[Dave M]

Jk, I went to Williams fork... Lol. Felt like Florida outside.

Girlfriend and I had to hunt for them but we found em. Caught all fish on 2 inch chartreuse jigs in 60 feet of water.. 10 lb test seaguar red label (because Danny is going to run his mouth) , by the east shitters. Girlfriend won overall with 2 slobbos and the bigger eaters, I was the dink dealer aside from the hoss laker.

Caught 17 fish from 8 inches to 28. Threw back the 28 incher.. Felt like I got my revenge after 5+ years of mishaps and break offs because my dumb ass used vanish for a long time.

On a serious note I love kremmling and grand county as a whole. Aside from the Jane Fonda superfan, everyone was nice to us and very hospitable. From the eastin hotel owners, the bartender who hooked it up, to the Denver water employee who pulled my boy out of a 3 foot snowdrift by the shitter, to the pizzeria owner at deantonios who busted my balls for ordering ranch with my garlic knots...

Pics to come when I'm done with my food in winter park and I'm in Denver. What a rad day.

 

[Dave M]

Serious question: how thick was the ice?

2 feet. 5 inches of slushy Ice on hard clear ice. Was mad easy to drag a sled. Ice got slushy in the afternoon with the warm temps and winds. If it keeps up ice will not last long.... Shoreline was getting soft quick. Probably my last session on the fork this season.

 

[Dave M]

here ya go. what an amazing weekend....

this picture is proof that there can be only one...

after a few drinks and a few hotcakes at the moose cafe in kremmling, it was time to go to the beach.

we had to hike around a mile or 2 to find the fish...

but when we finally found the spot it was on.

girlfriend kicked the **** out of all of us with these 2 slobbos. yes they were slobs.. 22-23 inches respectively. here's the scale to prove it too.

we still had fun doing our part to rid williams fork of it's pesky dink problem. hopefully the pike will be less lockjawed.

after my friends left to get their vehicle highended on a snowbank nearby... something magical showed up on my vex. after a 5 minute fight...

landed, took a quick pic before the GF's phone died, and off she went back into the depths.

 

[Dave M]

Sweet! Trish is gonna kick your ass, fella!

She registered on the forum now so now I have to behave myself, Lololol...

She's a trooper for sure.

 

[Dave M]

The "Walk O' Shame"

That was on the way back to the car.

 

[Dave M]

It's typical for Co. Lake Trout lakes, very few make it to or past 20"s and it takes many years, then you have an 8 fish open limit at WF up to 30" so the few that do get picked off.
Green mtn is even worse, we caught 30 in a half a day last week between 14"-17", they all were in pitiful condition suspenders eating Plankton and cigar shaped. Very few make it past 18"s and no protection on the large ones.
At Granby we learned long ago to let everything over 20" go and set the tournament at under 19"s.
The eater size fish are in much better shape at Granby than most Lakes due to the Mysis Shrimp diet.
That fish on Dave's scale is 3 pds, I'm assuming thats the 23"er. At Granby 19"ers get over 3 lbs and average 2.5.

The bigger ones we caught were fat and bright orange colored in flesh. One of the main reasons I go to the fork is because the lakers (especially around the east end and on the wall on pike flats) feed exclusively on crawdads.

When i fish GM, the fish I catch go into the smoker or they get soaked in buttermilk before I fry them because they taste gamey.

 

[Dave M]

Yep, the Fork is a great fishery, it has everything and is a model lake.
The dpw can complain about it being a feed lot for Pike all they want but the fact is the predators do way more to improve the health of the lake than harm it. The lake was overrun with Suckers prior to stocking Pike that were put in to control them. They have done their job well as the Fork does not have a Sucker problem now.
Only the hatchery products are sick with diseases.

Yesterday it was 50 degrees, Granby had standing water on the whole lake from the snow melting.
Snowing again now.

If ice stays safe in 2 weeks I might go back to granby for one more grand county ice session with my son. Otherwise I'm gonna stick to Leadville for my spring ice novelty....