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Spinney Mountain Reservoir Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

South Park's trophy engine: gold-medal stillwater at 8,700 feet, where pike ambush and rainbows outgrow every neighbor.

1/5
Tough. Pick your battles.Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.
Water temp
~47 F est.
Air / High
56 / 58 F
Wind
SSW 21 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

1/5Tough. Pick your battles.Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Spinney Mountain Reservoir fishes cold and honest: earn your bites in the deep stuff. Today brings clear skies, wind SSW around 21 mph, rising pressure near 1007 hPa and a high of 58. Water sits around 47 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:40 AM-11:40 AM and 10:09 PM-12:09 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Rainbow troutGood

In cold water rainbows use the deepest pools in rivers (Vermont), so slow, deep drifts there are the usual approach; Michigan DNR notes lake rainbows are also taken with bait or by jigging through the ice.

Brown troutGood

Below 50Β°F, fish slowly through the deeper pools; in early spring on the Great Lakes, Michigan DNR notes browns are often caught inshore before other species start biting.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 43 F with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Colorado requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $57.63 for residents. What a Colorado licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with CPW before you keep anything. The season dates for Colorado, read off the agency, are on the Colorado seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

30405060JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~47 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp56 F
High / Low58 / 40 F
WindSSW 21-32 mph
Pressure1006.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain12% cloud, 57%
Sunrise / Sunset07:20 / 18:12
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~47 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Spinney Mountain Reservoir this week

The best day on Spinney Mountain Reservoir this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 3 out of 5, against 1 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” fair at 3/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Slow

Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Solunar majors
9:40 AM-11:40 AM and 10:09 PM-12:09 AM
Minor period
4:03 AM-5:03 AM
Sun
07:20 to 18:12
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 25 mph
Rain chance
57%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Spinney Mountain Reservoir: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Rainbow trout illustration

Rainbow trout

Spring and fall in most lakes; rivers fish year-round while the water stays cool

A cold-water trout native to Pacific drainages from Alaska to Baja California, now stocked in most states and fished in rivers, tailwaters and lakes. In cold water rainbows use the deepest pools in rivers (Vermont), so slow, deep drifts there are the usual approach; Michigan DNR notes lake rainbows are also taken with bait or by jigging through the ice.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Below 50Β°F, fish slowly through the deeper pools; in early spring on the Great Lakes, Michigan DNR notes browns are often caught inshore before other species start biting.

When to come: the Spinney Mountain Reservoir calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 47 F (estimated, not a reading).

30405060JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~47 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Spinney Mountain Reservoir today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 56 F, wind to 14 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 62 F, wind to 13 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 59 F, wind to 11 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Colorado requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Colorado license. Gold-medal rules: artificials only, 1 trout over 20 inches. Pike: unlimited, harvest encouraged. Check CPW.

Access

Spinney Mountain SP ramps (season-dependent opening); wakeless boating.

About this water

2,500 acres at 8,700 ft in South Park, Park County, CO. Gold-medal stillwater.

Fishing Spinney Mountain Reservoir: the full guide

The gold-medal bowl

Spinney fills a windswept South Park basin with Colorado's most productive stillwater: gold-medal designated, scud-and-chironomid rich, and famous for rainbows and cutbows that add inches faster than anywhere in the state. The season is short (ice-off to November) and the fish make every week of it count.

The ice-off sprint

Opening weeks (typically mid-April: the lake opens when ice allows) are the pilgrimage: cruising trout in the shallows eating anything stripped slowly, 20-plus-inch fish ordinary, and a line of float tubes at dawn that looks like a regatta. Callibaetis and damsel season follows into July: the dry-dropper mornings are South Park's finest.

Pike with shoulders

Northern pike (illegally introduced, enthusiastically managed) grow past 40 inches ambushing the trout the lake fattens: spring finds them in the warming bays (big streamers, wire leaders), and the state encourages harvest. A trout trip here can end with the season's most violent surprise.

High-park practicalities

The state park runs both ramps (electric-plus-oars culture: wakeless rules keep it calm), wind arrives punctually by noon (fish early, always), and the 8,700-ft weather swings hard: layers year-round. Eleven Mile and Antero sit minutes away: South Park's trifecta fishes as one trip.

Common questions

When does Spinney open?

When the ice leaves: typically mid-late April: CPW announces it days ahead. The first two weeks are Colorado stillwater at its absolute peak.

Why are there pike in Spinney?

An illegal introduction the trout now fund: 40-inch fish on trout calories. CPW wants them harvested: bring a wire leader and take dinner.

Is fishing good at Spinney Mountain Reservoir right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Tough. Pick your battles. Post-front sun and slick water make them sulk.

Nearby waters

Elevenmile Canyon Reservoir8 miAntero Reservoir14 miTarryall Reservoir17 miSouth Platte River (Deckers)30 miArkansas River30 miTwin Lakes38 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 38.9700, -105.6600 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.