The fishermen that were here on the day of the first trophy plant had high expectations of catching an easy dinner but things got off to a rocky start. That day and the next day I hadn't heard of any catches until late the following day when Jeff Kern who had been hitting it hard all day long with little luck hooked onto a 4 lb. 12 oz. Rainbow on the swimming beach. He seemed to get things started and by the next day several catches had been reported. Jeff discovered the perfect combination, it was marshmallows with a worm. The water was still stained from all the rain so the added touch of putting on a marshmallow worked great. Lee Trask and his son Tyler gave it a try on the beach also with worms and Tyler caught a German Brown. Lee hooked onto a monster trout and got it in, it weighed 9 lb. 8 oz. Some of the planted trout that go in do weigh up to 10 lb. What a fantastic catch that was!!! Nathan & Kolt caught 6 trout together down by the dam and I'll bet you can't guess what they used. Yep! it was worms!! Little Sylvia Fernstrom and her Dad also used worms & marshmallow combo on the beach and caught a hefty trout.

Finally, we have 2 guys that didn't use worms and caught trout, despite all the odds against them. Omar Garcia used spinners near the bridge and took home 2 trout. Rick Delgadillo of Vacaville tossed a Kastmaster near the dam and caught a trout.

Our lake doesn't look so mirky anymore, the mud has settled down pretty fast. The extended forecast shows sun today and tomorrow with a rain shower arriving Wed. & Thurs. It then becomes sunny again for the weekend. We are expecting another trophy plant by Friday and I will post it as it happens.

Our second Fish & Game just arrived today 2/5.

Our 1st Trophy Plant arrived 2/14

WE WILL RECEIVE WEEKLY TROPHY TROUT PLANTS STARTING THIS WEEK

WE WILL RECIEVE A BASS & BLUEGILL PLANT THE END OF THIS MONTH

The Bass are entering their prespawn phase as they maneuver from deeper to shallower water several times a day in search of food. Their main forage food in our lake is crawdads. Eating crawdads will beef them up so they can get ready to nest during the spawning period. They also move much slower this time of year and refuse to "chase the bait" more than a few feet. Drop shotting works best in the prespawn in 20 to 30 feet of water using plastic jigs or worms. Dan Raub's personal favorite is a 4" Roboworm (the color of a crawdad). Yamamoto also makes a great drop shot worm. You don't need anything over 4 inches and the colors should resemble a crawdad (brown with orange). Look up drop shotting or drop shot rigging on internet search engine to get more info on the technique. It's so simple even I can do it and I generally catch a lot more than fish, including trees, brush, kids, etc. I predict a great year for bass at Collins Lake which already got a great jump start this year.