Fishing Colorado Mountain Lakes

[270boarderman]

I did alot of back country lake fishing in Montana, Now I'm living in Colorado and have been hiking to some lakes, the thing is I can't catch anything I've been using everything from Panther Martins to Power bait and still nothing. I use to slaughter them with that in Montana. Is there any tips you can give me. I'm also learning to fly fish is that the better way to go.

[TheRealPoop]

I just started fly fishing, I have been fishing high streams. using misquitos and getting some real nice brookies. are you in steamboat by chance?

[neckdeep]

High country lakes often fish well with small generic flies in the summer during late afternoon and evening. Wild fish don't like to expose themselves to raptors during the full light of day, so they stay suspended down deep. The lakes are often fairly infertile and one of the prime sources of food the fish have is the variety of small insects(flies, various winged beetles and ants, etc) that get caught up in the thermally driven afternoon winds and then deposited into the lake. Look for winged carpenter ant drones(#14-16, black body) to appear in good numbers around forested slopes in late July and August. Spruce moth infestations are another non-aquatic bug that brings fish to the surface.

Note: some high lakes don't have natural reproduction, they are stocked. In those lakes, there are no juvenile baitfish present and the lures you are using may seem like a strange alien intruder to resident fish. If there are any fish, that is. Some alpine lakes aren't stocked following a winter kill (waste of resources, etc). If you cannot observe minnows using the shallows as refuge from predation, that is an important clue right there. If you cannot see any riseforms in a lake at sunset on a calm evening....question whether that lake has any worthwhile fishing. If you can see riseforms, toss out a small griffith's gnat or renegade and let it sit;the fish are just cruising around under the surface and eating anything that looks buggy.

[DeeAre]

Once again, Neckdeep comes through with banger fishing advice. Love your stream reports, keep it up.