You’ve probably run across a positive fishing report before that really pumped up your fishing fever. Then, after you headed to the lake and fished a couple of days without much luck, you began cussing the info you received.

Was the guy lying to you, or did they just stop biting?

We've been asking several fishermen, tackle store owners, guides and resort owners how the fish have been biting as additional information when we're updating the fishing reports presented here in the grandfishingreport.com web site.

Here are some typical responses:

1. “They were biting yesterday, but don't know about today.”

2. “We caught 50 last Tuesday, then went back to the same place and couldn't even get a bite.”

3. “The fish virus has killed most of the fish and they’re all dead." (Of course, the next guy you talk to says he’s never had a better day than he had today.)

4. “They’re biting now, but I’m afraid to give anyone a good report because when they get here the fish will stop biting.”

GrandFishingReport.com will try to be as honest as possible in reporting what we are told, but we use professional guides who are on the water almost every day as our reporters, so we’ll report what we are doing more than relying on third-hand reports.

We have an advantage, in that we're reporting from personal experience. It is a difficult decision to report from three different fishermen who didn’t catch anything, or from the experience of your morning guide trip when we loaded the boat. I will probably report the bite is good, but you still have to know where and how. Not anyone, including guides, catch them every time they go out.

Fishing reports are a good starting point, and I use them when I go to other lakes myself. However, some of my best trips have come when I had the least confidence at the start, and some of the worst trips have been when I knew we were just going to “slay ‘em”.

People ask me, "When is the best time to fish for..." (a particular species). 

My answer is, "I've only been on Grand for 40 years and I don’t have a clue what time of year is best. You just have to go fishing and not worry about time of year."

People have preconceived ideas that you can't catch Black Bass in the winter, or Crappie in the summer. We have experienced that some times the fish are biting just great at these times, and at other times not so great. You just have to try for yourself.

It is good to get all the information you can before you go to a lake, but don’t get discouraged by a bad report. Usually, the person giving you the report just didn’t know where they were biting at that particular time or the most effective method to use at that particular time to catch them.

We’ll try to get you the best information possible. Remember, we’re on the lake daily. Try to use what we’re telling you and hopefully you’ll have success.

The fish don’t always do what they're supposed to do all of the time, and nobody knows it all. The best method to catch fish is just to go.

You can't catch anything unless you keep your hook wet!