Grindstone Lake Fishing Reports

[SpecialK]

BEAUTIFUL morning for it Moose. Wish I was there too! Let us know how you did.

[SpecialK]

Tire guage from this afternoon:

[OnAFly]

Great picture! How busy does this lake get? Is it canoeable or am I going to be dodging wakes all day?

[SpecialK]

I saw a canoe yesterday and there is a bible camp on the lake that canoes it. Because the lake is so deep and cold year round, I don't think there are many water skiiers and jet skis. There are a couple pleasure boaters but it's not the norm, mostly people fishing.

[reinhard1]

there are people that do go water skiing there in mid summer months, but are people that live on the lake. the busiest i have seen it was on hollidays mostly and again by residents of the lake that i can see. i have had my canoe on there a lot when the landing was shallow along with my 12 foot boat. like SpecialK said the Bible camp and the people at the Audobon property do canoe there. there are also some that kayak there. like everywhere weekdays are best. hardly anyone there. i have been the only one on the lake many times then.

you could troll with your canoe or use the flyrod when they are surfacing. also in the summer month you could fish the shorelines for smallmouths. good luck.

[reinhard1]

thanks for the picture. that's what i like to see. i have seen it a few times when the dock was under water. anything above the half way mark on the back tire is good news. i appreciate the picture. good luck.

[Moose-Hunter]

Nice pic!! Hopefully, with all the rain lately, it'll stay high for a while. Sorry guys. Never made it out last week. I'm planning an escape to The Grind again this week. With it being already short and not much going on... Confidence is high!!

[SpecialK]

We got a total of about 5" of rain over the weekend. I don't see the tire guage changing this week. The ground up in the area is so water logged it's like walking on a sponge.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, no kidding. My sump has been on every 30 mins for a week now. I want to mow before my Rainy trip, but there no chance of that with the weather we've had.

[reinhard1]

ya, the landing should be good to go for awhile with the rain we have had. this cold front will slow things down for a couple of days i think. things should pick up in a couple of days. i think the rainbows will still be near the surface out deep and the browns just a tad deeper and on shoreline breaks and the humps. good luck.

[Moose-Hunter]

Tire Gauge as of May 31, 2012:

As you can see, the creek is REALLY flowing right now due to all the rain. The main lake is way up as you can imagine. Needless to say, launching my rather large, deep-vee boat was not a problem. Be advised: The current at the dock is a bit strong. Have a good hold on your boat or LOCK your line to the bow eyelet. It it gets away from you.... It'll be out of reach VERY quickly.

All the little in-flowing drainages, creeks and streams are also really going! I'd wager at least half the docks on the lake are either submerged or will be in the next day or two.

Fishing: I wish it was as robust as the flowing water. Was a great day weather wise. Too bad the fish didn't think so. Caught three species today. A small perch. A even smaller hammer handle pike and a VERY nice smallie. Blanked on trout though.

I'm beat.... Bed time for this ol' guy.

[reinhard1]

thanks for the report Moose. i haven't seen it this high for awhile although over the years i have seen the dock under water a couple of times but that's over a time span of 40 years. i suppose a lot of food is being washed in the lake from all sides. but i think that cold front had a part in the slow trout action as well. i have been on that lake when i got zero fish and that was fishing all day long. going tommorow morning sometime with the dog and a friend. thanks for the picture as well. good luck.

[reinhard1]

went out today with Mnfisher [Jim] and my pup Lucy. the trout just were not having any of our stuff. we trolled spoons near the surface which normaly works but not a hit. we switched to deep diving cranks and we had one fish on for awhile and came off. that crank goes down to 18 feet. there still was a north wind going on. if i had an exuse i would blame it on that.

we tried the shallows for crappies and did manage 7 10 inchers which all were males. even the crappies were not in there in numbers yet. there were sunnies in the shallows. had a pike bite off and some great sounds by the loons. it was a nice day and enjoyed my time out with Jim and Lucy. good luck.

[Mnfisher]

The worse day of fishing is better than the best day at work, but yesterday was far from the poorest bite I've had. The crappies that we caught yesterday were beautiful dark fish. Thanks for the tips Reinhard and hope we can do it again sometime. Lucy was a great fishing partner too! Jim

[reinhard1]

just playing with trying to post pictures again. this was last year. a few rainbows, ended up with five. caught right at the boat landing when the water was up [last year]. never had to put the boat in the lake. a piece of crawler under a bobber. good luck.

[nwhunter]

Might be fighting the cold front, but going to head down today to see what might be around. Will be targeting Rainbows and Browns, and maybe northerns if I get desperate. Will post an update when I return.

[reinhard1]

i'll be looking forward to the report. check out the "tire gauge" as well. thanks. good luck.

[kaine]

has anyone been up there in the last week we're heading up tommorow.

[reinhard1]

i'm heading up there Saturday depending on the weather. the boat landing should be in good shape with all this rain. let us know how you do. good luck.

[kaine]

went up today we had 2 boats up there with 2 people in each boat and come home with 1 rainbow and 2 browns. it was a pretty slow day, no shallow activty so we had to go a little deeper.

the water is about 2 inches above the tires.

[reinhard1]

thanks for the report [including the tire gauge}. in normal years rainbows at this time could still be taken near surface but because of the early spring i think they are in the deeper like you said. i'm going to try vertical jigging this weekend while checking my depth finder. probably with blade baits and also jig and minnow combo. probably check for smallmouth and panfish as well. thanks again. good luck.

[reinhard1]

tire gauge says the tires are under the water still. no problem getting out. still for first timers, keep that motor up until you get out of the shallow zone. my 115 merc took me out just fine.

if i had a slower day fishing i dont know when. for trout we tried trolling shallow, medium, and vertical jigged as well while drifting deep water. the smelt seemed to be in the 30 to 40 foot levels. jigged with blade baits, jig with minnow, and jig with gulp plastics. not a hit. should have brought my portable downrigger but i dont know if that would have helped.

casted the areas for smallmouth with spinnerbaits, and nothing. tried for crappies in my usual spots, not one. finaly tried for sunnies just for some action and that was even slow. they were all over the shorelines. so what's to blame? dont realy know but the wind was from the south the day before and turned from the north all day yesterday. the only thing that hit was a small pike. it was a nice day though. good luck.

[reinhard1]

here's a couple of pics i had to scan to get on here. still working on getting posting of pics down.

the top pic is an old one as you can see. who says theres no crappies of size in the grind. this is one of two i had mounted. this was the late 70's i believe. should realy get in the habit of dating pics.

the bottom one takes us back on the ice. this kind of shows the size of the smelt on the grind. bigger ones we smoked and the smaller one we fry. good luck.

[DRH1175]

I was thinking of hitting the lake this week as I have the week off. With this heat how deep will I have to fish? Any ideas on what to try?

[reinhard1]

when i was there last week the trout were about 25 to 35 feet down following the smelt which where about the same depth and a little deeper. i think the colder water isn't far from the surface. i found that out one time in mid summer jumping in the lake near the middle on a hot day. i felt the sudden coolness on my feet as i was going down.

if you dont have a downrigger i would go with verticle jigging while watching your electronics. the last time i was there the fishing was non existant for us. smallmouth are in the shallows all around the lake with panfish also. we had north winds at the time and conditions are better now. hopefully you have a little breeze out there with the warmer temps. if the trout dont cooperate try the shallow flat areas in 5 to 10 feet for bass on the southwest side and the southeast side down from the audobon point. good luck.

[reinhard1]

here are some more more pics from the past and recent from Grindstone.

my brothers buddy holding a nice brown he got vertical jigging. an oldy but goody from the 70's of my brother with some nice crappies. yes that is the way the grind landing used to look. notice the water flow in the background. the water lever was very high at the time. we got these and some trout trolling with rappalas in front of the landing that day. we used to throw crawlers out from the landing and catch brookies and rainbows back then. and a more recent pic of a smallmouth from the grind. good luck.

[Moose-Hunter]

Any NEW news from The Grind? How about the tire gauge... Creek still flowing good?

The new Pro V needs to be introduced.

[reinhard1]

the guy i know on the lake is down south again so i dont know nothing. we have had rain but some dry spell too so hopefully someone can let us know about the landing and the tire gauge. good luck.

[BRULEWADER]

water is low.

[reinhard1]

thanks, appreciate it. good luck.