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Date: April 27, 2024 Body of Water: Collins Lake - California Boat: FHS Pontoon With: K and Captain W Target: Rainbow Trout Time: 7:30 AM - 3 PM Moon Phase: Full moon plus four days Conditions: Too nice! Post-frontal; clear and calm, with a mild breeze, intermittent breeze developing from the south. 50 - 70 degrees, water was stained and 64 - 67 degrees. Weekend crowds, too. Day 2 of our adventure (https://www.fishhuntshoot.com/product/collins-lake-guide-trip/) greeted us with "perfect" weather, which meant the bite might be tough! The lake was more crowded on this beautiful weekend day, and there was a local derby taking place to boot. We met Captain W at the stated time and location, and were soon setting lines over the lake's main basin. We had a good starting point from the day before, but we were still determined to find our own fish. Given the calm and bright conditions, we looked for comfortable fish a little bit down from the surface. Our starting point included a stacked spoon and naked worm off the downrigger, down to about 25 feet; and a couple of presentations off two colors of supplemented lead, ending in a dodger/crawler or a small plastic worm behind an action disk. Targeted speed was about 2.0 +/- 0.2 mph. All initial interest was in the crawlers, and the bites were tentative to start. The spoon was pulled, a turbo flasher added to the rigger's worm, and the plastic worm/action disk was replaced with a naked Gulp! pinched crawler (orange over natural) presented off two colors of supplemented lead. Most bites continued to be be very tentative, but a few were aggressive, and after the first hour, we had landed at least five nice trout! Not bad for a "tough" day! Late morning and early afternoon were slow, and we rotated through a series of dodgers and flashers on the leadcore/crawler combo. We continued the pleasant grind and added a metal-head fly way back (225 feet) on top, looking for a trophy. A few more fish came to hand, including a gorgeous and pugnacious Lightning Trout on the naked Gulp!, and the fly got smacked hard (and broken off!?!) once. Action continued to be "best" over the deeper portions of the lake's basin and the structure near the northeast corner. Once again, FHS was generous with their time and effort, and this paid off with an uptick in fish action between 2 and 3 PM (or so, I lost touch with the exact time...). The downrigger caught fire for a bit, now tracking 23 feet down; and we quickly added several trout to the the day's tally. This included a couple of very nice rainbows and lightnings over three pounds. As we called it a day, three of the four rods produced fish! Only the long-lined fly went untouched, but we had given it an extra-long soak, and we knew it was time to go. So much for a tough/slow day; we'd landed at least 15 trout and had probably connected with at least as many trout as the previous day! Tactics were generally the same, and yet different; we'd gotten there by a different path under different circumstances. What do I have to say about this? Good job, Captain W, you provided another excellent, productive and enjoyable day on the water! I know how difficult it is too put together multiple consistent days under variable conditions, and how much work goes into that. I didn't want to leave; and yet I even enjoyed the busy drive back to San Francisco and the long flight home. Thank you, K! What a nice long weekend! What a fishing buddy! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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