cpuncher

We fished at William's Fork last Sunday and Monday, the fishing was about as bad as I've experienced there, at least for Mackinaw. There was good ice on most of the Lake a few slushy spots, no visible open water, though. Most ice was 10 or 12 inches, with one or two 4 inch spots, we didn't fish there! It snowed off and on the whole time, normally a low front means those babys are jumping out of the hole! We caught six fish between four guys, but they were big, all over 20 inches, so that was good. Had fish for dinner last night, so the wife and kid are happy too. They have the river blocked off to keep the Kokanee from spawning up-stream, so maybe they spawned in the Lake, and that's where the Macks are, eating the Kokanee. All the Macks we filleted had Kokanee in their bellies. We'll hit Granby not this coming weekend, but the next, I'll post a Granby report then. CPuncher

Thanks for the update. We're going to hit either Granby or William's Fork this weekend, so I'll post a report when I get back... now I gotta go check my gear! Fish ON!

Anyone seen any frozen Lakes in Colorado yet? I know Dillon and Granby are still open, anyone been by William's Fork lately? I'm busy getting my gear ready, I can't hardly wait! Please post if you see a frozen lake, they should all be coming on now, over the next few weeks. Thx!

I was on a trip to Upper Red Lake and we had a goup setup in portables fishing crappies at night, and everyone except this one, newer guy was hanging out at one portable.. so the rookie calls from the other portable and says, "Guys, we got a problem, help!" So we all go running and he's in there, in the dark, no light, smoking a cigarette. So, shining a flashlight on him, we said, "Where's the lantern?" That was when we smelled the propane and saw the bubbles coming out of his hole! No kidding, he dropped the lantern straight down the hole, and the gas was still coming out, straight up the hole! Amazing he didn't blow up! We yelled to put of the cigarrette and ran! We ended up fishing the lantern back out with a snagging hook, and after a replacement mantel it worked just fine.

It seems like the CO DOW will do anything they can to keep things complicated hoping to catch us "messing up." Why they can't have one set of regs for the whole state is beyond me... if I fish at Granby in the morning (limit 2 lakers) and Williams Fork (limit 4 lakers) in the afternoon how many monkeys does it take to screw in a light bulb? Go figure!

I've lived in the foothills west of Denver for about 6 yrs, and all my friends from back in the midwest that live out here ice fish, but none of the New Yorkers or Californians do, they all fly fish and that's it. One thing you will be frustrated by is, "NO LIVE BAIT!" You can catch big, big Lake Trout, though.... and a snowmobile is pretty much required. It seems most people fish for Lakers by tube jigging w/ sucker meat, some guys are fishing for rainbows and browns w/ wax worms, etc.... we make an annual trip to Minnesota to fish for Northerns on Upper Red Lake, that's a blast, and we always get a funny response when people find out that we came from Colorado to fish MN. I guess Northerns are too smart to bite on a piece of dead meat, because we have reservoirs out here with Northerns in em', but I've never even had a Northern bite in Colorado... Ever time I've gone down the mountain to fish for Walleye the Lake/Reservoir hasn't been frozen... so that's no good, either! I will say for sure, the weather in Colorado is a heck of a lot better than MN. Nothing like getting a tan while you ice fish!