Hit Grandaddy Basin this week. Hiked in from the Mirror Lake side and we fished most of the lakes from Pinto to Grandaddy. Caught nice fish in all of them. The best fishing was on the lakes a little out of the way. The cutthroat at Grandaddy were spawning up the rivers or creeks and weren't interested in eating anything. It was amazing to see that many fish in so small a space though. We did manage a few brook trout that were eighteen inches which really surprised me but we had to work hard for them. Most of the fish were in the 12 to 14 inch range. The weather couldn't have been better and there were only a handful of snow banks in the way. The bugs don't seem to be worse than a normal year up there. Some lakes were worse than others but that is how it is.
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Thanks for the report BH, sounds like some nice fish for those upper elevation lakes. I'm surprised to hear the cutthroat are spawning now, do you know if that is normal for that lake? Were you fly fishing, spin or bait fishing?
WH2
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The cutthroats generally spawn the last 2 weeks of June through about the first week of July (ice out) on Grandaddy Lake. This year was very late. Looks like the spawn was late too. I was however surprised to hear they could not catch them. They will usually not take a lure but a small fly (grey hackle peacock) behind a bubble will usually hook one most every cast. By regs, no fishing in the stream, but those staging in the lake are fair game. Of course we always catch and release - spawners are not great for eating. I did not make it in this year as the road to the Grandview trailhead (much shorter than from Mirror) is still washed out. Great post BH.
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All the cutts in various places I've fished are spawning about a month late this year. Grandaddy lake tributaries just have the standard Utah restrictions in place to protect spawning cutts : closed from Jan 1 through second Sat in July.
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As far as I know they are about a month behind their usual spawning time. The fish still in the lake were still hungry and hit our lures just fine but those in the creeks weren't interested. And we were throwing spinnners.
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Sounds like a great trip,and good fishing success. Very good. I personally consider a 14 inch fish very good in the Uintas somewhat hard to come by. But you were in an area that a few of the lakes can produce that or better. A 16 inch is even rarer (mostly thinking Brook Trout, but Cutthroats can be longer, less girth). And and 18 inch I would like to see picture and tape measure, not doubting you, just very rare in an area that has a 3 month growing season. But you were in an area that has the potential. Those big guys, 8-10 years old didn't get big by taking everything. Usually if there are biggens, there are very few, if there are little ones there are lots.
Thanks for the post, very appreciated.
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