Grand Lake fishing patterns

[Pro's Choice Pete]

I have been asked by a few guys how we caught 'em, so thought I would just post it here. Hopefully others that caught them will post their tactics as well.

We launched the boat Thursday afternoon about 1:00 and headed down lake towards Horse Creek. Did not have a single bite that afternoon. Water was COLD......36-38 degrees with ice in many coves. We fished our way back and Wyatt spotted some 40 degree water in the very back of a couple of coves, but I was not convinced the fish were back that far yet. We needed to find the warmest water on the lake, and hopefully some better clarity, so we headed to the Elk River on Friday. There we found water up to 44 degrees, but mostly 40 - 42 degrees, and water clarity up to 5' in one stretch. And we got bit a few times......2 keepers in the boat, Wyatt broke one off, and 3 shorts.

The first spot I wanted to start on Saturday was loaded with boats, so under the bridge we went. We went to a place where we caught a keeper the day before.......it was a bluff end transition point........it went from a bluff wall to chunk rock, then to pea gravel in about a 50 yard stretch. The bank sloped gently out to about 6' of water, then dropped to 16' off the ledge. I positioned the boat a long cast from the bank and worked the jerkbaits with about a 2 - 3 second pause and the fish would hit it about halfway back to the boat, which was right over the break. A classic pre-spawn pattern. We worked that 50 yard stretch for most of the day, the first one bit right around 9:00 and the 5th one about 11:00 or so. We left for a while to go hit a couple of spots that Wyatt wanted to fish farther up the river, then came back around 1:30 and culled a couple. That river looked like Angler's Port Marine's boat lot up there with so many guys fishing! I threw a jerkbait all day long, and Wyatt alternated between that and a Shad Rap because he caught a couple of fish on it and had a good sized keeper break him off at the boat on Friday.

Here are the baits we used to catch 'em, top is a custom colored Megabass (Norman Flake), KGB Megabass, and a Chrome/Blue Rogue fished on 10# SeaGuar flourocarbon.

[jaycount]

Awesome job, Pete & Wyatt! Elk is the only place we didn't go all week. Kept thinking about it but talked ourselves out of it

[Rodney Bledsoe]

[rudapa]

Another awesome report - thanks!!

[Ka'King]

Awesome! Congrats again...

[Pro's Choice Pete]

Awesome! Congrats again...

Thanks! Tell us how you caught them!

[Ka'King]

Thanks! Tell us how you caught them!

Greg (98RangerDVS) and I didn't have much of a pattern and only caught two, but we did find a good spot that got us a couple. This was my first time on Grand so we piggy backed off Pete and went up the Elk. The water had pretty good clarity/color there and we were seeing 43 degrees instead of the 39-41 we saw out on the main lake. We fished Friday from 10-3 and didn't catch anything at all. We started at the mouth of the Elk Saturday morning, fishing some pretty wind blown pockets. We fished the jig, a-rig and jerkbait with no bites. We moved up into the river and went back to the submerged bridge trestle about 10am. The wind was blowing out of the north/east and was pushing current right up on that trestle. We also had an eery good visibility around it, almost like there is a spring there providing fresh water. On the third or fourth cast to some submerged timber, right up against the trestle, I caught a good 3.72. The fish had every treble in it and I was having a heck of a time getting it unhooked (in gloves and in the rain). I figured it needed some water so I bent over to give it a drink and just kept going! The combination of excitement and 27 layers of clothes tipped me right over the side of the boat. Luckily, there was a nice piece of timber for me to hit my head on, stopping my momentum and keeping me in the boat. I got (and still have) a good bump on my head, but it was better than going in the 43 degree water and ruining the day. We fished within a mile or so of that bridge the rest of the day and kept hitting the trestle hoping to find another one. About 2pm I got another solid fish on the jerkbait...about five feet from where the other one was. These were our only two fish for the day though. We headed back about 3:45 and ran one of the gas tanks dry. It took us about 10 minutes to get it started again which made us late to weigh-in. It's all for fun though and at least it finally started off the aux tank! It would have been a long 10 mile troll back to the dock in the pouring rain.

I caught my fish on a Jackall jerkbait squadminnow in sg threadfin shad (chrome/black back with a little chartreuse line). This is the jerkbait Cliff Pace used at the classic last year so I thought I would give it a try.

[Pro's Choice Pete]

You guys didn't piggy back off me, it's called "working together".......all I did was tell you what I saw, and you guys figured out the rest. Great job and a great story! And I hope that your melon gets to feeling better soon!

[ksfshnfool]

As miserable as the weather was and as tough as the fishing was I can't think of another place in the midwest I would have rather been. There was good friends, good food, drink, and the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors, the best therapy for anything that ails the soul. Our total catch for Friday and Saturday was five fish, three keepers and two minnows, all of the keepers came from a small area between two docks in the elk where the bank transitioned from forty five degree slope to a shallow pocket. The magic jerk bait was also chrome with blueback and orange belly, never was bit on anything else. By the way, did I dream getting my picture taken wearing a massive red bra or did that really happen?

[rudapa]

It seemed everyone but Johnny wore that red bra to earn donations for the BBQs charity they were supporting.

[ksfshnfool]

Supporting...........interesting choice of word. Lol

[rudapa]

[Ray Co. Hank]

Nice work Chris K. I got a chuckle reading your day, but I am glad you didn't go in the drink!

[haveme1]

nice write up guys.
I had the same idea but went for the deep fish instead :/ I was dying fir some timber/cover to throw to. I saw the fish staying level with the break but my rookiness showed out !
Congratulations to the winners !
....sorry for being a spoil sport on the bra thing ....
Tired and weary i guess.....
I had a blast and I'm glad all survived the weather and the drive home.

[Team Hobbie Hut]

Chris, Thanks-----Massive---- What a Support group I have!!! No you did not dream the bra, I will be posting the pics shortly on shutterfly in an album for you to look at. However, most importantly our group raised over $50 for breat cancer. The Road Hog saloon has the bra auction in October to raise funds and our group is leading---which means we may have bought the bra back. I talked with Judy today and she was thrilled with our group and wants us to come back!

Cheryl O.

[grand basser]

Sweet deal guys I will try and get by there next time I am down and add to the donations

[hunt22-250]

That information would have been great before the Rally started.

[Rodney Bledsoe]

That information would have been great before the Rally started.

It's the boater responsibility to make sure you have what you need.. if you don't get it I'd move on

[hunt22-250]

It's the boater responsibility to make sure you have what you need.. if you don't get it I'd move on

Your right about that. What good is free milk if it's no good.