Date: 2/20 & 2/21
Water Temp: 51.4 – 53
Weather: Patchy clouds / Sunny – post front
Wind: Saturday 5-17 / Sunday calm – 10
Lake Level: 393 ft
Well it’s been over 2 months since I’ve been out on the water with RBBASS on Collins Lake where I discovered I had a pretty bad water leak coming from one of my live-well intake hoses as well as failed sealant. So I decided to hit Folsom for a water test this weekend to make sure all was good… and thankfully boat stayed bone dry!
The entire lake is 5 mph due to the low water levels so it took forever to get from place to place as I did not want to break the 5 rule, but that should chance in the next week. The magic number for speed limit restrictions is 400ft. There are many hazard buoys around the lake to help boaters stay clear of potential problems, but if you plan to hit the lake in the next week be careful as there’s a few areas in the main body on the East side that gets shallow pretty quick and not right next to the buoys. Also, if you go out and the indication is 5mph, be careful as I was told by another angler that the sheriff was out giving speeding tickets.
I got a late start on Saturday and went out of Brown’s Ravine low water ramp at 10 am. I idled over to one of my favorite spots on the lake to find that it was so low that the high spot of the hump was out of the water. Fished around for about 40 minutes up and down the bank and hit a few points nearby with no luck. Idled into the mouth of the South fork and got my fist bite on a Berkley Powerbait Power Swimming 2.8 in Electric Shad in 20ft of water. I got a few turns of the handle and it came off. Idled around back and forth just looking for bait or rock piles with fish hanging around, but the area seemed to be pretty bare. Talked to a couple other guys in the area and they had not had a bite all day. Been dealing with an injury so after about 4 hours I had to pull the plug and head back to the ramp with only 1 single bite.
On Sunday I got an hour earlier start and decided to go out of Granite Bay and fish some of the main body and a little North. The 3rd low water ramp is being used right now and offers a dock with 2 side launching. Fired up the Suzuki 250SS and began the idle to the East side and North.. Watching the structure scan the entire time and saw a bunch of nice looking rock piles, some brush and ledges, but no fish around. Hit a few spots here and there with no takers on the jig, shakey head, drop shot, swimbait or spinnerbait. Continued up North and watched a couple bald eagles in the area so decided to stop and eat. Made a few casts dragging a 1/4 ounce ball head and 3″ Berkley Pit Boss in the Big Texan color and finally got one to eat, but it came off half way back to the boat. Went another 30 minutes in area with no bites so started idling back towards main body and back to the morning spot since the wind changed directions. Tried several things but no luck, picked up the darthead for a few casts and finally got another taker. Got it to the boat and it made one last turn and was gone.. looked to be about 2 lbs or so.. drifted around with the wind for another 40 minutes or so and decided to call it a day.
It was a brutal 2 days of actual fishing, but got to run some fuel, make sure the leak was fixed and best of all, got to enjoy just being out on the water.
