Waters · Lakes · CO · Fri, Oct 30
Grand Lake water level today 8366.6 ft, falling
Bite index 6/10 — Biting — save your energy for the evening.
Also known as Grand Lake o' the Cherokees.
Worth a cast.
Built from solunar, pressure, level, wind. This water has no live gauge for every reading — see the sources below.
Today's bite windows
Sunrise 7:30 AM · sunset 6:02 PM · tomorrow's first major 4:53 AM–6:53 AM · windows on every water
Conditions right now
What this means
Grand Lake level over the last 8 days
8366.6 ft down 0.03 ft in 24 hours
That sits 50% of the way up the band it has held over the last 9 days, between 8366.57 and 8366.63 ft. Over the week it is down0.01ft.
The week ahead
| Sat | 6 | Biting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 6 | Biting | |
| Mon | 7 | Biting | |
| Tue | 7 | Biting | |
| Wed | 6 | Biting | |
| Thu | 6 | Biting | |
| Fri | 6 | Biting |
Forecast days carry solunar and the wind outlook. Pressure and gauge movement land the morning of.
Before you go
A Colorado fishing license covers this water — $44.87 a year for residents. CPW sets the rules and is the one that counts.
What it costs, and who is exempt →Nearby waters today
- 6 Biting Lake Granby CO · 9 km
- 7 Biting Horsetooth Reservoir CO · 67 km
- 7 Biting Clear Creek CO · 73 km
- 7 Biting Jackson Lake WY · 564 km
- 5 Picky Gull Lake MN · 1150 km
Questions people ask about Grand Lake
Answered from the same readings as the rest of this page. Where we have no basis for an answer, there is no entry — spot-by-spot local knowledge is not something we can claim for Grand Lake.
- Is it worth fishing Grand Lake today?
- 6 out of 10 — biting. Worth a cast. The strongest stretch is 3:51 AM–5:51 AM. That number is worked out fresh each morning from the solunar windows, the pressure trend, the water level.
- What time should you fish Grand Lake?
- Today's major windows run 3:51 AM–5:51 AM and 4:23 PM–6:23 PM, with minor windows at 12:22 PM–1:22 PM and 9:28 PM–10:28 PM. Sunrise is 7:30 AM and sunset 6:02 PM. A major landing on first or last light is the stretch worth setting an alarm for.
- What is the water temperature at Grand Lake?
- No gauge on Grand Lake measures it, so this is an estimate: roughly 40°F, worked out from the 7-day mean of air temperature at NOAA weather station KGNB (Granby-Grand County Airport). Checked against the lakes that do have a thermometer, that method lands within about 4.5°F of the real reading and was off by 8.3°F at worst. Treat it as a ballpark, not a measurement — and note the bite index above ignores it entirely, because an error that size would move the verdict as often as it would fix it.
- What is the water level at Grand Lake right now?
- 8366.6 ft, the reading for October 29 from the Grand Lake gauge run by the USBR, which publishes one value a day. Over 24 hours it is down 0.03 ft.
- Are water levels rising or falling at Grand Lake?
- Holding steady. The lake is down 0.03 ft in 24 hours and down 0.01 ft over the week. Over the last 9 days it has held between 8366.57 and 8366.63 ft. Every figure here is a difference between two gauge readings, not a forecast — what the level does next depends on rain and on what the dam releases.
- Can you eat the fish you catch in Grand Lake?
- That is a health question, and it is answered officially rather than by us. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment publishes the fish consumption advisory covering these waters, where a baseline mercury guidance covers every water, with added PFOS advisories at Barr Lake, Runyon Lake and Chatfield Reservoir. Read it before you keep a meal — we give no eating advice.
- Do you need a licence to fish Grand Lake?
- Yes. A Colorado fishing license covers this water, required from age 16. CPW sets the rules and is the one that counts.
- What size fish can you keep in Colorado?
- It depends on the species, and several have slot limits rather than a simple minimum. Open to harvest today: trout, arctic char, grayling and mountain whitefish, kokanee salmon, walleye, saugeye and sauger, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. Seasons here change mid-year by agency order, so the status is re-checked every morning.
Trout, Arctic char, grayling and mountain whitefish limits · Kokanee salmon limits · Walleye, saugeye and sauger limits · Largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass limits · Check a length against the rules
Where these numbers come from
- Solunar computed 8:44 AM
- NOAA KGNB Granby-Grand County Airport 7:55 AM
- NOAA BOU gridded forecast 12:46 AM
- USBR Grand Lake daily reservoir operations Oct 29
Colorado's largest natural lake, part of the Colorado-Big Thompson project; the Bureau of Reclamation reads it once a day. A different water from the Oklahoma reservoir of the same name that Wave 2 could not find a gauge for. No temperature sensor.
No one types these in by hand. If a source goes quiet, the page says so instead of showing you yesterday.