Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3825 Nov 22- Dec 6 | Page 17

VOL.38 • ISS. 25 Location and Size: The recreation area, located at 1200 feet in elevation, covers about 1,600 acres when full and features 12.5 miles of shoreline. Collins Lake is about 1-1/4 hours northeast of Sacramento and about 30 minutes east of Marysville. Season: The recreation area is open for day use 7 days a week year-round. Anglers fish for rainbow trout, brown trout, spotted bass, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish, black crappie, bluegill and redear sunfish. Boating: The water ski season runs from May 15 through September 30. Jet skis and small personal watercraft aren’t allowed on the lake. A double wide concrete launch ramp with a dock and a full-service marina with moorage and boat rentals are available. Fishing Access: Collins Lake provides outstanding access for shore anglers and campers. Shore anglers find success while fishing along the dam, on the west shore and around the bridge on the river arm. Camping: A safe and clean family campground includes hot showers and laundry, RV hookups and tent campsites. The campground is patrolled by security and emergency medical personnel are on call. Groups are welcome. Rates vary on time of year and amenities provided. Other Facilities: Collins includes a 600-foot sand swimming beach, children’s playground, beach volleyball, picnic area, general store, laundry and hot showers. Check out their famous huge ice cream cones! Three large group picnic areas located near the swimming beach and playground. Information and Services: Collins Lake Recre- ation Area, 1-800-286-0576 or (530) 692-1600, www. collinslake.com. Collins Lake (Merle Collins Res.) Yuba County Natural Tree & Brush Habitat Natural Rocky Habitat Steep Drop off Manmade Brush Habitat 800-286-0576 P.O. Box 300 . Oregon House . California 95962 3825 Lake of The Springs Bridge Oregon House El. 1530 Pow erlin e Stanfield Hill El. 1221 Flanly Peak El. 2099 Loma Rica Road To Loma Rica, Marysville & Hiway 20 Collins Lake Entry Station & General Store Swimming Beach Dolan Harding Road Open Camping Area FISHING NOTES Dry Creek Dam Chaparral Hill El. 2099 • Rainbow Trout are the most popular species at Collins, since the lake management and DFW in a cooperative program plant big loads of rainbows into the reservoir in the spring and fall. While the DFW plants catchable trout, the concessionaire stocks lots of trophy trout in the lake. Trollers find success using nightcrawlers behind dodgers, Cripplures, Needlefish, Rapalas and a variety of spinners throughout the year, but the best fishing takes place in the spring and summer. Shore anglers also catch trout while fishing Power Bait, spoons and spinners in the camping areas, off the swim beach and in near the dam. Fishing can be very good off the docks at night during the summer. • Spotted Bass are the predominant bass species in Collins, but the lake kicks out trophy Florida-strain Largemouth Bass every year. Smallmouth Bass used to be more abundant, but the spotted bass have largely replaced the bronzebacks in the catches. Collins is known for being a good drop shotting lake throughout the year,as well as being a great place to fish top water lures and plastic worms around structure. The lake management has put a lot of time and effort into habitat enhancement and Florida largemouth planting programs at the reservoir. • Channel Catfish prowl the waters of Collins during the spring and summer when water temperatures are at their highest. The Dry Creek inlet also kicks out good numbers of catfish during winter storms when food washes into the lake. Use mackerel, chicken liver and other baits for the whiskerfish. • Bluegill, Black Crappie and Redear Sunfish offer top-notch action during the spring and summer. Fish for the crappie with Mini Jigs and for the bluegill and redears with wax worms, redworms and golden grubs. Fish around the trees and brush on the east side of the lake and in the brush piles. Collins Lake, located on Dry Creek, a tributary of the Yuba River, features 12 miles of shoreline located in the beautiful Sierra Nevada foothills. More than 50,000 rainbow trout are planted in Collins every spring and fall, meaning that Collins Lake has the largest private planting The youth division winners of the Norcal Trout Anglers Challenge NTAC had a great time fishing the two day event at Collins Lake. program north of Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff. Sacramento. Thousands of these trout are trophy- sized, planted at 3 anglerspress@hotmail.com, www.angler- to 8 pounds and growing even larger. spress.com. The resort, in cooperation with the CDFW, Kokanee Power and CIFFI, has also sponsored a successful pen-rearing program to enhance the trophy trout fishery at the reservoir. 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 Largest Trout Stocking Program 3 pounds. This year North of Sacramento the net pens will be filled on November Call for Reservations Lakefront 19 by the CDFW, RV assisted by lake staff Camping and local volunteers. www.collinslake.com • Trout • Bass • Crappie • Bluegill • Catfish To Brownsville Collins Lake Facts 15 Nov 22 - Dec 6, 2019 MAP FEATURE “They’re beautiful fish with full fins that Young and the lake management in the look much more like native or holdover past have stocked the lake with Alabama trout,” said Lincoln Young, manager spotted bass, black crappie, bluegill and of Collins Lake Resort. “Since they’re redear sunfish. “We plant the fish at the already acclimated to the lake’s waters, size that they can spawn that season,” they’re brightly colored, their flesh is Young noted. firmer and they fight harder than recently The lake crappie record of 3 pounds, planted trout.” 4 ounces was set by Probhat Palma in The CDFW planted brown trout in October 2012,. previous years, but they haven’t stocked In addition to replanting the reservoir browns for over 8 years. with warm water fish, they also have Trout grow big and fat in Collins, conducted their own habitat enhancement feeding heavily on the lake’s abundant project every 6 to 8 years to rebuild the threadfin shad and other forage. Rich lake’s food chain from the bottom up. Moore set the lake rainbow record of 14 “A positive aspect of the recent drought pounds, 3 ounces in May 2009. The lake is that it exposed the shoreline and allowed brown record, set in 1991 by Bill Clutter, brush to grow around the lake,” said is 9 pounds. Young. “When the lake filled after the Spotted and largemouth bass offer great drought with the rainwater, it inundated fishing at Collins also. Dan Raub captured the brush, providing good habitat for the lake largemouth bass record of 13 juvenile bass and sunfish to feed and hide pounds, 4 ounces in June 1998 while from predators.” fishing a live crawdad. James Everhart For more information, contact the employed a trout swimbait to nail the lake Collins Lake Recreation Area at 530-692- spotted bass record of 9 pounds, 8-1/2 1600, www.collinslake.com. ounces in 2008. “Spotted bass are the most abundant bass in the reservoir,” said Young. “We see good numbers of 4 to 5 pounders and fish up to 7 pounds every year. Over the years, we’ve weighed in a dozen spotted bass over 8 pounds.” Channel catfish also offer an excellent fishery at the lake throughout the year, with the best action generally available during the summer and early fall months. The lake catfish record, set Rob Cetinich (L) won first place in the adult division of the NTAC Tournament of Champions at Collins Lake with this 7.92 lb. in 2008, is 24 pounds. rainbow, while Joey Hill Sr. (C) placed second with his 7.84 lb. To supplement the trout and Matt Fernandez placed sixth with his 6.43 lb. rainbow. bass and panfish fishery, Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.