Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report-

Here you can find current ice fishing reports and ice conditions for Blue Mesa reservoir near Gunnison, Crested Butte, and Montrose Colorado.  You can also find past Blue Mesa ice fishing reports by choosing the year you would like on the navigation bar to the left.   These Blue Mesa ice fishing reports typically cover ice conditions, fishing activity, weather, and areas to be careful of.  These Colorado fishing reports are compiled first hand by our fishing experiences and trips on Blue Mesa.  We update these reports every time we go out or hear new, relevant information from reliable sources.  Blue Mesa typically gets its first safe ice around the Lake City bridge in early December.  It then takes until mid to late January for the safe ice to reach all the way to the dam.  For live, on the water Blue Mesa ice fishing reports and pictures, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

March 28, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: Milking it til’ the end!

Yesterday I had first time ice-fishers Linda and Craig.  We found some safe ice at  Elk Creek Marina and spent the cooler part of the morning chashing fish!  Linda and Craig both caught on very quickly, especially since the fish were biting light!  Craig caught a grand slam in come back fashion to take the “most” and “biggest” fish title away from Linda who started out hot!  We kept some fish for dinner and threw the rest back.  Get ready for ICE OUT!!!!

March 18, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: Big lakers, kokanee, grandslams and a rod buster!

First things first, Blue Mesa is quickly melting.  There is still safe ice on Iola and the Narrows, but from Elk Creek west to the dam is deteriorating quickly!  Shorelines are melting or soft and open water is opening up in several areas so be CAREFUL! Fishing has been very good for all species with some reports of 12-30+ salmon being caught in one day.  We have been primarily chasing lake trout and having moderate success with lots of fish coming off or being missed.  Last week I had some familiar faces nick named “Queenie” and “Mac” from past fishing trips out on the ice.   We chased lake trout and caught some nice fish.  We also caught some trout and salmon.  On our last day, we landed two traditional Blue Mesa Grand slams and the last fish of the day was the little lake trout in the middle of the picture.  Mac “laid the lumber”  on this fish and the rod snapped in three places!!!  Ice out is near!!! Be Safe, Fish On!!!

March 6, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report:A special day for a special father and son!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of taking Chuck and his son Chris from Grand Junction.  Chuck and Chris have been fishing with me for the last five years.  This fishing trip was planned special for Chuck’s birthday, but Chuck is such a selfless guy that his primary focus is always on making sure that his son Chris is comfortable and having a good time.  These guys came ice fishing with me last year and it took Chris about 3/4 of the day to catch on to setting the hook with the always tricky lake trout.  However, this time Chris brought his A-game!  The fish moved out of our first spot so we had to hop around for the first hour and a half, but once we got on the fish, Chris was on fire!  He was dominating for the first half of the day until Chuck finally decided that it was HIS birthday and time for him to catch some fish!  All said and done, we had a great day with plenty of action and birthday fun!  We had several schools of kokanee come through from 10-25′ deep while we were  primarily focused on lake trout on the bottom in 70 feet of water.  Smaller was better for triggering lake trout bites, while the kokanee didn’t really care as long as you had a lure in their face when they came through!  One key to taking advantage of our opportunities was using 4/0 Trokar 90 degree jig heads in our tube jigs!  When accompanied with Power Pro braided fishing line, these incredibly sharp hooks get the job done when fishing deeper water!  Great job fellas and Happy Birthday Chuck!

February 26, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: Laker Smackdown part 2!

Back on the ice again today with Fishexplorer member Kayakfisher and his buddy Jeff.  We wet up in an area where salmon have been moving through up high with lake trout coming through on the bottom.  We saw a few small pods of salmon, but they didn’t want to hang around long.  The lake trout however, were coming through in droves and they were hungry!  Below is a picture of a school of lake trout.  We saw several of these schools today and the action was great!!! 

February 25, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: Laker Smackdown!

Today I had five ice fishermen from Colorado Springs.  They got up at 1:45 to drive up and meet me on time!  The bite started hot at first light and then we had a little lull.  After some moving around, we dialed in a flat and started catching fish from 70-80 feet of water.  The action was great and we ended up with 35 lake trout and 1 brown landed!  A lot of our success can be attributed to the new Trokar 90 degree hooks and Eagle Claw rods we were using.  Braided Power Pro line is also essential for catching fish at these depths and getting a good hook set!  Come take advantage of the great ice fishing bite we have around this new moon phase!!!!

 February 24, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: The lake has safe ice from east to west!

 Blue Mesa finally has safe ice (5+) inches across the whole lake!  We have been taking full advantage of this ice and fishing EVERY day!  Fishing has been good most days and great some days!  We have been priamarily targeting lake trout, but the trout fishing has been good too!  We are also seeing several kokanee schools each day, but getting them interested has been a challenge.  Trout action is good along rocky shorelines especially in the canyon around Elk Creek.  Lake trout have been showing up between 40-80′.  Kokanee schools have been showing up in the same areas as the lake trout and running between 15-40′.  There are some pressure ridges and small open water areas to watch for, but overall we have good ice and fishing!  Here are some pics!

February 6-8, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: A week of fishing with some hardcore fellas from Wisconsin!

 Dan and Andrew drove down from Wisconsin for a week of chasing trout across Colorado.  We spent 3 days at Blue Mesa chasing lake trout and a few browns and then headed over to 11 mile for two days.  Day one on Blue was slow chasing lake trout as a lot of my go to spots didn’t have fish moving through very often.  Day two was great for rainbows and a few browns and day three was excellent for lake trout!  The rest of the lake has capped, but ice conditions vary depending on the part of the lake you are interested in fishing. 

February 3 & 4, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: More of the same with a special guest !

Over the last two days we have chased lake trout and some rainbows and browns with success!  The bite times have been pushed around a little by the approaching full moon, but the action is good when we find one of those bite windows.  We have been finding good trout action right up against rip rap shore lines.  Today we had a special guest, Rowdy the dog, who was less than thrilled to be out in the cold at 6:30 this morning, but found that his little doggy jacket and boots kept him warm! 

January 30-February 1, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: Hot and cold fishing w/ ice progress!

We have seen a bit of a slow down for trout on Blue Mesa over the last week.  A lot of pelagic trout or trout that we found crusing out over deep water have seem to be relating more to rocky shorelines.   The lake trout bite has been good if you can find a spot with fish consistently moving through.  We have been doing well on lake trout in 50-80 feet of water and as usual these fish have been very structure related.   Big schools of kokanee salmon have also been showing up through the narrows, but they have been inconsistent as far as when and where.  Typically these schools have been seen in 10-40 feet of water with some singles showing up as deep as 60.  The good news is that the rest of the lake is starting to button up with ice!  Safe ice still only extends from the Lake City Bridge to the end of the narrows, but a lot of ice has formed along the north shoreline in Cebolla, from Red Creek island to Middle Bridge, and from the Pinnacles to the dam.  Hopefully we will continue to get cold weather!

 January 14, 2012 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: Still waiting for the rest of the lake to freeze!

It is finally starting to get cold at Blue Mesa, but safe fishing ice only extends to where the narrows meet Cebolla.  From the bay of chickens to the dam is all open water!  The ice that we do have is running 6-14 inches and 4-wheelers have been all over it.  Fishing is excellent for rainbows, browns, and lake trout most days with a few salmon showing up.  Rainbows are cruising 5-25 feet deep and keying in on rip rap shorelines.  Most browns have been coming from 25-60 feet of water and lake trout have been most consistently showing up from 40-80.  Hopefully the rest of the lake freezes up this year!

December 30, 2011 Blue Mesa Fishing Report: MORE  rainbows Galore!!!!

More great action today with five people landing close to 100 fish!!!!  Great job today guys!   If you want to get in on some great action, fish Elk Creek Marina Bay on Blue Mesa, it is loaded with rainbows!  The temperature reached 55 degrees today in Gunnison and the ice on Blue Mesa lost some more progress.   The edges are soft or open in a lot of areas so be careful out there this weekend!

December 29, 2011 Blue Mesa Fishing Report:  Rainbows Galore!

Today I had Russel, Brady, Katie, and Lani from Louisiana out for some ice fishing and they spanked the rainbows!  They caught their limit and threw a bunch back.  We also caught our first kokanee salmon of the year and some brown trout.  I also met two die hard ice fishermen Dave and Bill who caught a bunch of lake trout!  Good job everyone!  The ice is safe for now, but todays warm weather and wind opened some areas back up so be careful!

December 22, 2011 Blue Mesa Fishing Report:  Ice is Gaining!

There is plenty of safe ice at the Lake City Bridge and fishing is good for trout and the ocassional lake trout and perch.  A good portion of Iola and the Narrows have capped with 2-3 inches of ice.  I have seen ice skaters on this ice, but it is still unsafe for fishing as of right now.  Give it another 3-4 days.

December 10, 2011 Blue Mesa Fishing Report:  Ice is HERE!

The lake city bridge has 5-8 inches of safe ice!  The ice extends about 100 yards west of the lake city bridge.  Fishing for trout is good along the rocks!  NIght temps have been cold so Iola should freeze up in the next two weeks!

October, 2011 Blue Mesa Ice Fishing Report: The Countdown is on!

Ice fishing on Blue Mesa will be here before you know it!  Here are some pictures from last year to set the mood!