Loveland Fishing Club Blog

 Patriot Anglers,  a nonprofit organization committed to providing outdoor recreation  for military and Veteran families through fishing, is seeking volunteers to help with its 8th annual "Vets on Ice" event at the Boy Scouts' Tahosa High Adventure camp near the town of Ward. The Jan. 289th, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. event is open to all veterans and military service members, with Patriot Anglers providing all gear. Volunteers are needed to help teach ice fishing and other assistance. Good cold weather boots, a warm base layer, gloves, fleece or stocking cap, winter coat, sunglasses and sunscreen are recommended. For information about volunteering, contact Charles@patriotanglers.us

The cove so popular with both paddleboarders and anglers has been closed to motorized boats since last summer, but Larimer County has decided to reopen it until the start of the summer season. The county will also be launching a "paddler volunteer program" to educate lake users on safety. At a community forum Tuesday to discuss management of the reservoir, Dan Rieves, Horsetooth District Manager, emphasized that people are also free to fish Satanka year-round; they'll just have to do it from shore or a non-motorized vessel like a kayak during the summer. No other restrictions are being made elsewhere on the lake, and the county has set up a social media site for continued Q&A. Among other things, the county will not be introducing a timed-entry system similar to ones at Rocky Mountain National Park and Mount Evans. About two-thirds of people responding to  the community survey were opposed to the idea, meant to reduce crowding and user conflicts. You can access that a...

By Bill Prater                                                                                                                                      Here is a positive thing that may never have occurred without the mental stimulation of a Pandemic:  Through trial and error, good weather and bad, I have taught myself how to really conserve and scrimp on my bait. Now in the third year of our collective Covid-19 experience, I, like many of you, distract myself with useful discoveries about fishing that might not have occurred in normal times. In particular, let's discuss my successful search for ways to maximize the effective life of the classic 2 1/...

 The top three awards for Loveland Fishing Club Angler of the Year were announced Tuesday by competition manager Jim Roode. Charlie Higgs, who passed away Jan. 14 after a lengthy battle with cancer, was Angler of the Year on the strength of a 34-inch channel catfish, largest fish recorded for club competition. Dan Barker scored with a ridiculously large yellow perch, an 18-inch giant of its species hauled out of Boyd Lake. Jim with the club's Angler of the Year plaque, with names of all first-place recipients through the years. Photo by Doug Money. And Bill Prater checked in with a hefty 21-inch largemouth bass. The 2022 contest officially began Jan. 1. Awards are based on a percentage of the Colorado Master Angler criteria for the individual species entered. Entries must be caught within the state of Colorado, from water potentially open to any club member.

Please dust off your Loveland Fishing Club caps and turn out for Tuesday's general meeting at Chilson Center, kicking off the new year and formally swearing in Karol Stroschein as club president. She succeeds Doug Money, who'll serve as parliamentarian for 2022. Karol Stroschein Also, in the first in a planned series of presentations 2022 by anglers, aquatic biologists and other speakers, Club Webmaster and Editor Bill Prater plans to reveal just about all he's learned over the past two years about multi-species fishing in northern Colorado small lakes and ponds.  "I'm probably unique among LFC anglers with my absolute adherance to the truth about the size of the fish I catch," he says. "And for at least a half hour Tuesday, I plan to shock other club members with equal candor about exactly how and possibly even where I've been fishing."  

Funeral services for Charlie Higgs have been tentatively set for March 14 in Fort Collins. Here's a link to his obituary

 Okay, a couple over-eager anglers reportedly fell through the ice in the Marina inlet last week, but it’s been a lot colder since then. Let’s meet at the boat ramp and go from their to the fish. This’ll be the first planned group outing of 2022.

  Nebraska Game and Parks has issued its annual fishing forecast, an overview of about 450 lakes and streams open to public fishing in that state. The forecast contains research statistics and graphs to explain sampling information for important sport fish species sampled across Nebraska from the previous year along with useful tips from fisheries division staff. For those of us longing for an early spring, here are some options:  http://outdoornebraska.gov/fishingforecast/

Jim Barborak raised his daughters well:  they not only gave him grandkids, they thoughtfully live in a warm spot to visit during the holidays when it was starting to get frigid here in Colorado. He files this update for the snowbound: During his most recent visit to north Florida, Jim says, he "had time to get out fishing just once, in the tidal creeks of the Suwanee National Wildlife Refuge in the Big Bend region of the Florida portion of the Gulf of Mexico. Fishing with my son-in-law out of a kayak on a strong incoming tide in a tidal creek, after a cold front pushed the fish off the flats and into the warmer creeks, we had a banner day. "I caught 11 redfish in about three hours, and one was over the slot limit of about 27.5 inches. The biggest one I caught on a jig with a saltwater Gulp Minnow, a rig not much different from what I use for walleye in Colorado. But most others were caught on live shrimp underneath a popping cork, a common rig for sea trout and redfish in Flo...

  On October 29, on his final fishing trip of 2021, Club Member Charlie Higgs caught and released back into Dragonfly Pond a 34-inch channel catfish, biggest of his fishing life.  The beast qualified for a Colorado Master Angler award, and Charlie is the Loveland Fishing Club’s 2021 Angler of the Year.  Charlie’s big cat fell victim to a nightcrawler threaded onto a bare hook on 6-pound test line, A usually reliable witness, friend Rick Golz, says the fish fought off the inevitable for more than 20 minutes before Charlie landed him on the dock.  The long-time club treasurer relocated to Fort Collins in 2010 after a career with Wisconsin Natural Resources. This was not his first club title. In March 2019 he was proclaimed “LFC’s Toughest Angler,” partly in acknowledgement of his fortitude and great attitude during a decade-long battle with multiple myeloma. For example, in April 2013, not long after his myeloma started getting worse, Charlie waded into a frigid prair...