Taylor Res.

Cottonwood Pass does not open till Memorial Day weekend. So even though the lake is usually is ice free by early May, the drive sucks. You would have to drive to Gunnison and then go north -- adds a couple hours to the trip.

I'd say your best bet is mid-may for everything to be ice free. A good thing to do is fish off of the points and throw out dead suckers, or fish in the coves and throw out dead suckers. You can catch lakers, pike, browns, cutthroats, and rainbows at any given time. The lakers are all small pretty much (the big ones have gone the way of the dodo bird in here as in many colorado reservoirs), and just incase you do catch one of the rare big ones you should release it. In fact, any laker over 22" should be put back. I also think you should release any cutts or browns you catch. With the pike it should be a judgement call, keeping 1 or 2 small pike (less than 24") probably wouldn't hurt.

I have fished Taylor for about 15 years now and from what I remember, ice usually comes off in the middle of May.  I believe that once about ten years ago there was still ice on during Memorial Day weekend, but I highly doubt that will be the case this year.  We haven't done as well the past few years fishing for mackinaw as we have done in previous years.  Taylor Park is a beautiful place and one of my favorite fisheries.  You can call the marina for conditions.  They have a website, but it isn't updated regularly. It is www.taylorparkmarina.com.

finkyfever said:

Taylor Park is a beautiful place

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Isn't that the truth? If you could fish that inlet kinda near the dam, you can cast to like 60-70 FOW even from the bank, especially on the west side off of that point, very good for lakers. Inside the little inlet kinda in the bowl you can drown nightcrawlers and catch trout. Not much of a pike spot. I don't know about the kokanee.

I usually fish Taylor for about 3 days in late May and that is it for the year because of where I am from. TFB have you ever had any luck for browns there? In all of my years at Taylor, I have only seen one caught. My brother caught ~"22 brown about four years ago fishing a worm on the bottom.

yeah you can catch em you just need to know where to fish. I like inlets (but not the taylor river inlet) hint hint. the inlet I mentioned, hmm. I bet they are there but I haven't fished it enough to catch em. I did catch a beautiful 16-17" cutt there once through the ice though, in deep water actually while fishing for lakers. I've also gotten into a few icefishing, albeit small ones. The biggest I've caught was only like high teens in inches but I had one that was probably a solid 5-6 pound fish around 2' long right up to my personal pontoon once. Mind you, it wasn't a good thing to fish with that small personal pontoon on taylor. Too much trouble. I ended up just getting out and wading about waste deep and workin' one of the seems in the inlets with nightcrawlers and catching a bunch of 8-20" bows and the occaisional brown or cut. Also had a fish I bet was a pike on a nightcrawler too.

like most CO lakes the wind can blow your butt off the lake in a hurry in the early season.

I remember about 15 years ago, I was fishing Taylor when a storm blew in during the afternoon. There were two guys in the middle of the lake on a canoe who just got the crap beat out of them. I don't know where sleet becomes hail, but it was at that point. The 45 mph + wind didn't help them any. We are always sure to get there early, because that wind comes in like clockwork at about 10:00 am in May.

Thanks for the tips they have been very helpful. Everyone has been great. Thanks guys

The lakers are all small pretty much (the big ones have gone the way of the dodo bird in here as in many colorado reservoirs),

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OH, really??!!

i catch lots of spawners on orange kastmaster in october , there are huge kokanee in taylor

laker taker said:

The lakers are all small pretty much (the big ones have gone the way of the dodo bird in here as in many colorado reservoirs),

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OH, really??!!

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yeah, pretty much. Unless you have proof otherwise from the last couple of seasons. I know there are still big ones in there, but in my opinion it's not what it used to be.