The Hunt for GIANT Lake Trout

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:01]Blue Mesa Reservoir is the biggest lake in Colorado, and somewhere beneath this water are lake trout bigger than anything I've ever caught. Cody and I have three days to get them figured out.

[00:00:10]Starting right now, [music] like always, Cody and I are up and driving before the sun with the goal of being on the kayaks at first light. And one thing that's different than Lake Graanby, where I normally chase Lakers, is they allow you to drive on the beach here. This makes getting ham launched crafts on the water near your intended fishing spot pretty easy.

[00:00:33]Feel like this is kind of a good first trip of the season for the kayaks.

[00:00:38]>> Yeah, feel rusty like we haven't done this in a while getting out of here.

[00:00:44]>> Now, I've caught my fair share of oversized lake trout, but if you want to get your hands on a true giant, Blue Mesa not only holds some of the biggest fish in the state, but also in the world. We're so stuck. Get them.

[00:00:58]Oh, I'm floating.

[00:01:00]>> Finally working. I almost got >> Oh, did we?

[00:01:08]Uh, water temp isn't terribly warm. I'm got 44. Not knowing this lake at all, I decided to start trolling just to look around.

[00:01:16]Not sure, but these might all be cocon right here. We're not here for cocon.

[00:01:20]We're here for lake trout, but also cook. And it's immediately clear.

[00:01:25]There's a lot of fish in this lake. All right, I passed over a big group of fish right there. So, I'm going to go back check them out. See if I can jig up a lake trout.

[00:01:36]It's a bunch of marks.

[00:01:42]There's some fish.

[00:01:49]Oh, there was a fish.

[00:01:51]Oh, this is the first miss. After a few misses and knowing the water temp is still pretty low, I start casting the shore, hoping to run into a lake trout.

[00:02:10]There we go. It only takes a few casts and I'm hooked up. Let's see what this is.

[00:02:25]Is it brown?

[00:02:29]Oh, it's a nice brown.

[00:02:34]There we go. Got a little Berkeley minnows [music] are kind of a newer lure they came out with. It's a decent brown. It's the first fish of [music] the trip.

[00:02:47]>> Heck yeah.

[00:02:49]See you, dude. All right. Got rid of the skunk. There's a break where it kind of goes from rock to dirt. I'm sure it does the same thing underneath. So, there's these little rock patches kind of in the middle of sand here. I'm just kind of fishing the edges of them. See if we get another brown.

[00:03:06]Missed a couple fish already. So, it's a good sign. Deer.

[00:03:12]Oh, there we go.

[00:03:15]That's a nicer fish.

[00:03:18]It feels like a brown. Oo.

[00:03:21]the dractors there. That's a nice nice one.

[00:03:25]Keep some tension on them.

[00:03:33]Oh, that's a real nice brown. Oh, man.

[00:03:41]There we go. All right. Back to back browns. Just chowed that little minnow.

[00:03:47]It's not a bad brown at all. He's not too much bigger than the other one, but he fought a little harder. Cool.

[00:03:55]It's two fish in 2 minutes. I'd say just judging by the fact that I haven't seen Cody in the last half hour, he's probably actually catching fish over there.

[00:04:10]There we go. Hooked him right on the shore.

[00:04:19]This one doesn't feel as big. No, he's not.

[00:04:30]Smallest brown so far, but still probably 16 in.

[00:04:34]Make sure my line's good. This little minnow guy is killing it.

[00:04:44]There we go.

[00:04:46]What' I get?

[00:04:52]Little rainbow.

[00:04:54]First rainbow of the trip. Little guy.

[00:04:58]Lost him. At this point, I decided to switch things up and start covering more water.

[00:05:06]There we go. That feels like a good fish. Kind of feels like a brown.

[00:05:17]Feels pretty good.

[00:05:19]Oh, it's a foul hook. Brown. That's why it feels good. Yep. He's hooked on the side. Every time you foul hook a fish, it feels twice as big.

[00:05:30]It's actually an okay brown. Foul hooked him on the side. But there's something else.

[00:05:42]Yep. Another little brown. I'm not even going to net this one. Well, I didn't need to. These have all just been on this reef runner. It's like a deep diving lure from Bass Pro. They dive I think they dive close to 30 ft. The lake trout like them. At least [snorts] in Graanby, they do. It seems like the browns out here like them.

[00:06:04]I've got like a steep wall and then it flattens out and there's a kind of a lip ledge where it's going to meet the river bottom. Just drop a jig and see what what some of these fish are cuz there's a lot of them down there.

[00:06:22]So many freaking texts.

[00:06:25]Oh man.

[00:06:33]Oh man, stung that one for sure.

[00:06:37]Man, they are really.

[00:06:41]Oh man.

[00:06:43]Not going to know what these are until I catch one, though. Got a feeling it's a bunch of browns, honestly. I'm going to switch to one of these uh 3-in power switches.

[00:06:52]I'm marking a lot down there. I'm just not getting getting a hook. They're hitting. [clears throat] All right, let's give that a try. Right above them now.

[00:07:01]See if they come up and hit it.

[00:07:06]There we go. Oh, lost him.

[00:07:10]See if I can get another one. Just judging by how they're suspended and how many there are, I don't feel like they're lake trout, but they could be.

[00:07:22]There we go.

[00:07:26]Still there. Let's see what he is.

[00:07:34]It's a little brown trout.

[00:07:36]They're all sitting down like 50 ft of water. Could just be a ton of these guys down there. Let him go. See you, dude.

[00:07:48]Browns aren't bad. I mean, you never know. There's big browns. Oh, there's a hit right there.

[00:07:56]There we go.

[00:08:03]The brown.

[00:08:08]Chomp that sucker.

[00:08:10]So, they're pretty good brown right there.

[00:08:16]There we go. Man, I mean, you just drop down into them and they hit right away.

[00:08:24]Another little brown.

[00:08:27]Get that guy back.

[00:08:30]There's a ton. I'm going to keep fishing them for a minute. Yep. They're just piled up down here. I don't know what it is about this spot. I don't know if it's [music] that we've got the shelf meeting the the wall right there, but nope. He's coming up to check me out. There are a ton of them.

[00:08:45]There we go.

[00:08:52]Also not a terrible fish. Here we go.

[00:09:06]Feels good.

[00:09:11]Another one.

[00:09:13]That camera got hot. I think the goal of the trip was big lakers, so I might force myself to leave this spot. It's hard to leave fish [music] when you find them. It's fun catching numbers, but yeah, I want I want want something big.

[00:09:28]There we go.

[00:09:37]Another decent brown or anything.

[00:09:41]Brown came up, [music] went back down.

[00:09:44]See him over there?

[00:09:54]>> [music] >> There we go. It's a good brown.

[00:09:57]Might be the biggest one out of this spot.

[00:10:04]Well, out of this spot I've been jigging.

[00:10:07]Oh, he's gone. I think that might have been the biggest brown.

[00:10:15]This one doesn't feel too bad either.

[00:10:17]Oh, there's two of them.

[00:10:22]Another good brown.

[00:10:25]This seems like one of those spots [music] where I could just sit all day and just kind of crush them. So, I think I'm going to force myself to leave, go looking for some lake trout cuz I I don't know how many browns I caught here, but I mean, I haven't been here that long and they just kind of it's been fish after fish. So, send this guy back back down to whatever [music] he's doing down there. Probably caught I don't know how many fish I caught. I was only here probably about half [music] an hour and this guy got completely destroyed. It was a brand new power switch half an hour ago. I'm going to do the hard thing. Force myself to leave or something. Little branch out.

[00:11:13]I don't think I've ever been to a lake with such a like large brown trout population.

[00:11:19]In an attempt to ditch the brown trout and maybe replace them with lake trout, I head out toward the center of the basin. I find a large flat around 50 ft deep that has a steep drop to about 70.

[00:11:28]I'm marking fish, but I still suspect that they're browns. Yeah, they seem pretty browny. There's a lot of suspended ones. I'm in almost 60 ft.

[00:11:37]Kind of want to go It's like a gradual slope right here.

[00:11:44]It kind of drops off quick. But if we go that way, just a hair. There's like an actual pretty big shelf. Oh, you got one.

[00:11:53]>> It's a brown.

[00:11:53]>> It's a brown on a jig.

[00:12:01]>> There we go.

[00:12:03]>> He hit it so many times.

[00:12:05]>> I saw you missed.

[00:12:08]>> Oh, it's a brown. Oh, another brown. Oh, like there's a bunch of browns chasing him up. I don't know how anyone catches freaking lake trout out here. It's all brown trout.

[00:12:23]Should we send it toward the shore before it gets real bad?

[00:12:27]As usual here in Colorado, you get much past noon and the wind picks up out of nowhere. We decide to pull lines and head into [music] a more protected cove.

[00:12:35]And we fish it for a bit, but run across nothing but browns.

[00:12:41]guy.

[00:12:46]>> We head back into town for a dinner at Old Miner Steakhouse and a little bit of rest.

[00:12:53]Cody and I are starting out day two in Seaboa Basin on a part of the lake called the Bay of Chickens. Let's go find some giant lake trout or just a bunch of browns again.

[00:13:04]A back.

[00:13:12]We're off to a good start.

[00:13:15]Weird.

[00:13:18]The Bay of Chickens.

[00:13:21]We get out on the water and before I have a chance to get my line in, Cody's already hooked up.

[00:13:26]>> Oh, what'd you get? First fish of the day. And the second we get on the water, I'm marking [music] a lot of fish down low. Heck yeah, dude. All right. Well, immediately got the skunk off. All right, I'm going to go search for a lake trout.

[00:13:51]I'm starting out jigging deeper water, hoping the fish I find will be lake trout.

[00:13:56]>> You marking fish on the bottom? Okay, that's got to be Lakers, right?

[00:14:00]>> It doesn't take long to get a hit, but this feels like a brown trout.

[00:14:10]Don't get a lot of bumps.

[00:14:15]There we go.

[00:14:17]There's something.

[00:14:24]It's a brown on the big old power switch. [music] Big white one. It's first fish of the day.

[00:14:34]Pretty chunky brown trout. That's not what we're after. Looking for lake trout. I'm getting a lot of like brown trout [music] bumps.

[00:14:42]>> One of the most important things when looking for lakers is knowing what structures around. And a good topo map is one of the best tools to have.

[00:14:48]>> Kind of looking for those little areas [music] right there. That little flat before it drops off or that one.

[00:14:56]Follow this contour around. Caps is pretty cool. [music] It's a little more detailed than the uh lake maps I got on the fish finder.

[00:15:09]Just going to troll [music] right around 30 ft. This guy dives pretty deep.

[00:15:17]There's a fish.

[00:15:20]Cropped off. It's fine. He didn't look very big.

[00:15:28]There we go.

[00:15:32]That's probably a brown, but you never know. Could be a little laker.

[00:15:40]Just drag this guy out.

[00:15:44]Another brown. Just a little guy.

[00:15:47]Probably 30 ft down when he hit this, which isn't too crazy for a brown, but Yep.

[00:15:54]Not what I'm after.

[00:15:58]Another brown.

[00:16:04]Man, these guys are chunky. Here >> across the bay. Cody finally hooks into a lake trout.

[00:16:16]>> Yes.

[00:16:22]A Laker. We got one pretty good laker.

[00:16:26]>> It's not the monster we're after, but at least it's the right species. There's a hit.

[00:16:35]Oh, here we go.

[00:16:41]It's a brown. It's a brown.

[00:16:44]A brown on the bottom at 80 ft. It's not that brown either.

[00:16:49]I've never really understood why, but occasionally lake trout will rip up from the deep and gulp some air. And not just the little ones.

[00:16:56]>> Oh my god.

[00:17:00]I wish I had my hat camera going for this fish, but it looked to be in that 36 to 40 in range, and it got me fired up.

[00:17:09]Size of the lake trout. It just jumped.

[00:17:12]Holy moly. Jeez Louise.

[00:17:16]I continue to troll.

[00:17:25]This for sure is a brown.

[00:17:31][music] Little brown.

[00:17:43]He popped off.

[00:17:46]Still not a lake trout.

[00:17:51]>> Just like the day before, the wind picks up right after lunch.

[00:17:54]>> I think they're going to build up pretty fast.

[00:17:56]>> Ready to go?

[00:17:57]>> I think so. I think it could get sketchy.

[00:18:00]>> Yeah, >> just cuz it's such a long stretch.

[00:18:02]>> We head into a cove for a little bit of shelter.

[00:18:07]>> There we go.

[00:18:10]>> See what that is.

[00:18:17]Oh, it's a nice rainbow.

[00:18:20]Real chunky rainbow trout. It's got some pretty colored eyes. Real blue.

[00:18:36]There we go.

[00:18:42]We pack up and head into town for dinner at the Blackstock Beastro.

[00:18:46]Unfortunately, Cody's prop broke. So, day three, we're fishing from the shore.

[00:18:50]Little did we know, this is where we catch our biggest fish.

[00:18:52]>> All right, B. It's a little chilly.

[00:18:55]There's just that like slight morning breeze.

[00:18:59]>> Okay, we better get a big laker today.

[00:19:02]I'm going to take a couple casts and I'm going to throw a bait out just for extra luck.

[00:19:09]In the spring when the water's still cold and the big lake trout are cruising shallow, one of my favorite ways to target these giants is large swimbaits.

[00:19:17]I've had a goal of catching a big lake on top water. So, I take a few casts with a large spook, too.

[00:19:25][music] Cody's also throwing a big swimbait. He hooks up first.

[00:19:35]>> It's big. I'm coming. Is it a brown on that big lure?

[00:19:42]You meant business.

[00:19:43]>> Yeah, you did. Bigger than him. But I had a bite earlier, too.

[00:19:48]Think he's good to go?

[00:19:50]>> Yeah.

[00:19:53]Suckers are cold like god. Dang.

[00:19:57]Let's [panting] throw a whole sucker out.

[00:20:00]Maybe a big cruising laker will take this thing.

[00:20:06]It's not super deep, but I think what's going to end up taking it, it's going to be a brown trout. And I'm going to do the same thing I always do, put a rock on the line.

[00:20:19]That way when something hits it, the line pops free and they don't feel the weight. They can take it for a sec. Come on, big chop.

[00:20:36]Oh yeah, >> mad scad 115.

[00:20:50]There we go.

[00:20:53]Might be a brown.

[00:21:01]Yep. All right. Well, at least I'm not skunked on the last day. I'm going to have to really set the heck out of the hook on the uh big lakers. Just on a Mad Scad 115. It's a Nomad lure. Qu Australian guys made these things.

[00:21:16]Catching giant travali and stuff.

[00:21:28]There we go. Another brown.

[00:21:32]Let's see. Oh, he t-boned that thing.

[00:21:35]Go.

[00:21:39]One's maybe a little bigger than the last one.

[00:21:43]I just got to get one of them big Lakers.

[00:21:47]>> Something hits the bait rod and I hear Cody yell that he's on.

[00:21:50]>> I'm coming.

[00:21:52]I looked over right as he set the hook.

[00:22:01]Oh yeah, you got it, dude. [panting] [snorts] If it's not a Laker, >> it's a really big brown.

[00:22:20]He's right against the shore. He's just >> Is that a big brown?

[00:22:27]>> Yeah, dude.

[00:22:28]>> Laker.

[00:22:29]>> Oh, it might be a laker.

[00:22:30]>> I think it's a mediumsizer. It's not huge.

[00:22:32]>> He felt big.

[00:22:33]>> He's nice.

[00:22:34]>> Pretty big.

[00:22:37][sighs] That's my biggest laker >> here.

[00:22:47]That's not bigger than the one in Williams fork, is it? I got that.

[00:22:49]>> Oh, maybe maybe not lengthwise, but thickness and fightwise.

[00:22:57]>> Nice.

[00:22:58]>> Nice.

[00:22:58]>> You got ready.

[00:23:00]>> Yep.

[00:23:03]>> Heck yeah. That's probably Oh, mid to upper 20s.

[00:23:06]>> Yeah, that's I think that's as big.

[00:23:09]>> It's not bigger than the last one >> or the one at Willings Fork.

[00:23:18]Damn, that was strong.

[00:23:20]>> Heck yeah, dude.

[00:23:22]>> Sick.

[00:23:23]>> All right, cool.

[00:23:24]>> There's my cardio for the day.

[00:23:28]>> I don't know. That's a good sign that you got lake trout. Do it again, dude.

[00:23:31]>> That was cool.

[00:23:39]Sent that one to the freaking moon.

[00:23:42]It's gone. Like I feathered it a little bit. It's what's other side of the world.

[00:23:52]Oh, there we go.

[00:23:55]I think it's a brown.

[00:23:59]Blue Mesa humbled us on this trip. We came here expecting to be kneede in giant lake trout, but that's not how fishing goes.

[00:24:07]We found fish, and I can still say that this trip was a success. And even though we never found the true monster we were after, Blue Mesa definitely gave us a reason to come back. Once again, I'm Adam. This is Firstman Fishing. Thanks for watching. Please like and subscribe.