Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3911 May 2020 | Page 13

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. CONTINUED FROM PG 12 Natural Tree & Brush Habitat Natural Rocky Habitat Steep Drop off Manmade Brush Habitat • Trout • Bass • Crappie • Bluegill • Catfish 800-286-0576 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. 2.01 lb. rainbow, while Makyla Smith finished third in the youth division with a 1.99 lb. rainbow trout. The fourth through eleventh place youth winners were (4) Jacob White, 1.95; (5) Natalia Smith, 1.9; (6) Ryder Peterson, 1.85; (7) Angel Blanco, 1.68; (8) Aniyah Tinsley, 1.63; (9) Joshua Minas, 1.63; (10) Eva Edson, 1.63; and Joey Hill Jr., 1.63. The Tinsley Family – Aniyah, Fred, Tisha and Sabrina – reported a total of 22 trout during the two days. They caught their rainbows while trolling with broken back Rapalas. Tisha Tinley came in ninth in the adult division with a 4.56 lb. rainbow, while Aniyah Tinsley captured eighth place in the youth division with a 1.63 lb. trout. Jeff Garcia of Stockton won the Angler of the Year Award during the awards ceremony. Anglers at the event also won $100 plus a tackle box filled with Rooster Tail lures and an award from Daiwa. Spotted and largemouth bass offer great fishing at Collins also. Dan Raub captured the lake largemouth bass record of 13 pounds, 4 ounces in June 1998 while fishing a live crawdad. James Everhart employed a trout swimbait to nail the lake spotted bass record Largest Trout Stocking Program of 9 pounds, 8-1/2 North of Sacramento ounces in 2008. Call for Reservations “Spotted bass Lakefront are the most RV Camping abundant bass in www.collinslake.com the reservoir,” said 3908 P.O. Box 300 . Oregon House . California 95962 alone a season event. We look forward to opening day, We look forward to opening day at San Pablo Reservoir.” A total of 120 people, including 100 adults and 20 youth, entered in the event. Joey Hill Sr. placed second in the adult division with a 7.84 lb. trout that he landed while trolling. Lucinda Witte placed third in the event with a 7.38 lb. rainbow that she bagged while trolling with a red Rapala on the lake’s west side. The fourth through tenth place winners were (4) Luke Toramina, 6.9; (5) David Bixler, 6.73; (6) Matt Fernandez, 6.43; (7) Leo Vasquez, 4.8; (8) Corey Harms, 4.77; (9) Tisha Tinsley, 4.56; and (10) Daryl Carter, 3.93. Moises Blanco won first place in the youth division with a 2.07 lb. rainbow trout. He was bait fishing on shore with his brother, Angel Blanco, who Avery Edison finished second with a To Brownsville Collins Lake (Merle Collins Res.) Yuba County Collins Lake Facts - 13 May 2020 Map Feature VOL.39 • ISS. 11 contact the Collins Lake Recreation Area Young. “We see good numbers of 4 to 5 at 530-692-1600, www.collinslake.com. pounders and fish up to 7 pounds every Nestled in the beautiful Sierra Nevada year. Over the years, we’ve weighed in a foothills, just over an hour northeast of dozen spotted bass over 8 pounds.” Sacramento between Marysville and Channel catfish also offer an excellent Grass Valley, Collins is a 1600-acre lake fishery at the lake throughout the year, and recreation area with 12 miles of with the best action generally available shoreline. during the summer and early fall The NTAC TOC event was presented months. The lake catfish record, set in by Angler’s Press Outdoors and hosted 2008, is 24 pounds. by Gone Fishin’ Marine. Lasher Elk To supplement the bass and panfish fishery, Young and the lake management Grove, the Fish Sniffer magazine and Daiwa. For more information, contact in the past have stocked the lake with Vince Harris at Angler’s Press (916) Alabama spotted bass, black crappie, 768-0938, anglerspress@hotmail.com, bluegill and redear sunfish. “We plant www.anglerspress.com. the fish at the size that they can spawn that season,” Young noted. The lake crappie record of 3 pounds, 4 ounces was set by Probhat Palma in October 2012,. In addition to replanting the reservoir with warm water fish, they also have conducted their own habitat enhancement project every 6 to 8 years to rebuild the lake’s food chain from the bottom up. “A positive aspect of the recent drought is that it exposed the shoreline and allowed brush to grow around the lake,” said Young. “When the lake filled after the drought with the rainwater, it inundated the brush, providing good habitat for juvenile bass and sunfish to feed and hide Collins Lake produced three rainbow trout over 7 pounds during the NTAC Tournament of Champions on the weekend of from predators.” For more information, November 2 – 3, 2019. Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.