Submit
Report

Collins Lake and Reports

Limit:
Click for interactive map

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 60

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I made a trip again to Collins today, hoping to catch another big fish! It didn't happen but the quality was excellent. In fact, my 5 fish limit was over 13 lbs! Biggest was a 3-10 largemouth near the dam, and a spot just under 3 lbs. I used Rodstrainer jigs all day. Unfortunately, the sun was bright and NO wind. Conditions were very tough. I fished steep walls with shadows and off-shore rockpiles. It was just one here and one there. But nothing under 2 lbs! Average depth of the fish I caught was 25 feet. Fun trip!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Some rain and slight runoff will greatly help Collins. Cloudy days will also be good. Jigs and brush hogs are good choices of baits.

Wednesday, November 16th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I took a friend of mine to Collins today for an afternoon bite - hoping the warm afternoon would trigger a better bite than previous trips. Bingo - it did - in a big way!! The bass were biting a little when we started around 11:30 as I caught a 13 inch largemouth under the boat docks. That was followed by a 2 lb spotted bass and then a 3 lb 2 oz largemouth. I definately felt things were going in the right direction! Little did I know!! I lost the next bass on a west shore bank - snapped my 10 lb test! We saw the fish try to spit the jig - she was at least 4 lbs. After another nice largemouth was caught and released, around 2:30 pm, it happened! Collins is usually tough mid-afternoon when the water is clear and the sun is bright. There is really no shade around the lake. Only one big bass has come in my boat during those conditions at Collins and that was an 8-10 largemouth caught by a lady client - in late November, several years ago. I was casting the same brown/orange Rodstrainer jig with a #180 Yamamoto grub that had caught the previous 4 bass, in about 20 feet of water when my line just got tight. I was about 100 yards off-shore on a favorite rocky area in the main body. Thinking it was probably a bass, I set the hook. Wow! The line just kept moving!! VERY soon I yelled "get the net"! After about 3 1/2 minutes, my friend netted a bass that nearly made me freak when I realized it was a spotted bass! She tipped three scales at 7 lbs 7 oz - 3 ounces better than my previous biggest (at Collins) of 7 lbs 4 oz. What a beauty (photo on westernbass.com)! After photos, she was put back in the lake in prime condition! My friend didn't catch any this trip. after beating me during the last trip. My 5 fish limit was around 16 1/2 lbs. What a great trip!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I think the bass are tired of waiting for foul weather and are beginning their fall feed. I saw several good fish on the meter in 20 to 30 feet of water, as well as 60 feet too! There are fish on the steep dropoffs at Collins and the underwater islands. Most of those are still underwater since Collins is about 10 or so feet above average for this time of year. In the afternoon, try to fish facing west, fishing the shadows that form above and below the water line. A cloudy day should produce better results, but as this big spot proved, miracles do happen!!

Tuesday, October 11th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 72

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Since the crowds are down, I am going to start guiding Collins again! Took a father-son team there on Tuesday and we did fair. Dad hooked three bass and lost them all. His son landed a nice 2 1/4 lb spot on a Camanche Jack split-shot worm. He also got a small one. I managed 6 - 3 largemouth and 3 spots. Two of the largemouth were small but one was a keeper. Two of the spots were in the 2 1/2 lb range. The lake was very calm after early wind and that always make a clear lake tough. The evening bite wasn't very good either. Water needs to cool some. A storm this weekend may help the bite!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: A purple ghost worm was the best color. I threw jigs. but no takers. There were some small bass chasing bait in the middle of the day in the middle of the lake, but it didn't last long. No topwater action. Fishing will improve in last October!

Sunday, August 21st, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 77

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: Bass are hitting on crawdads and not much else. I had one hit with a topwater lure but that was it. Use crawdads about 20 feet down.
    <a href="http://www.collinslake.com/">http://www.collinslake.com/</a>
    City: Oregon House

    Tips: Crawdads are the ticket- they don't sell emat the camp store.

Sunday, July 24th, 2005

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished saturday from 2pm-10pm. WOW the bite is on. fished cranks, drop shot and jigs. 50-60 fish with the best just over 8# another at 7# and two over 5# a couple of 4's and alot of 2-3# and a few dinks to boot. best five close to 30#s. also fished last friday evening with a friend. didn't catch as many but still had about 25-26# for five.
    City: yuba city

    Tips: Fish a little deeper. the reaction bite is getting better. Jigs, Cranks and worms they all work.

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 79 at Surface

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught a beautiful bass this afternoon at Collins Lake. Second cast on a hula popper. Word is the trout have been good but we had no luck on Powerbait. We also brought in several crappie which we released like the bass.

    Kathy Hess has a great fishing report up at:
    <a href="http://www.collinslake.com/index.php?page=fishing">http://www.collinslake.com/index.php?page=fishing</a>

    Collins Lake also has a new site up at http://www.collinslake.com/
    City: Oregon House

Monday, June 20th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 70

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Went up there on an afternoon trip, and was real slow until about 6:30 at this time we put 5-6 fish in the boat. The best method seemed to be senkos 4 inch, caught the best one on a crankbait, but all in all still pretty slow.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: Cover, cover, cover

Saturday, May 7th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 64-69

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Started Saturday am on the east shore across from the marina. Son and I boated 5 between us and lost more. All spots 10-13", downsized from 5" senkos to 3 & 4" senkos after missing several on the 5". Dropped son off at camp and went up river into the 5 mph zone along the east shore and added another 10 same size. All the fish where very tight to the cover and close to shore. Casting into the base of the brush or any laydowns usually produced a fish. The wind made it a liitle difficult to get the lighter baits where they needed to go. Of course the fact that I was being lazy and letting the wind push the boat down the shore to cover as much water as possible didn't help my accuracy.

    With a little bit of stability in the weather for a few days and things sould really improve.
    City: Newark

    Tips: We seemed to have the best luck with the pumkin green/black flake senkos, watermelon second and only marginal success with a pearlescent shad color.

  • By

    Water Temp: 64-67

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Caught a few fish today. No size, biggest was around 2 lbs. All fish were off reaction baits until afternoon where we pestered a couple bed fish into biting. LOTS of trout fisherman!!
    City: Fair Oaks

    Tips: A couple of days of stable weather should open up this lake.

Thursday, April 28th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 62

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Checked out the lake for about 5 hours today and saw some big females crusing and some males on beds. I fished worms and jigs for 13 bass, mostly spots. Several over 2 lbs with the biggest at 2 3/4 lbs. Bass are pretty tight to cover.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: It was fun to throw a Chartreuse Senko near crusing bass and watch them come and eat it! I thought a 10 lb female was going to take it, but she turned away at the last second. Darn!!!!

Wednesday, April 27th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 61-63

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished all week. Fishing pretty good all week. 20-30 fish per day between my son and I. Caught all fish on dart headed shad colored 4" worm and 4" brown tubes. Fish extremely tight to cover. Had to skip the worms into the cover. Did not see any bedding fish, nor did we see any schools of bait. Did catch a few fish on the open rock bank. All fish in about 5-8 feet of water. Most takes were just weight on the line. Very subtle takes. Biggest fish was a spot about 17" long.
    City: Reno, NV

    Tips: Fish tight to the cover and fish slow.

Monday, March 21st, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Tough days. Fished Mon-thurs for a total of 3 fish. No reaction bites at all. All the fish came on Senkos and Jigs - fished slowwwwww. Dad lost a 5+ lb trout which ate a senko in the river arm. Rising water with white caps was the main culprit for the poor fishing. Water is now flowing over spillway so things should stabilize with a few days of good weather.
    City: Fair Oaks

    Tips: Give it a few days then come up and rip some lips.

Saturday, March 19th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 57

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I fished for about 4 1/2 hours on Friday morning before the rain and did fairly well. I missed the early bite - was mostly checking out the condition of the lake. With these next storms, the lake will probably fill! I found all of my spotted bass split-shotting a green pumpkin Camanche Jack worm in about 20 feet of water. The first five were all in the 2 pound range, then some smaller ones, but the last was just under 3 pounds. My limit was about 12 pounds - nice quality! I threw some Senkos - but evidently at the wrong trees!! I ripped some with no takers, nor was there much of a jig bite! They sure wanted that worm (4 1/2 inch)!!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I was casting and dragging along 45 degree angle banks, mostly in the river arm. Small rock helped. The bass became very active around 11 am. The east side is a bit warmer than the west side, but with no sun for several days coming up, that will change and the whole lake is likely to be the same temp. On sunny days in the spring, the east side warms up quickly! Good luck!!

Wednesday, March 9th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 58-61

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: good day 12 fish all spots on senkos best four keepers prob went about 13lbs. still mostly small fish got only 4 keepers(watermelon,smoke colors) fish were tight in flooded trees fish slow! hope the weather stays nice
    City: carnelian bay

    Tips: tried jigs/rips/spinnerbaits all fish came on senkos

  • By

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished all day Saturday 3/5 with limited success. All fish caught w/ drop-shot purple worms. Threw jigs, jerks, spinnerbaits and NADA. Best 5 went 13.5 - nothing like it will be soon.

    Tight Lines!
    City: YC

Saturday, February 19th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 50

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: I tried a 3 hour trip this morning, forgeting that it was a 3 day weekend - and there was a local tournament - wow!!! Anyway, I wanted to try some of my new G.Loomis rods and check out the jig bite. My first cast with the new GLX 854 produced a 1 1/2 lb spot on a purple Weapon jig in about 12 feet of water - that surprised me. I got 4 more bites, all on the purple jig, and 3 of them were nice ones - spots from 2 to 2 1/2 lbs. Tried to get my 5th bass, but it started raining and I wasn't in the mood to get wet!
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I fished rocky points and walls - some far offshore for my jig fish. Most fish were about 20 feet. You have to fish your jigs a little faster at Collins because the rocks will cause them to snag up all the time! If I was there longer, I would have tried more tactics. I did throw rips and cranks for a bit, not no takers.

Sunday, January 30th, 2005

  • By

    Water Temp: 47-48

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: Beautiful day, getting out in the sun was a blast, fishing was a waste. One rat and one nice trout. Jig bite was non-existant, no interest in split shot or texas rigs, blades didn't get their attention, neither did ripping. Even tried topwater - nada. Fish came on drop-shot, 25 -35 feet.
    City: Fair Oaks

    Tips: Wait for temp to rise or water to clear.

Sunday, November 21st, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: 54

    Water Clarity: Stained (2-4 foot visibility)

    Report: Fished 7:30 am to 12:oo pm no bites on anything. Tried jigs with 3 different trailers to no avail.Did all the rest,dropshot,texas rig,spinnerblade,splitshot,and spoons.That north wind never helps.Had to try this lake as I was a ferry service taking kids to and from Woodleaf camp.I won't hurry back.
    City: Sacramento

Friday, November 5th, 2004

  • By

    Water Temp: 58-61

    Water Clarity: Clear (4+ foot visibility)

    Report: I fished with my buddy Rick Tietz on Tues for about 6 hours. We started about 11:30 am, trying everything. We caught some nice spots up to 2 1/4 pounds using small worms. We caught several dropshotting and using spoons. It was fun finding suspended fish at about 25 feet - dropping the spoon to them at that depth - and watching the X-19 show us fish chasing the spoon! I used half-ounce brown/orange Rodstrainer jigs with my favorite #180 Yamamoto single tail grubs. After one or two jig fish, I got a good bite and I knew fall was here! She was a spotted bass that hit the scales at 5 lbs 2 oz. She was about 20 feet deep, near a ledge. Shortly after I missed another big fish - had her for a second. Darn!! We wound up with only 11 spots and 2 largemouth, though we missed several. The water was dead calm and made the fishing a little tough until later in the afternoon. I went by myself for a few hours Thurs morning, but the wind nearly blew me off the lake, and that is saying something for Collins when it is low!! I did catch 8 bass in a few hours with the biggest being a 2 3/4 lb largemouth - on the jig! I think fishing would have been good, but there was no place to get out of the wind.
    City: Yuba City

    Tips: I tried reaction baits both days, but other than spoons, not much worked. No topwater. Lots of bait this year, so drop-shotting and spooning was quite good. The jig bite is now underway.

Sunday, August 15th, 2004

  • By

    Water Clarity: Muddy (0-2 foot visibility)

    Report: I have a ? can I use a float tube in this lake?
    City: San bruno