Skiing is never allowed in the river arm, providing a year-round sanctuary for anglers. Personal watercraft in the form of water bikes or wave runners are never allowed.

SUPER-STOCKED
So what makes Collins Lake such an awesome fishery? Several factors drive the lake’s superb trout fishing. For one thing, its rich waters provide an exceptional forage base in the form of prolific numbers of threadfin shad. Yet most important is the recreation area’s commitment to providing a top-notch fishing experience.

Collins plays host to the most aggressive trout-stocking program north of Sacramento. Each spring, an average of 40,000 trout are planted, most of them in the 2- to 3-pound class. But several thousand are trophy-caliber fish, weighing to 8 pounds.

For each plant the lake receives from the Department of Fish and Game, the recreation area managers purchase three plants of higher-quality trout from private hatcheries.

This year, the trout fishing at Collins got an additional boost.

In late 2006, the recreation area cooperated with the DFG and two nonprofit organizations -- Kokanee Power and the California Inland Fisheries Foundation -- to start a trout-rearing pen project.

A total of eight 1,400-square-foot underwater net pens were built at the lake. Kokanee Power provided materials and food for two of the pens, while the other six were funded by the CIFF. The state provided planter rainbows, and the recreation area staff takes care of them every day.

Due to their nutrient-rich feed, these penned rainbows doubled and tripled in size. In May, by the time they were released, many of them had reached the 3- to 4-pound class!

The quality of the fish was exceptional. They sported full fins and tails, along with vivid colors. They look like wild rainbows, rather than the usual hatchery fare. It’s estimated that this program resulted in an additional 10,000 to 13,000 pounds of trout released into the lake in 2007!

In addition to rainbows, the lake hosts a decent population of brown trout, planted as fingerlings several years ago in hopes that they would grow to trophy proportions.

Over the last three years, those browns have started to show up in the catches. While none of them have been double-digit monsters as yet, many of them have been quality fish in the 3- to 4-pound class.

No one is certain how many of the fingerlings survived, or how big the largest of them have grown. Research at other lakes indicates that even when the total number of browns in a lake exceeds the number of rainbows, rainbows show up in the catches over browns by a ratio of about 15 to 1.

A lot of us believe that Collins now has a strong population of big hard-to-hook browns lurking among its legions of rainbows.

SUMMER SUCCESS
OK, Collins is a great place to visit or camp. The lake is full of trout. But you want to know when and how to catch them.

Collins Lake provides excellent trout fishing all year long for the anglers who are willing to adapt their approach to match the depth and activity level of the trout. It is one of the few north state lakes where I’ve caught trout every month of the year. But as you can imagine, some time periods throughout the year are distinctly better than others.

Typically, during the first week or two of June, the surface temperature shoots up significantly above the trout’s comfort zone. They react by moving into deeper water.

Throughout the summer, the lake’s rainbows and browns could be out of the range of both bank-anglers and top-liners. But anglers who troll with downriggers can find superb action by working the thermocline.