Fishing at Geneva Lake, Gunnison County, Colorado

• Overview

  Out in Gunnison County, Colorado, sits Geneva Lake. The country here is mixed forest. This is a pocket water of some 19 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. Head to Snowmass Village, 11 miles away, for anything you forgot. Then Aspen, 15 miles, and Crested Butte, 16 miles. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Geneva Lake

  No published figure covers depth, so learn it as you fish. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. Across Gunnison County, recorded fish include rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, cutthroat trout and black-spotted cutthroat trout. Take it as the county picture rather than a promise for this water. Geneva Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 11°F to 50°F. The year splits cleanly: hard water, then open water. Break-up comes around early June, and the run that follows is short and strong. Break-up sits around early June on average, with the water closing again about early November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. That is the shape of the year on Geneva Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  Our records carry no access rule either way. Mapping shows a campsite some 100 yards from the water. For the trout, small spinners and a box of nymphs cover both approaches. Rules for this water may differ from the county norm. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. Siberia Lake, 1.7 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. Nothing on Geneva Lake should be assumed from this page alone.