Loveland Fishing Club Blog

 Those who stayed home and drank on New Year's Eve missed a great day on the ice at Red Feather Thursday. Okay, the trout weren't big but they were plentiful, including rainbows, cutbows, browns and what we think were tiger trout. Even the wind cooperated. Happy New Year! Wayne Baranczyk with a double. It LOOKS like he was using Gulp minnows...

  Dec. 30, 2020 DENVER – Beginning Jan. 1, a $1 high-use fee will be added to the cost of daily vehicle passes at Lake Pueblo, Golden Gate Canyon, Staunton, Castlewood Canyon, Roxborough and Highline state parks.  These parks join Cherry Creek, Chatfield, Boyd Lake and Eldorado Canyon state parks as areas with high-use fees. The high-use fee at these parks is necessary to mitigate the extra expenses and resource strain associated with a high level of use by visitors.  These parks have seen a huge increase in visitation numbers. In a year of record park visitation, record drownings and increased protocols for COVID-19, many of our high-use parks are in dire need of maintenance funds. CPW has relied on its volunteers in this year of unprecedented use at state parks for trash pick-up, extra patrols, and programs like the Trail Ambassadors at Cheyenne Mountain State Park to help with the increased demand.  At popular spots ...

Fellow Club members: following is a kinda long Christmas letter to my nephews in Florida; thought you might find some of it interesting reading, or something you might want to share with kids in your family. This is highly secretive stuff that I normally wouldn't even share with Dennis or Wayne, but it IS Christmas after all. (Also, one of the great things about this club is, by the time it's warm enough for any of you to use these recommendations, most will have forgotten about it anyway.) Merry Christmas! Bill    Dear nephews, Okay, so your favorite uncle hears you fellows are getting into fishing more seriously these days, so I’m sharing more of my favorite Ned Rig baits and advice based on how they work here in Colorado. I’m sending along a few bigger soft and hard plastic baits - spinner baits and crankbaits - because being young you may prefer to fish faster and use heavier gear, and these should work in Florida as they do here. (You may also find spinner baits work we...

 I’m not saying I’m ready to get out there yet, but half a dozen anglers were huddled around holes through the ice on the marina inlet Sunday. I didn’t see any holes bigger than the ones made by Norm’s auger... Anyone thinking about the Laramie lakes or somewhere before the holiday? Maybe Tuesday?

  North Michigan Reservoir is part of State Forest State Park WALDEN, Colo. - As reservations begin to open for the 2021 camping season, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is reminding visitors to State Forest State Park that a contractor will begin rehabilitation on the dam at North Michigan Reservoir during the month of May. The dam at the popular fishing and camping reservoir is being upgraded to improve safety for downstream properties. The work will require low water levels and may result in disturbances due to noisy construction equipment. Campsites immediately adjacent to the dam will be closed during the work, however other campers may experience disturbances from construction work. Generators, pumps, and heavy equipment will be active during the daytime hours. Some nighttime generator noise is also a possibility during times when pumps are required to remove water from the construction area around the clock.    The 60-foot high dam at North Michigan Reservoir was or...

  As the ice on lakes and ponds gets thicker across the ice fishing belt, our ice-fishing tactics should change for more ice fishing success. Early in the year, when the ice was thin, a more stationary approach was usually more productive. Fish under thin ice can detect movement better, and movement from above can spook them. The angler that sits on a good spot and doesn’t move much will often be more successful early in the ice season. As the ice gets thicker and snow gets deeper on top of the ice, an angler’s movement isn’t as much of a consideration. Thicker ice and deeper snow on the ice limit a fish’s ability to see what’s going on above. An angler’s movements probably won’t spook the fish much if at all. For the next few weeks, even until the end of the ice fishing season, the anglers that move the most will increase their odds for ice fishing success. Now is when some of the most successful anglers on the ice implement a plan that they often refer to as “trolling on ice”, or...

 Doug Money will be sworn in as our new club president on the Tuesday, Jan. 19 Zoom meeting, after a year as vice president. But according to outgoing President Jim Baxter, we're still needing a club member to serve as VP. Whether you're an old timer who's been with the club since the beginning in late 2003, or an old timer who's just joined, we need you consider running for office.  We select a vice president each year who serves alongside the president, then assumes the top position in January of the following year. That gives that person experience with leading the board, setting up monthly general meetings and establishing the general direction of the club with things like fishing trips, volunteerism and general merry-making. Over the years, the club has become a leader in outdoor projects here in Larimer County, known for public service and enviable fishing skills. Questions? Contact Jim or  Doug.

 It's time to put pandemics behind us, and at least meet online. The Loveland Fishing Club Board met via Zoom Monday and scheduled a Zoom meeting for Tuesday, 2:30 p.m. Jan. 19. Details on how to log on, to come.  Meanwhile, here's a Youtube video on joining a meeting for the first time. The basic idea is, someone will send you a note with a link to the meeting. (First time user, you may just complicate things a bit if you try to sign up for a Zoom id and download the software. Just click on the darned link. My nephew's 7-year-old does it) Click here for tutorial:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isp3qPeQ0E President Jim Baxter says other meetings will be scheduled soon, but for now this will be the first general meeting since this damned pandemic began. Meetings of the board have been set for 9:30 a.m. on the following dates:  Monday, Jan. 18 Monday, Feb. 15 Monday, March 15 Monday, April 19

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is reporting that an unnamed angler fell through thin ice Monday morning. He or she got out safely, though, as it apparently happened in less than 5 foot of water. As the old saying goes, "The Ice Has Been Broken!" CPW reported the ice was only about 1 1/2 inches thick at the time, and used the opportunity to remind folks that safe ice is typically at least 4 inches. Here's Norm with a sample of what we're after... Dowdy ice is supposed to be about 7 inches! Meanwhile, at least one report from Dowdy Lake puts the ice at about 7 inches there. Should be perfect. Let's go ice fishing! Let's meet near the boat ramp on the southwest corner about 8:30 a.m. and decide who walks on the ice first. I recommend our Coast Guard rep, Wayne Baranczyk. Questions or protests? Drop me a note at billjohnp@gmail.com

  A Colorado River cutthroat trout suffering from BKD. Photo by John Drennan DENVER, Colo. - While many fish diseases have declined in recent years due to good management practices, cases of bacterial kidney disease (BKD) seem to be increasing in the western U.S. The disease is caused by the bacteria Renibacterium salmoninarum , which is common in cold water streams and lakes. The disease is characterized by the presence of grayish-white abscesses in the kidney and can cause death in both wild and hatchery trout. After negative tests in the Colorado fish hatchery system for 18 years, in 2015 four state hatcheries, one federal hatchery, and a wild broodstock lake tested positive for the disease. An outbreak at one hatchery cost over $2.1 million and impacted fish management statewide with the loss of over 675,000 sport fish. In 2017, a statewide sampling effort led by CPW Research Scientist Dan Kowalski found the bacteria was common in trout habitat statewide, but generally occurr...

If you have time on your hands these days, waiting for either warmer weather or weather that’ll put a proper ice cap on your favorite lake, you might want to play with Google Earth Pro. It’s free; it’s a bit complicated to use when you get started, but it's manageable and will give you views of favorite fishing spots that you can’t find anywhere else. They've added updated images for northern Colorado, taken in June and October... Check it out; if you like it, with a little patience you can learn to use it. If you're puzzled, drop me a note at billjohnp@gmail.com . We've talked about this before; see articles from last February "Finding your secret fishing hole" Parts one and two Google updates its virtual map of the world regularly using satellite and aerial photography, patched together by software to make it seem like one giant view of earth from space. Once you locate and zoom in on a particular location, at the bottom right of the image you can usually f...

It seems like Engelbrecht has been looking hopefully under Wyoming ice for years now, seeing an occasional whopper but never bringing one to the surface. If I hadn't taken this picture myself I'd swear it was  Photoshopped. Look at the tiny head on that big fat body...They grow fast in Cowboy Country. That all changed abruptly Tuesday, first at Meeboer with a big cutbow, a few hours later at Twin Buttes, with another cutbow and then a handsome post-spawn brown. His fishing companion, who shall remain anonymous, uh, got skunked. But I did see a monster swim annoyingly, slowly, past my hook.      

  A light display to delight the senses and raise money for CYO is being hold Nov. 27 through Dec. 31st in Fort Collins. The tour through the Swift Ponds property is about one mile long, costs $20 to $50, and the duration is 15 minutes. It's a fundraiser for the nonprofit, and additional donations will be welcome. Because of Covid-19 concerns, to limit interaction between customers and staff tickets will only be sold online. Here's the link to register:  https://www.nocowinterwonderland.com/

 Rick Golz is still bringing in some good ones at Carter Lake; just sent us this photo of a rainbow trout that looks to be about 19 1/2 inches. I would say "20" but hey, he caught it, not me.