VOL. 44 • ISS. 3

Collins Lake, located in the Sierra Nevada foothills between Marysville and Nevada City, features excellent fishing for rainbow trout, spotted bass, largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill and channel catfish.

Photo by Dan Bacher

REGON HOUSE, CA –

Nestled in the Sierra Nevada Foothills between Marysville and Nevada City, Collins Lake is notable for hosting the largest private trout planting program north of Sacramento., but it also features great black bass, channel catfish and crappie fishing. Over 25,000 lbs. of rainbow and lightning trout were scheduled for the fall and winter of 2024-2025 and thousands more pounds of trout will be stocked in the spring of 2025. Thousands of these trout are trophysized, planted at 3 to 8 pounds and growing even larger. Cal Kellogg, fishcalkellogg. com, reported top-notch fishing on his most recent trip to Collins Lake.“ A family of five got 27 trout up to 7 pounds to the boat,” he stated.“ A handful of the fish were in the 3 to 4 pound range. We caught the fish while trolling with pink Trout Trix worms, red and white Metalhead Trolling Spoons, threaded nightcrawlers and garlic Power Worms.” Ed Palma at the Collins Lake Resort confirmed the solid fishing at Collins Lake that boaters and shore anglers are experiencing.“ We’ ve been planting trout all winter- in fact, 8000 pounds over just the last 4 weeks. Keep an eye out for sunny days and low windsespecially Monday-Thursday when there’ s typically not much of a crowd on the shoreline,” Palma stated“ The trout bite had been a little sluggish, but now that the water has settled out some and weather has been mostly stable, things have begun to pick up. Most of the catching has been in the top 15 ft. of

water and lots of people are reporting success with PowerBait, typical for these lake conditions- though some folks are still catching with lures,” said Palma. For example, Leo and Jaelyn of Marysville caught a 6-1 / 4 pound rainbow on a golden flasher / spoon from their boat about 15 ft down on the far side of the dam. Zack, Ethan and Valerie from Oroville reeled in 13 trout from a boat in Elmer’ s cove using PowerBait. Zack and Ethan returned later in the week for a double limit switching out the PowerBait for marshmallows and nightcrawlers. Sabrina and Jacob Doria brought in five trout including two lightning trout and three rainbows all caught at the south end of the lake near the dam using PowerBait. Aubree( and Jason) of Woodland reeled in one trout, her first fish, while using garlic red Power- Balls by the dam. Ray Adams of Grass Valley landed two big rainbow trout by the dam with garlic PowerBait.

Jason Andre of Vacaville shows off this whopping 8.69 lb. rainbow trout that he caught from his kayak at Collins Lake.

Photo by Dan Bacher

Jayden caught a good sized golden rainbow“ lightning” trout dragging a mini crankbait near Goose Island. James Mattlock caught his 7-pound trout not far from the Main Marina casting a Panther Martin lure. Jacob, Ali and Wyatt drove out from Winters to catch a loaded stringer including a lightning trout and a super chunky 9.5 pound Rainbow

Trout.

“ Finally, we’ ve been hearing that bass activity has been heating up early- perhaps a product of so many sunny days over the last couple weeks. California Bass Angler Kong Moua caught 20 ″ bass,” stated Palma.“ Things are looking primed for a super spring- we still have over 15,000 pounds of trout scheduled and that’ s not including net pen releases( raised at Collins Lake). If that wasn’ t enough, the ice cream freezer is fixed and working better than ever- we’ ve got 23 flavors on the board,” Palma concluded. The resort, in cooperation with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife( CDFW), Kokanee Power and the California Inland Fisheries Foundation, Inc.( CIFFI), has also sponsored a successful pen-rearing program to enhance the trophy trout fishery at the reservoir for many years. The CDFW puts the trout in the 12 floating pens at a size of 2 / 3 lbs. each November. When they are released in increments between mid-March and the end of April, they range from 2-1 / 4 to 3 pounds. This year the net pens will be filled by the CDFW, assisted by lake staff and local volunteers. The pen rainbows are beautiful fish with full fins that look much more like native or holdover trout. Since they’ re already acclimated to the lake’ s waters, they’ re brightly colored, their flesh is firmer and they fight harder than recently