THERE’S GOLD IN THEM, THERE HILLS – Brandon Sendan of Placerville with a Lake Amador gold at 11.48 pounds on a minijig near the dam.
By Dave Hurley
WON Staff Writer
BROWN’S VALLEY– Although they are 110 miles apart in the foothills of the Central Valley, Collins Lake and Lake Amador have many similarities. They are open despite other lakes closing due to the invasive golden mussel, both have aggressive trout planting programs; both lakes feature the popular Lightning trout, shore anglers generally have the upper hand for trout in the fall/winter months; they are popular low-elevation lakes for camping with amenities from the concessionaires; and as they are relatively smaller bodies of water that will become stained with heavy rainfall.
Collins Lake was scheduled to plant 25,000 pounds during the fall/winter months, and a plant from Mt. Lassen Hatchery was released last week. With the stained and cold water, shore anglers have the upper hand from the campsites and the Open Area with scented Power Bait, Mice Tails, or inflated nightcrawlers. Trolling has been slower in the stained water, but with the numbers of trout in the lake, trolling should be outstanding during the spring months or as soon as the water clears. Trout plants will continue until May 2025.
With the indefinite closure of Lake Camanche, Robbie Dunham of Koke Machine Guide Service has been focusing on Lake Amador, saying, “It’s always a matter of quality over quantity at Amador as the planted cutbows and ‘Amagolds’ are hard fighters, generally coming out of the water and hard to handle. We had two good trips on Thursday and Friday running grubs or Rapalas from the surface to 8 feet. When the water is cold like it is now, grubs on a slow troll are a great option.”
Amador has an on-site hatchery raising the cutbow hybrid, Lightning trout, aka ‘Amagolds,’ and blues. 500 pounds of cutbows and trophy Amagolds were released this week with half near Dry Camp and the other half at the dam. Fishing minijigs from the shoreline is a solid technique, and Brandon Sendan of Placerville picked up a trophy 11.48 Amagold near the dam.
From the banks, these northern California lakes are hard to beat for trout anglers.
CAMANCHE CLOSED, NO PROBLEM – Lake Amador is pumping out a variety of onsite hatcher trout. Robbie Dunham of Koke Machine Guide Service put this trio onto quality cutbows on grubs or Rapalas near the surface.
