Has anybody been ice fishing in Western Colorado?

[TEW-FISHES]

I want to poke some holes in the ice over here and wanted to know if anyone had an ice report

[ifitswims]

What species are you after...the ice is on just about everywhere. 

[TEW-FISHES]

I usually fish rifle any chance I get, but I heard the ice was not too good. I heard Grand mesa was fishable if you wanted average rainbows. What have you heard? Thanks.

[ifitswims]

Ice is fine at Rifle...especially now after a few days of cold.  Mesa has good ice as well, both Vega and Island are fishing very well for small to avg.

All lakes are pretty much in good condition on this side. 

[Colorado Cheesehead]

I called the Park Ranger today at Rifle Gap and was told that they had 1"-5" of ice with some open water yet. People are fishing the lake but he advised extreme caution. I hope to go up Tuesday and give it a try.

[Kevin21]

Anyone fishing Eggleston Lake on the Grand Mesa?

[TEW-FISHES]

 

[TEW-FISHES]

Going to fish Rifle on Sunday. Let you know how it is. If I don't reply...Give it a few more days before you venture out on the ice! 

[Kevin21]

Or how about Leon Lake for those monster brookies?

[TEW-FISHES]

Rifle was a little slow. Some nice rainbows and quite a few smaller ones. Caught a few nice perch but they were not as active as I had hoped. The perch were showing up on the screen but the were real sketchy. My buddy caught a hammer head pike on a tube jig and a earth worm. Probably 15-17 inches long. Everyone else said that the perch fishing was slow as well. A bunch of dogs out on the ice. Got to watch the hounds cause they like to piss on huts and buckets! Going to hit Harvey on Wednesday. Let you know how that goes. Reports have been good for action there but no size.

[brown-time]

Fished Vega today, was decent for numbers, but small size, biggest 14", seemed like everyone about the same.

Fished Crawford Thursday last, was good for lots of perch, about half dinks, 3-5" and half 6"-9", a few ten to eleven inchers.  Also a 24" pike.

Blue Mesa just iced to Elk Creek, been good at the upper bridge for average to good size rainbow and browns 14-18" and a few toad fat perch to 12"

[TEW-FISHES]

Harvey was good for numbers of small perch and crappie. Not much size to any of them. Threw them all back. A lot like crawford as far as size. I heard the same thing for Vega as far as numbers and size. Good to hear about Blue. I love that lake. Going out again this weekend. Give a report when I do.

[Colorado Cheesehead]

We fished Rifle Gap on Friday. The wind blew hard all day and the fishing was slow, we did catch a dozen or so perch with one being a tad over 13" and three small walleyes that were thrown back. The ice along the shore line on the dam side of the lake is bad for about the first 10' it was hard finding good ice getting on and we both got wet feet coming off.

[Kevin21]

I snowmobiled into Eggleston Lake yesterday and couldn't keep my bait down.  Biggest one was 17 inches.  All rainbows.

[TroutFishingBear]

I've caught a ton of big perch and nice crappie out of harvey gap all year. I've also caught some nice pike (35" largest). I've also been catching nice perch and big rainbows and browns ranging 16-20" at rifle, as well as some decent pike here too (28" largest, most 21-22"). Mesa lake kicked ass for rainbows and brookies, I caught over 100 in late nov.
here's a few pics












fish on!

[Colorado Cheesehead]

Where are you catching the big perch at Rifle? How deep are you fishing and what are they hitting on? We are headed back next weekend and fish it one more time before the fishing tournament. We were up last week and the fishing was slow. I noticed that you also fish Crawford, have you had any luck there?

[Bonzo]

We'll be at Rifle Gap this weekend.  Let you know how it goes.

[Bonzo]

Well, call me a sissy, but it looks like with the forecasted snow and hopefully enough ice around here, we may fish something closer to home.