Up near 10K on Grand Mesa the other weekend and was happy to be belly boating for brook trout and rainbows. We tried going higher to around 10.7K but the lakes were still frozen. With all the snow still around, felt like early Spring.
It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the high 50’s. Water clarity was probably about 6-8 feet and the fish bite to start was grindy. Kicked my way to the other side of the lake, that I’ve never fished and my GF and I got into a couple decent fish. After a few hours of fishing around that side, we came back to the side of the lake that we launched our belly boats and the bite was much more active. A FUN highlight of the fishing trip being a bald eagle was fishing too…He was huge and kept flying overhead and diving toward the water to get fish, he missed a bunch lol.
We started off both using spinning gear. 1/16oz ball head jigs with 2″ swimbaits. Firetiger and Tadpole being the most productive. When we got back to the original side, I got out the fly fishing rod and had some good success landing a handful of brook trout and rainbows. I was double nymph rigging with my top nymph being a size 20 scud and my trailer/second nymph being a size 18 Copper John. Both produced fish!
Happy to be fishing at higher elevations again, can’t wait to start getting higher and also camping! Tight Lines everyone and hope you enjoy the content!