Loveland Fishing Club Blog

The club traditionally volunteers as a group to help Colorado Youth Outdoors with its annual Maverick fundraiser at Sylvan Dale Ranch west of Loveland.  This year's event will be held on Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4, and most club members will be helping on Friday, when need is greatest. To volunteer, contact Dave Boyle, davnanboy@aol.com , 970-223-7351. Also, in advance of the Maverick a Sylvan Dale Ranch breakfast and tour is set for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 3. Cost is $10 per person, and spouses are invited as well.   Volunteers run the sporting clay shooting and do other things like parking assistance.  Traditionally, a number of Loveland Fishing Club members volunteer, some as a group to help with a shooting station.

Join us for this hands on class and learn how to get the most out of your Sonar/GPS Unit! The class will be led by Fishful Thinker guide and tournament angler, Dan Swanson and Fishing With Bernie pro, Bernie Keefe. Dan and Bernie are members of the Lowrance prostaff. This will be a 3 hour hands on class that covers: – Installation of the sonar/GPS unit for optimal results. – How traditional sonar displays on the unit and why. – How you can use color to interpret the screen. – How to interpret downscan and sidescan images and how to use traditional, downscan and sidescan together. – It will also cover using GPS with all of the different displays and mapping. Date: Saturday, March 30th Time: 10:00AM – 1:00PM OR 2:00PM – 5:00PM Location: SCHEELS Training Center Cost: $25 Registration (Max of 20 people per class): https://bit.ly/2XZkoEM Sonar/GPS for Beginner to Advanced Users Classes **Units will be provided** All attendees will receive a SCHEELS Gif...

C ome join us for a Spring Fly Fishing Festival! Learn new techniques from local fly tying experts, build your fly fishing network, save big on fly fishing gear, and enter for a chance to win great prizes! * **SEMINAR SCHEDULE*** 10:00AM – 11:00AM Colorado Youth Outdoors – Youth Intro to Fly Tying Class *Registration Required. Please register at: https://bitly.com 11:30AM – 12:30PM Wayne Carlson (SCHEELS Expert) – Intro to Fly Fishing. 1:00PM – 2:00PM Rick Takahashi – Midge Fly Fishing Seminar. 2:30 – 3:30PM Domingo Rodriguez – Euro Nymphing 101. 4:00PM – 5:00PM Dave Mosnik – Float Tube Fishing on Lakes: Trout and Warm Water. *Seminars will be in our Training Center located on the second floor near the fishing shop/second floor bathrooms (go in the west doors, turn right past the registers, go up the stairs and to the right).

There's still ice in the high country for the stalwarts in the club, but it's time to begin planning warm water expeditions for spring and summer. (Don't forget the planned 10:30 a.m. outing Wednesday, set for the north shore of Carter but possibly involving a reset because of a troubling ice cap over about three-fourths of the lake. Should we do Lon Hagler instead? Anyone can suggest a trip; you just have to persuade other anglers and ideally take the lead in setting dates, finding out housing options and other details of a good trip. The same goes for local outings; just let the rest of us know what you're planning to do and when. Send Bill Prater or Rick Palmieri a note and we'll post something on the blog. See Club President Jim Visger,  visgermnj@aol.com for details on plans to date, particularly for overnights. He'll have signup sheets at monthly meetings, and you can pigeonhole him at Friday breakfast. H ere's what we've decided to date...

Tom Miller and I took a quick tour of area lakes this morning, starting with Boyd. By 8:45 about a half dozen boats were already on the water taking advantage of opening day for the ramp and aquatic nuisance and inspectors. (The main ramp was still closed and the dock wasn't in, but you can launch at the jet ski ramp.) The lake's clear and mostly ice free. The ponds by my house, Heinrici and Glendoll, were iced over as we left but just about totally clear when we returned about 1 p.m. Lon Hagler's was about 50-50, with a few anglers from the bank. At Flatiron, the north half was still pretty solidly iced, and there was ice out 10 to 15 feet from shore on the south side. We may need to rethink the planned Carter Lake expedition Wednesday. There's some open water on the north end but about 85 percent of the lake carries a pretty solid looking white ice cap. Tom visited Horsetooth on Thursday and said most of the entire lake is iced over, which is darned rare. (Carte...

Signs of Spring are everywhere, if you just overlook those reports of "biggest blizzard on record," and maybe that lingering ice cap on most ponds. Water levels are supposed to be rising at Carter and Horsetooth, the weather forecast for the nextweek looks almost balmy, and most of us have a serious case of Spring Fever. So, let's go fishing . In fact, let's go help Bill launch his new pontoon boat! Here's the plan: Larimer County is not going to open its boat ramps until at least April 1, which means that between now and then, anything you don't have to trailer to the lake will have Carter all to itself. Doesn't get much better than that. 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Carter So let's hit the north end of Carter about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, allowing the ice cap to melt a little more. I'll bring my new pontoon, and craftily row out to just about a half a cast length beyond the reach of Ray Park and Tom Boesch's Power Bait from shore. And we'l...

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is kicking off the season with a day of fishing-related demonstrations at St. Vrain State Park. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and includes demos and information on aquatic nuisance species, boat safety, basics of fishing and cleaning and cooking of fish. -

Colorado and Kansas resolve 40-year deadline with the signing of a historic agreement to provide a new source of water in John Martin Reservoir HASTY, Colo.  Thanks to a historic agreement between members of the Colorado-Kansas Arkansas River Compact Administration, John Martin Reservoir State Park will benefit from water transfers that will maintain a permanent pool for fishery and recreation purposes. John Martin Reservoir is a multimillion-dollar fishery and source of water recreation, camping, hiking and wildlife watching. Extensive collaboration between a variety of agencies means a consistent flow of water into the reservoir, which will save money, reduce the risk of fish loss and provide more consistent boating opportunities at the park.  New Colorado Parks Hang Pass New for 2019, our annual hang tag pass allows you the flexibility to bring any of your family vehicles to our 41 state parks. Annual hangtag passes are associated with an individual p...

Charlie Higgs has been recovering nicely from a recurrence of health problems, waiting for a reasonable spring thaw and organizing an effort to improve fishing in Fort Collins Natural Areas ponds. He's also been declared the Club's 2019 Toughest Angler. The following just appeared on the http://fishexplorer.com website. By Bill Prater  I used to be one of the younger members of the Loveland Fishing Club. I’m, uh, not anymore. But I still remain in awe of buddies willing to try any darned thing when it comes to fishing, regardless of obstacles like a heart attack, scheduled joint replacements or potential frostbite trying to ice fish Lake Grandby when it’s minus-23 degrees. Every year or two, members of the Loveland Fishing Club update ourselves on “ Who is the Club’s toughest angler?” It amounts to a review of questionable behavior that bewilders spouses and gives club members something to talk about over coffee. The very first was inspired by a cranky old bachelor nam...