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Middle Park fishing guide: Don’t forget your cleats

Bernie Keefe
Special to Sky-Hi News
Pictured is Dillon Poole with a Lake Granby trout.
Courtesy Photo |

Lake Granby has been good to excellent for rainbows and browns along the shorelines. Tiny jigs like the Clam drop kick tipped with wax worms in water less then 10-feet deep should illicit strikes until the sun comes up. Lake trout have started to suspend around the lake. Look for this in 100+ foot of water. The lakers should be suspending 50-70 feet below the ice. Leech flutter spoons, plain janes, marabous and tube jigs should work very well for the next few weeks. We did get a couple new pressure ridges on the ice last week. Use caution crossing these.

Williams Fork has been fishing fair to good this week. The weather seems to be the biggest factor. The bite doesn’t last as long on the clear sunny days so make sure to get there early for your best shot at success. The best action for all species has been before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m., but the lake trout will bite all day sometimes. Folks are still catching the best numbers of lake trout in 40-80 feet of water. The usual baits are doing the trick. Tube jigs with sucker meat, gulp minnows and jigging spoons are all catching a few. Try downsizing on the tough days. Trout and a few pike are still being caught, mostly in the bays in shallow water. Keep moving if you don’t find them right away.

The ice is still solid even with all the warm weather recently. The patchy snow on top is melting quickly though, so make sure to take cleats with you. The daily melt/freeze cycle is making the ice very slick near shore in the mornings.



On Grand Lake the warm weather last week tried hard to soften up the ice but its holding up strong. Slush is showing up in a few spots, but overall conditions are still great. Fishing for all species has been good, sunrise and sunset are definitely the prime times to be out. Rainbows and browns are being caught with small jigs or spoons tipped with salmon egg or wax worm in depths up to 20 ft, and lake trout are biting on heavier spoons and tube jigs tipped with sucker in 50-70ft of water. Ice season isn’t over here in Middle Park yet, get out and enjoy!

Fishing with Bernie guides Dan Shannon and Tucker Bamford contributed to this article. Bernie Keefe has been a fishing guide in the area for over 20 years.


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