Happy New Year
Thanks to everyone who listens on KGVE and visits the Grand Lake area sporting goods dealers, to everyone who follows the GrandFishingReport.com Facebook group, and to all the fishing guides who post good information about their clients' trips there year-round.
Weather / eagle watching
It's a gorgeous day around the shores of Grand Lake: 47 degrees, no wind on the east side of Shangri-La, and the water flat as glass. Two bald eagles have been sitting in the trees at Jeff's house the last couple of days. Not everyone knows that winter is a great time to hop in a boat and go eagle watching. Lots of bald eagles are around the lake from late December through February, and they stay as long as the cold hangs on.
An eagle steals the biggest Crappie
Jeff's younger son Owen (Grand Glass Cleaning) was at a regular client's house, and the client told him to go ahead and fish off the dock. Owen caught 10 or 11 Crappie and set the bucket on his tailgate. While he walked back down for his tackle box, an eagle swooped in and snatched a Crappie out of the bucket. "Dad, he didn't just get any Crappie, he got the biggest Crappie I had in the bucket." The biggest Crappie pulled up from 10 to 20 feet in winter often float at the top. Owen wasn't too mad about it. Book him to clean your windows and ask him about the eagle.
Paddlefish
Haydn with Williams Guide Service has been running Paddlefish trips and getting lots of nice fish from Shangri-La up to the mouth of the Elk River, where most of them seem to be.
Catfish
Matt Dodge has posted some really nice Blue Catfish on the Grand Fishing Report Facebook group (John Lewis passed that along too). Others are catching nice Catfish on deep-water ledges.
Crappie
John Lewis has been on docks on Monkey Island. He hasn't done as well this week as before Christmas, but he caught some Crappie around Christmas Eve. Jeff's friend Kenny Neal, who has a place on Monkey Island, caught two limits of Crappie on a chartreuse-and-red jig. Get in the right spot at the right time and you can usually pick up a few fish.
White Bass / have the lake to yourself
Pick a nice sunny, windless day like today and you'll have nearly the whole lake to yourself. Or head up to Twin Bridges, where there are a lot of fish on Spring River now. Jeff is sure White Bass are stacking up between the Spring River Bridge and the old Seneca piers, and that's where he'd troll.
Deer season
Antlerless season is over, but there are a few more weeks of archery. If cold, nasty weather moves in, Jeff might get a crack at the big buck he's been after all season. "He keeps zigging and I keep zagging."
Luck E Strike
Thanks to the GRDA for sponsoring the report for years and years. Ask area dealers for the new Toby Keith Luck E Strike Bass and Crappie products (Lucky Bugs, STX jerkbaits and square bills), part of a big American-made assortment that should be around the lake before long.