Loveland Fishing Club Blog

OUTDOOR BUDDIES TERRYALL ICE FISHING TRIP Saturday February 2 We will depart from Sams on 34 at 6AM probably stop at McDonalds for a snack.  We should get to the Res about 9AM. We should get back later in the day on Saturday. Our role will be to fish and help others with fishing so bring some fishing stuff.  Larry just bought a new ION  auger we probably wont need to drill holes.  They will provide lunch, they have a house right next to the lake I assume Headquarters.  There are Northern Pike in the lake as well as trout.   Those expressing interest at this point     Dave Boyle      Tom Miller     Norm Englebrech     Keith Gentry    John Guinup    I am sure I have missed some. If you are interested please contact me at 970-218-3645 or emai at davnanboy@aol.com One of the perks of this trip is to get to see their set up at the lake.  Larry has offe...

Pyramid Lake, World Record Cutthroat Trout Join JAX in Fort Collins to learn all about fly fishing in the "Home of the World's Largest Cutthroat Trout" from the CEO of Pyramid Fly Co., Captain Robert Hagerty. "Capt Rob" is an expert fly fisherman with over 30 years of guiding and fly shop experience. Learn everything you need to know to fish in Pyramid Lake, including: History of Pyramid Lake in Reno Nevada, the "Home of the World's Largest Cutthroat Trout" Unique facts about the Pilot Peak Cutthroat Trout How to fly fish and the use of conventional gear at Pyramid Lake How to travel to Pyramid Lake from Denver The talk will be at  JAX Outdoor Gear Fort Collins  on Saturday, Jan 26 th  from 10am-12pm.

Okay, Dan Barker, who won the 2017 contest, was a close second, with a thumping 27.5-inch walleye. That makes him runner-up in the Loveland Fishing Club's 2018 Angler of the Year. Bill Prater's 24-inch cutbow, yanked from the frigid ice-out water of South Delaney Buttes, was 109 percent of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Master Angler criteria for the species. Dan's was 3 1/2 inches longer, but that only added up to 107 percent of qualifying criteria. (In fairness, he did win in 2017 with a big largemouth. (In kind of a rut, though; that fish also came from Boyd). Wayne Baranczyk finished in third place with the most unusual entry of 2018 a 12 1/2-inch grayling from Lake Joe Wright, taken during the club's annual trek to Ranger Lakes. So the 2019 competition is underway!  Get your entries to Jim Roode; he's been tracking fish since the tourney began in 2014. Bill's winning cutbow Dan and walleye

Let’s get out there before the snow. Meet west of the boat ramp on the northeast corner of the lake at 9 a.m. If you take the road just west of the marina building you can drive right down to the lake. Some will be fishing the bottom with Powerbaits and such, or casting from shore. Wayne says he plans to bring his float tube, as he’s been known to do in the past. That boy’s tough.

Jim Baxter will serve a year as club Vice President, then assume the role as President in 2020. As he settles into the new role, here is a little background we might not learn on the water… I was born in Los Angeles sometime during the last century. I grew up in Compton, CA, digging worms out of the Los Angeles River bed to be used for fishing in local parks for crappie and bluegill, and I haven’t eaten one since. I advanced to fishing for trout with my Boy Scout troop in the local mountains. 2019 LFC Vice President Jim Baxter      After high school I expanded my fishing adventures as a member of the U.S. Army in Alaska during the Cold War. My fishing repertoire now included salmon from the Kenair River. Upon my return to civilization, I joined the Los Angeles Police Department where I excelled in riot control, professional handcuffing and advanced donut eating for the next 25 years.   During this time I landed more criminals than fish.    ...

By unanimous vote, Jim Baxter Tuesday was named the club's vice president for 2019. He will serve a year under new President Jim Visger, our 2018 VP. 2019 President Jim Visger Barbra Ding will continue as club Treasurer; Christine Weiss as Secretary and Norm Englebrecht as Member at Large. Visger succeeds Dave Johnson, who received a rousing round of applause from membership at Tuesday's meeting for his service to the club. As immediate past president, he also serves as Parliamentarian. Meeting times Chilson Center, Loveland, 2 p.m. on the 3rd Tuesday of the month Board meetings 9 a.m. on Monday before each general meeting Friday breakfast, 7 a.m. Fridays, Perkins Restaurant, Loveland 2019 club leadership: top left Jim Baxter, Norm Englebrecht, Jim Visger, Rick Palmieri, Jim Roode;  front left Dave Johnson, John Gwinnup, Barbra Ding, Christine Weiss Join us on Facebook  ("Secret" page limited to club members)   S end a note to  ...

Don’t forget - board gets together at 9 a.m. on Monday before a general meeting. And this month’s general meeting is 2 p.m. Tuesday.

By Bill Prater (Bill is now writing as a Field Editor for http://fishexplorer.com )  I wouldn’t normally rub Tom or Dave or Dan’s nose in it, but there is a fatal flaw or two behind an angler's determination to measure (or worse, to eat) whatever they catch:    For one, when success is defined by size or taste, or limited by the statutes on legal harvest, you rule out meaningful pursuit of 75 or 80 percent of perfectly good prey in any particular body of water. Also, when you troll for walleye in 30 feet of water with heavy gear, the best that can happen is you’ll catch an eating-size walleye or carp. Meanwhile I’m giggling like a newborn as I locate school after school of naive bluegill, or beds full of horny bass just under the legal limit. And though I don’t get after them as often as I’d like, there is nothing more satisfying than luring a tiny brook trout out of an honest to God brook. My point here, and I do have one, is there is satisfaction in landin...

By Bill Prater, now writes for Fish Explorer.com,    https://www.fishexplorer.com/co/blog.asp Truth be told, I was a much better fisherman at age 11 than at 30 or 40.  I wasn’t so much an adult on a downhill spiral as an adult distracted by grown-up responsibilities. As a long-time retiree, I have evolved beyond all those, if you catch my drift. As others in the Loveland Fishing Club can attest, over the course of 15 years or so I have regained many of the remarkable angling skills of my youth. I also regularly meet new club members who long to get back into fishing, but can’t quite remember how. It can be frustrating, but not demoralizing, if you go about things with a youthful, sporting attitude. At 11, I had no idea what was supposed to attract fish, and my brother and I were limited to whatever questionable gear Mom and Dad made available. We were blessed with free time, though, and willing to try just about anything to trick a fish. I chose to use that inval...

Set your 2019 calendars for the third Tuesday of each month, for the general club meeting at Chilson Center. We'll be electing officers for the year. New members Dennis & Jeanne Carder, Terry & Linda Gibbons, John and Lou Gen Nuspl, Jim Kucera (returning), Sam Davis and Anthony & Dawn Mancina have been added to our distribution list for the club blog, http://lovelandfishingclub.blogspot.com . Now, if I were Tom or maybe Norm, I'd be telling you that if you did not receive this notice, you should contact me to get added to the distribution list. But I'm not, so hopefully you've been added to the app that automatically forwards all blog postings to your e-mail. Welcome.

Having conquered or at least visited some of the major lakes of the northern Colorado Rockies, the club is headed for the legendary prairie pothole Laramie Lakes next week in search of thumping big trout. Norm Engelbrecht and Dave Boyle are leading the caravan north, leaving about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday for a day trip to the lakes just southwest of Laramie. The wind can sometimes be more than ideal, but the reward for an occasional gust is the promise of some serious size trout. We'll have our choice of several lakes, and we'll probably decide after a stop for out-of-state licenses at the West Laramie Fly Shop. For details and to discuss carpool arrangements, contact Norm at 970-85-0566; or Dave by e-mail. Click here.

We've got a second ice fishing excursion planned for Thursday:  Norm Engelbrecht and a family member or two are headed to Red Feather, expecting to hit the ice around 8:30. If you'd like to join them, drive up on your own and check the ice on the west side. The Boyd Lake day trip is still set for about 9 a.m. Thursday in the Marina Inlet area.

Okay, the ice has been a bit dicey, but there have been folks out on the Marina Inlet and this New Year's freeze should firm things up nicely. And it's supposed to be balmy Thursday. Let's meet around 9 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 3 in the parking lot on the west side of the inlet; the lake has been open east of the boat ramp.  There is a daily fee for acess. If you don't have an annual tag we can carpool over from my house about 9 a.m. It's 1915 Pikes Peak Drive. Click  here  to send me an e-mail so I'll know to expect you.