Trout Lakes - Help - Southern CO or anywhere?

[10Bears]

Looking for lake trout lakes and splake lakes if possible in southern Colorado - if not then throughout the state.

[Chewy]

Hey 10Bears,

There aren't many lakes and reservoir's in Colorado that have splake. The current State record Splake came out of Island Lake (in Delta County) in 1976 and was 18lbs. 15 oz and was 32 inches long.

There are a couple of reservoirs in Southern Colorado that wouldn't be a bad drive and have BIG Laketrout. The largest is Blue Mesa Reservoir located in Gunnison, Colorado. Taylor Park Reservoir is close by just outside of Almont, Colorado, just north of Gunnison. The last few State records came from these two reservoir's. The current State Record was caught in Blue Mesa Reservoir in 2003 and was 46 lbs. 14.6 oz and was 42.6 inches long.

Since you're coming from Albuquerque your best bet is to look on Map Quest for the best route to Gunnison, Colorado. You'll probably be looking at close to a 6 hour trip and around 340 miles (one way). If you're planning an early season trip (early to late May, best time for Lakers)you may want to call the Elk Creek Marina on Blue Mesa Reservoir (970-641-5387 in the off season - for the next month or 970-641-0707 from May 1 - Oct. 1)to check current conditions on Blue Mesa before you make that kind of drive.

Jefferson Lake also has Lake trout. The turn-off for this lake is located in the town of Jefferson, Colorado on Highway 285 just south of Kenosha Pass.

Reservoir's located in the central part of the state with lakers are Green Mountain reservoir, in Heeney, Colorado, Williams Fork reservoir, Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain and Grand Lake. Granby is supposed to have splake although I've only seen one small one caught over the past few years.

Carter Lake (northern Colorado near Loveland,) is the lake that is most talked about when it comes to splake.

I know there are other lakes and reservoirs in the state that have Splake and Lakers but I can't remember which ones. Maybe other readers will help out with additional info. This information will at least get you started.

I fished Lake Granby over the weekend through the ice and there was still a solid 19 to 20 inches of ice. The weather this week will dictate whether the ice will be safe or not (for at least another week or two). The lake is just starting to get soft along the edges in the small coves.

I did manage to catch and release a 27 inch laker Saturday at Lake Granby, in 5 foot of water, that weighed just under 9 lbs. Open the Lake Granby Ice Fishing report April 1-2 "thread" to see a picture of the fish.

It appears that the lakers are going into a pre-spawn mode and coming into shallow water to feed. Quite a few rainbows we caught were pretty scared up and bruised from the lakers feeding in the shallow water.

Bare in mind all of these lakes and reservoirs with the exception of Carter Lake are all still frozen.

Let me know if there is anything else I can provide.

Heart pumping....Good fishing....

Chewy

[10Bears]

Thanks for the info Chewy. That 27 incher was a nice trout. I caught a 27 incher that was about that fat last sept in NW Ontario. The trout were up spawning on the rocky reefs. We were casting to them in 5-7 feet of water. What a blast. Most of the trout we were catching were 4-5 lbs. But each man could catch at least 50 per day when they were up that shallow. Dan

[Chewy]

My pleasure Dan.

I hope you get a chance to come to Colorado this summer and enjoy our fishing.

Mark

[Mikinaak]

10Bears, try the North Catamount lake up on Pikes Peak......Not to give away my spot but its really hot right now! Mikinaak