My Best Day of 2023!

[Pat Dilling]

Our Slow Trollers Old Guys Fishing Club had a little team tournament on Collins Lake on Monday.  It was overcast and breezy with a little spit of rain.  Lake is full, water is murky/muddy with 1-2 feet of visibility.  Water temperature was 47.5 to 50.3.  Air temp was 45-55.  My partner John Krohn and I had a great day.  We figured out that fish were active in flatter, South facing coves, with  a 10-12 mph wind blowing in.  Exactly where they should be on the first day of Spring!  And with a new moon too.  We caught them on bladed jigs, I was using a 1/2 oz Thunder Cricket, white/chartruese with a pearl Zman Razor Shad Trailer.  John had a white/white Zman Chatterbait.  I had 7, he had 3.  He had never caught a fish on a bladed jig before. Took us a while to figure out what they wanted, but once we did, we were able to duplicate it in a couple areas.  Going back and forth between them, we caught 10 keepers.  Our 7 fish limit weighed 18.5 pounds.  We had a 3.25 and a 3.2 plus a couple more that were in the 3 pound range.  All were spotted bass.  I guess the largies were still in hibernation.  Another fella had 3.7 spot to get the big fish prize.  It is such a good feeling to figure out where they are and what they want!  One of the areas we caught fish on, I had never fished before.  I picked it out on the map based on where we started catching fish.  Sure gives a fella a boost in confidence!

[Smallie_Stalker]

Nice job Pat!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Donald Garner]

Pat, congrats to you and your partner on a very successful outing.  Tks for sharing the trip and pictures with us also 

[BassmanRudy]

Way to go!! Awesome to hear the lake is FULL!!

[BassmanRudy]

I forgot to tag the lake but these are pics of a lake near you(I know you've posted about it) and the CHANGE in just a couple months!

[Pat Dilling]

I forgot to tag the lake but these are pics of a lake near you(I know you've posted about it) and the CHANGE in just a couple months!

Great pictures of the South Fork of Lake Oroville Rudy. It has come up about 200 feet. Too much in fact, they're letting water out now to make sure there is space for flood control. It's currenlty about 45 feet down. It should fill completely in June when flood risk has passed.

[BassmanRudy]

200' I fished lakes back east that never got deeper than 10'!