Lake Granby fishing: Rainbow Trout, Lake Trout

Target species: Rainbow Trout, Lake Trout
Best months: Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct for Rainbow Trout
Second window: Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct for Lake Trout
Boat: 4 ramps and launches on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at Highland Marina.

The reservoir

Lake Granby covers 7,046 acres in Colorado, across Grand County. It is a reservoir: the deepest figure on record is 221 feet (67.4 m), as published by Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI), a figure without a map of the bottom. Our records hold 5 species for this water.

Lake Granby, adjacent to the town of the same name near the southwestern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado LCCN2015633701.tif
Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain

2 target fish, led by Rainbow Trout

  • Rainbow Trout — Best months: Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct.
  • Lake Trout — Best months: Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct.

Also recorded here: Cutthroat Trout, Brown Trout, Longnose Sucker.

LakeGranby.JPG
Hogs555 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Water and conditions

Water temperature averages 46°F across the year. The coldest single reading we hold is 34°F and the warmest is 69°F; the warmest monthly average is 62°F. pH averages 7.7. These readings span 2016–2026.

Rocky Mountains from Lake Granby, CO 2008 (6767401787).jpg
inkknife_2000 (7.5 million views +) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Depth and bottom

Deepest figure on record: 221 ft (67.4 m), as published by Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI). We hold no survey map of this bottom, so we show no depth bands. We hold 35 depth contours for this water, drawn from 32 soundings.

4 ramps and launches on this water

On this water we hold 4 boat ramps.

  • Roaring Fork Boat Ramp — US Forest Service. website fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recarea/?recid=28516
  • Stillwater Boating Site — US Forest Service. website fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recarea/?recid=28604
  • Sunset Point Boating Site — US Forest Service. website fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recarea/?recid=28608
  • Highland Marina phone +1-970-887-3541 · website highlandmarinaonlakegranby.com

Fee and opening hours are blank for all 4 places in this list: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.

What is hard here

Wind is the limit, not the fish: 7,046 acres of open water build a short steep chop, and there is no shelter in the middle. Winter water drops to 35°F, and the warm-water species stop feeding well before you do.

Where this data comes from

  • NOAA National Geodetic Survey / Office for Coastal Management — NOAA topobathymetric lidar DEMs: class A, a survey of the bottom.
  • Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI) — LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0: Lake depth for 17,675 lakes in the conterminous U.S.: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.