Getting There

To reach Granite Lake, park at the Grouse Lake Trailhead. The trailhead is located near the dam at Upper Blue Lake, located in the Blue Lakes Recreation Area near Markleeville.

The Hike

The Granite Lake trail is actually referred to as the Grouse Lake Trail and is very easy, all the way up to Granite Lake. At just under two miles, and an elevation gain of under 700 feet, expect to see a lot of visitors, even during the week. Many are day hikers trying to test their luck fishing at Granite Lake. The hike relatively shaded and is well marked and maintained. Camping spots are easily found on the western end.

The Fishing

Granite Lake is a put-and-grow fishery in Alpine County near the Blue Lakes Recreation Area. It has been approved for future stocking.

Granite Lake offers fair to good fishing for Golden and Cutthroat trout. When I approached the lake I took note of a great number of bait fish active next to shore. Granite Lake has excellent hiding places for small fish under undercut banks and submerged structures close to shore.

I Started fishing the west end of the lake, close to the trail and landed a nice Golden before I could even get my tent set up. That fish took my inflated crawler presentation. I decided to put on a Panther Martin with Rainbow Trout coloration and worked the entire south side, fancasting and using a variety of retrievals. I tried slow retrieves along the bottom and fast retrieves closer to the surface. This produced nothing, not even a bite.

I went back to worms and landed and released a 16 inch Cutthroat that looked like he could use a few more meals. During the late afternoon, Granite Lake calmed and the fishing slowed down. I waited until evening to take advantage of the evening bite.

Upon evening I pulled out my fly rod and began tossing out my usual Green Humpy with Hare's Ear Nymph dropper and was able to catch the attention of a large Cutthroat working the western shallows. While I was unable to bring him all the way in to shore, I did manage to land and release two more small Goldens who struck on the nymph dropper.

Ultimately, Granite Lake proved to be more exciting than I had expected and makes an for excellent fishery despite the constant pressure due to close trailhead proximity.