Not much change…

Not a whole lot has changed except the weather has been cooler and we’ve been getting rain almost every day! The salmon bite has done anything but improve since the last report. The water level is holding about 6 inches below full pool and the water temps are in the high 60’s.

There was some really bad news annonced earlier this spring. Blue Mesa has been confirmed to have gill lice. So far it has only been seen in rainbow trout , and a small percentage at that.  However, as seen in 11 Mile, Green Mountain, and several other Colorado reservoirs, the kokanee usually end up getting infected and it has the potential to devastate the kokanee population! If you catch a kokanee with gill lice, please report it to the CPW or email us and we will report it. We can only hope that Blue Mesa isn’t hit as hard as 11 Mile.

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Trout- fishing is still good most days! They can be caught casting or trolling a variety of baits including Venator Wobblers, Rapalas, and maribou jigs near shorelines or out in the open basins.  Trolling squids and spinners has been very effective as well. We have been finding rainbows from the surface down to ’40 and browns from 20′ to 70′! The east end of the lake seems to hold the greatest numbers of trout, but there are concentrations across the entire lake.  Some mornings, the rainbow bite on the surface can be red hot!

Kokanee Salmon- The salmon bite has fallen into a lull and has been very tough overall!  There are still some smaller kokanee showing up, but not as many as a few weeks ago.  Most of our salmon are coming at depths of 25 to 45 feet. Every basin seems to have some fish in it and the key to finding them is covering lots of water and combing the water column. The best action has been at some point throughout the morning lately. Some of the kokanee are big like the two fish around 3 lbs (pictured below) that young Gauge caught last week! Per usual, cycling through a variety of Rocky Mountain Tackle, Raical Glow, Kokanee Killers, Venator Wobblers, and a few other baits has been producing the best results. Make sure you tip your baits with corn! Pinks, purples, whites, oranges and greens have been some of the better colors.  With the salmon numbers down, it is more important now than ever to not take more than your possession limit!

Lake Trout- We are still catching plenty of smaller lake trout 40-80 feet, but the big fish have gone deep!  The smaller lake trout can be caught trolling with spoons, squids, and kokanee killers or vertically jigging a white tube jig tipped with a small piece of sucker meat.

Perch-  Perch are being caught all around the lake in 5-40 feet of water.  Submerged structure/brush is the ticket and is easy to find right now with the water level high! Cover water until you get action as these fish are usually in fairly larger schools. A small jig or spoon with a piece of worm will produce!