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[pirate] I fished Grand Lake in Colorado yesterday for macks and had a bunch of fish come up off the bottom and just stare at my jigs. No matter what I did, I could not make 'em hit it. I tried letting it hang there dead stick, gently swimming it up a foot or two, reeling up fast 3 or 4 feet (and more), dropping it back down some.....everything I could think of. They almost always would follow it up, but not hit. Some would follow it down and hang there with it again. Eventually they would swim back the 3-6 feet to the bottom. I was fishing water 50' to 75' deep. I was using tube jigs of various colors (glow, pearl, chartreuse, hot pink, white, and olive) tipped with sucker meat. Even had 'em come look at a 6" long bunny jig with the same result. Any tips on what to do to make these fish hit???
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[font "Arial"][red][size 2] Hi Don, hey I have used liquid smelly jelly in the anchovie flavor. Seemed to work pretty good for the macks in Bear Lake. Just a little bit of my own experiance.[/size][/red][/font]
[font "Arial"][#ff0000][size 2] Keep us informed of the activeity in Denver for the Macks. We are always interested in Mack info.[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
[font "Arial"][#ff0000][size 2] AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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Thanks Dan-
I really had hoped to get to the Gorge this weekend, but didn't make it. I appreciate the smelly jelly tip. I'll try that next time. I figure macks probably act pretty much alike most places in the West.
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[font "Arial"][red][size 2] No problem Don, I'm quite new to the Mack fishing myself, but I know that the smelly jelly worked for us. By the way we were using tube jigs 4-inches long and filling up the inside of the tube with the smelly jelly, with a 1/2 oz. jig head.[/size][/red][/font]
[font "Arial"][#ff0000][size 2] AFDan52[/size][/#ff0000][/font]
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Dan is right, Smelly jelly is a good choice, did you try any other bait? I'm not sure what kind of fish there are in the lake you were fishing but right now the macks at Bear lake are keying on smaller stuff and are hanging around in the shallow water feeding on cisco eggs and whitefish. WH2
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The only thing I tried were tube jigs (and a bunny jig) with sucker meat. The forage in this lake is primarily kokanee salmon, although I'm sure they must feed some on the stocker rainbows. The only fish I saw caught were taken on Mike's brand garlic flavored salmon eggs. Their fish were all small, though - 21" and under. Their jigs were smaller than mine so I'm definitely going to try smaller tubes on one rod next time. I was fishing the 3 1/2 to 4" tubes. These guys were fishing 1 1/2 to 2" tubes. I wouldn't feel so bad if I hadn't had so many lookers!
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Don't you just hate it when you know they are there but you can't get them to bite. I'm not sure it would work but maybe anchovies or minnows that you can find in local bait shops would work if they are legal to use in your state. WH2
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Live minnows are illegal, but I did get some very small (2-3") frozen suckers today to try next time I go.
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hey don,
i love that lake. how much ice is on it now. was there this summer again visiting the park. it sounds to me like it was a inactive day. im not a mack expert but if they wont hit dead minnows or suckers which is obvious free food they are inactive and not real hungry. the only other options i can think of would be change cut bait to a different fish. change colors and see if one works more than others. and the smelly jelly seems to work sometimes also.
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Thanks for the reply Xman. There is good ice over almost all of the lake. The only exception is at the far west end where there is the channel that connects Grand Lake and Shadow Mtn. I was fishing a ridge just north of that channel area. In one spot I had about 13" of ice, but about 30 feet closer to the open water channel, it was only 6" thick. I didn't move any closer to the channel. I don't think it ever freezes.
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