
By Cal Kellogg
If you are a serious angler, getting skunked from time to time is part of the game, but you don’t have to like it. A few weeks back I attended the Norcal Angler’s Challenge Trout Tournament at Collins Lake. During the event, multiple rainbows in the 4 to 8-pound class were brought to the weigh in. Seeing those big trout prompted me to come back to the lake two days later with my Hobie Pro Angler kayak in tow.
Conditions were perfect and anglers were catching fish, but I just couldn’t get hit. I trolled a long list of lures and tried soaking bait for zero results. I left the lake that day, scratching my head and licking my wounds. I don’t mind a tough bite, but I hate getting skunked, especially when guys are hooking fish all around me.
Fast forward to this week. The skunking was still gnawing at me, so I decided to run back up to Collins Lake in hopes of evening up the score. I arrived at the lake by 6:30 am and had the Hobie in the water by 7. I started out trolling down the west shoreline and across the face of the dam. Near the dam a power boater fishing next to me hooked and landed a rainbow that looked to be about 3 pounds and I still hadn’t gotten a strike. Oh no, it was happening again.
At the eastern corner of the dam, I made a left turn, angled across the main body and trolled offshore of the swim beach, heading towards Elmer’s Cove still without a strike. Remembering a November day about 20 years ago when my wife Gena landed a 24-pound limit of Collins Lake rainbows while fishing PowerBait and salmon eggs in Elmer’s Cove, I decided to look around for some trouty looking marks on the Lowrance.
When I found some promising arches near a buoy at the back of the cove, I decided to give bait fishing a try. I snapped onto the buoy and