spot at 3 1/2 lbs. So we were a little off the lake record, har!!!!! The good spot was the most shallow fish we caught. She was in the back of a cove on the west side about 4 or 5 feed deep. That one and most of our afternoon fish were caught on wacky rigged 5" Senkos in darker colors. Good trip!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It is very hard to predict how the bite will be in the next month. The lake refuses to warm up much, but the bass are active. The east side is usually warmer in the spring, but not this year. Lake is about same temp all over. Most of our bass were about 15 to 20 feet deep, with a few more shallow in the afternoon.

Friday, April 11th, 2008

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    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Congrats on the pig, and thanks for putting her back to be caught again. I hope Collins is taking care of you now that you have the new lake record spot. Saw the pic on there site, boy that was one fat girl!!
    City: Grass Valley

Monday, April 7th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 55-58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: went back to collins today with my son cole and good friend lyle and they along with me got to experience one of the greatest fishing days of my life and the fish of my lifetime (so far) we started dropshoting deep points and brush piles with a few takers then the wind came up so we started chucking huds after losing about five big fish all easily over 6 pounds at about 3:15 on the east side of the lake in about 8 feet of water i hooked and landed the new lake record spotted bass 9 pounds 8 and a half ounces the great news is that after getting her certified and pictures taken she was set free to spawn and maybe break the world record next year she is only 12 ounces shy now you got to love collins
    City: grass valley

    Tips: fish collins lake its an awesome fishery and i lost and had more followers on that huddelston rof 5 than i could count yesterday one we estimated close to12 pounds (largemouth)

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

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    Water Temp: 55-58

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: on saturday the 5th of april the gold country bassmasters held there second tournament of the year it took 12.5 pounds to win by rj bennett he waqs throwing wake baits darterheads and senkos on points and deep flats i had 8.8 for second throwing huddelton swimbaits and dropshot worms at the ends of brush piles and on deep points and flats lots of fun fish are moving on to beds
    City: grass valley

    Tips: look for fish on beds fish the deep points still need to go slower

Friday, April 4th, 2008

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    Water Temp: ?

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: decided to hit up collins again, i dont know why. well probably cause i have a small boat and collns is easy to get around. got on water at 650, fished till noon, caught around 15 bass, larget 2 lbs, all on stacy 90 rip bait, shad and rainbow trout collor. tried throwing senkos wacky rigged in the areas we caught fish, tried some other plastic, no hits. hard on a boat this time of year with no dpeth finder. Decent day on the water as far as fishing gos, but let me tell you collins was a zooOOOO! never seen so many boat, ther literally must have been 75 boats on that lake, you couldnt go 100 yeards without having to maneuer around some desuchbags trolling lines for trout, only saw 3 or 4 trout caught all day. Collins lakes website that raves about their trout fishing is a joke and should be shut down.
    City: davis

    Tips: i know ill be staying away from collins on the weekends, waht a miserable feeling with all those boats around, saw more people than i do walking around the city. By the way, i know im not the only one fishing out there, post a report!