Grand County Fishing Report 9/1/22

Grand Lake - Summer conditions continue to make the fishing for all species a bit tough. Rainbows and browns are active early in the areas of moving water, primarily the inlets. Cast spoons, tasmanian devils or small crank baits early in the moving water. Trollers are reporting some success with cowbells and pink spinner or spoon tipped with a small piece of worm, focus on 15-25ft depth range. Lake trout are in their summer locations, look for them in 65-100ft of water. Small radical glow grubs or brightly colored tubes tipped with a small piece of sucker meat is producing bites. The bites are light, so make sure you are paying close attention. Fall is coming fast and action should be picking up soon. Fishing with Bernie Guide, Dan Shannon.

Williams Fork - Ramp hours are 6AM to 8PM daily. After Labor Day weekend the new ramp hours will be 7AM to 7PM. Water capacity is 86%, or 10 foot low. Inflow is 54 cfs, outflow is 263 cfs. Surface temp is 66 degrees early AM warming to 70. Visibility is excellent 12 to 15 feet down. Juvenile Lake Trout are biting good. It's easy to catch a limit of Laker's under 19". Look for them in 75 to 90 feet of water. Pretty much any small plastics tipped with a small piece of sucker meat fished gently on the bottom will get bit. When the bite drops off move to a new location. The fish are hugging the bottom. If you spot a single fish stop and drop... there's more than one there. The crawdad's are also biting good in 80 foot or less if you leave your jig laying on the bottom too long. Large trophy class Laker's are scarce right now. Pike fishing is extremely challenging due to the decline in population. On sunny calm days expect a lot of casting with minimal result. Early AM, late PM and overcast days with choppy water is your best bet. Please practice catch and release on all Northern Pike caught. Bank fishing for Rainbows and trolling for Kokanee Salmon is very slow since neither species has been stocked for several years in a effort to control gill lice in the Kokes. — Fishing with Bernie Guide - Randy H

Lake Granby - The conditions on the lake are indicating that fall is right around the corner. The summer crowds are down a little bit, the crisp air in the mornings is in the mid to low 40’s and we have even seen a couple of the aspen trees start to show signs of turning a little bit yellow as of late. With that said, the fall bite is just right around the corner! The surface temps are sitting in the mid to upper 60’s, depending on the daily weather and the the lake remains very close to a full pool. The browns and rainbows haven’t been showing themselves much on the main lake but we have seen quite a bit of action close to whatever little bit of running water we still have coming in. The most important thing to remember when fishing these fish is getting on them early. Starting before the sun comes up until about 8:00 am seems to be the best window right now. We have been casting CPT Leech Flutter Spoons and Tasmanian devils in terms of hardware and HD and JSpecs for our jerkbait options. Again, “the very early bird gets the fish” when fishing for rainbows and browns right now. The lake trout seem to still be on their summertime spots right now and they are pretty stacked up. Find deep structure and you will find some fish willing to chomp at what you present. When we say deep, we mean pretty deep. Anything in the 70-95 foot range seems to be holding fish right now. There are certain features that are holding the big fish opposed to small fish but that is changing daily. I think all of the fish seem to be roaming and starting to feel the change in weather in anticipation for the fall just as much as we are on the top side. Our best days for numbers have been on small jigs as of late. Small tubes, twister tails and even just a plain jig head seems to be doing the trick right now. Add a very small piece of sucker meat or skin, load it up with some scent and have some fun! — Fishing with Bernie Guide, Jake Foos.

The Fishing with Bernie team has been guiding in Grand County for over 25 years. For more info please check out www.fishingwithbernie.com, www.facebook.com/FishingWithBernie/ or our Instagram pages https://www.instagram.com/fishing_with_bernie https://www.instagram.com/fishingwithaltitude

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