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Fishing with Bernie

Summer fishing remains good on Lake Granby
Fishing with Bernie Guide Team

Grand Lake

The fishing on Grand Lake remains steady through the “dog days” of summer. We are definitely seeing all species of fish slide off a bit deeper as the surface temp continues to rise. With the afternoon showers, and a little bit of wind and the current coming in, surface temps spike quite quickly this year but are continuing to hold around 70 degrees.

The water is starting to clean up a bit and this will definitely help us going into August. Rainbows and browns are still a great option. This week, we changed things around a little bit and started trolling leadcore line and various lures in order to connect with the fish. The top producers are Leech Flutter Spoons, Tasmanian Devils and HD Trout. Get these lures down 10-20 feet; that seems to be where the majority of the action is right now.

The lake trout are still chomping small soft plastics tipped with a piece of meat. Small tubes and twisters have been best in natural colors. Our efforts are starting to be in the 45-75 foot range and moving around a lot has paid off in a big way. When thinking about jigging, don’t be afraid to use traditional walleye jigs with a little bit of meat on them. Spraying scents has also been a very important thing to do in order maximize on the bites in a day. As always, please be extra careful when navigating around on the water. There are still A LOT of people using the lake and it is getting very crowded on the right afternoon.



Fishing with Bernie guide Jake Foos

Williams Fork

Ramp hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Water capacity is at 99%.  Inflow is 104 cubic feet per second and outflow is 128 cfs. Surface temps have jumped to 71 early in the a.m., reaching mid 70s on calm sunny days. Visibility is good with jigs dropping out of sight about 15 feet down.



The lake trout bite is still good on numbers fish. The best action is in the first few hours of the morning with the bite dropping off by 10:30 a.m. When the bite slows move, use your electronics to locate an active group, drop, pick up a few then move again. All age groups are biting in 70 to 90 feet of water on soft plastics tipped sucker meat fished gently, tight to the bottom.

Northern Pike is slow with an occasional fish being caught in the west bays. I’m seeing fish follow in the inlet area but they don’t want to bite as food is plentiful in that area. Best time to fish is overcast days with light chop on the water. Blue skies and flat water equal a lot of casting with little or no sucess. Please practice catch-and-release on all northerns as the population is in decline. Shore fishing for rainbows is very slow as is trolling for Kokanee Salmon since the lake hasn’t been stocked with either species for several years while Colorado Parks and Wildlife  tries to get a handle on the gill lice problem in the kokes.

Fishing with Bernie guide Randy H

Lake Granby

Boat ramp hours inspector hours 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The lake is 98% full and water temp is ranging from upper 60s in the morning to low 70s by afternoon. The rainbow and brown trout bite remains consistent in the shallow inlets or areas of moving water very early or late in the day. Bait fished just off bottom, a variety of spoons or spinners in bright flashy colors or small crank baits worked erratically have all been producing. Lake trout have continued to move to their deep summer haunts. Lake trout bite has been good most days with some excellent days mixed in. Look for lake trout in water 50 feet and deeper. The most consistent depths have been at and below 65 feet.

Larger plastic baits (tubes or grubs) in darker colors tipped with fresh sucker meat worked on the bottom has been the most productive baits. We are finding fish all over the lake, though not all will bite. Some days its taking fishing multiple locations before we find the group of active fish, so that means stay mobile and don’t hang just because you see fish. Need to stay mobile to find those fish that want to bite. Be diligent with the afternoon thunderstorms and plan your day accordingly, significant afternoon lightning has been a regular occurrence and definitely something to plan around to make sure you make it safely off the water before its too late! Get out and enjoy the great bite before the dog days of summer arrive in full force.

Fishing with Bernie guide Dan Shannon

The Fishing with Bernie team has been guiding in Grand County for over 25 years. For more info please check out FishingWithBernie.com, Facebook.com/FishingWithBernie, or our Instagram pages @fishing_with_bernie and @fishingwithaltitude


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