Loveland Fishing Club Blog

 Tom Miller, our club's first President, dug back in his archives and came up with this group shot of nine of the club's charter members on a successful first outing to Lon Hagler Reservoir. From the left is Bob Ray, naturally the one who seems to have caught fish; Dottie Bethel, Shirley Smilley, Skip Kral, George Kral, Pete Gibbons, Dick "Fish Head" Hunsaker (almost unrecognizable without his trademark fish head cap, Jim Clune and Tom Miller with his belly boat.

  A fund-raiser for Rocky Mountain Flycasters Chapter of Trout Unlimited began a few years ago with a few tables of fly tying demonstrations, but this year it’s evolved into the “RMF Trout Fishing Expo,” a one-day exhibit with speakers, 30 or so exhibitors, door prizes, a raffle and more. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 23 at the FNBO Exhibition Building, at the Ranch Event Complex.   Encouraging Fishing Club members at Tuesday’s meeting to attend was Terry Gibbons, who wears two fishing caps, one as an LFC member and another as vice president of the Fort Collins Trout Unlimited chapter. Terry says tickets are $25 at the door, $15 if purchased in advance at this website: http://Rmftu.org/expo2024 .   You can also bid online for raffle items. The cost for veterans, students and first responders is $10, and ages 10 and under are free.   Money raised at the annual event goes to help fund a variety of conservation efforts in the Cache ...

  This is 10 th year for the contest to catch the largest fish of any species. The following summarizes that decade of competition, what kind of fish, and where they came from:   2023: Danny Barker tallied a 21-inch largemouth bass from Boyd Lake, measuring 1.167 percent of Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife’s criteria for Master Angler (MA). In second place, Bob Dierkes, with a hefty 19.5-inch largemouth from Bass Pond. Third place in 2023 was our only tie to date, 19-inch largemouths , Darrell Knight’s from Sandpiper, Bill’s from Berthoud Town Pond. 2022: Norm Engelbrecht won with a 28-inch walleye from Boyd Lake, measured at 1.0769 percent of MA criteria. Bill Prater’s 24.25-inch rainbow from South Delaney Buttes was second.   2021: Danny Barker yanked a huge 18.5 inch yellow perch from Boyd Lake, 1.5 percent of MA, biggest fish we’ve recorded; Bill Prater’s 21-inch largemouth from Bass Pond was second followed by the late Charlie Higgs’ 34-inch catfish from...

  The 2023 Loveland Fishing Club Angler of the Year is newly minted President Danny Barker, who this summer pulled a 21-inch largemouth bass from Boyd Lake. Competition chair Jim Roode did the calculations, and the beast measured 1.167 percent of the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife’s criteria for a Master Angler (MA) citation, based on length.    In second place was Bob Dierkes, with a hefty 19.5-inch largemouth from Bass Pond. Third place in 2023 also went to largemouth anglers - in a tie between Darrell Knight and Bill Prater. Darrell’s Sandpiper Pond bass and Bill’s from the Berthoud Town Pond were both a half inch shy of Bob's mark. ( Footnote: the club competition is now limited to fish taken from water available to all club members. We say this because Jim Barbarok caught a whopping 16-inch yellow perch but it came from ... a private pond.   Below, Danny Barker, first; Bob Dierkes, second; and in a tie for third, Darrell Knight and Bill Prater. ...

 By Bill Prater Alert Loveland Fishing Club Reader Walt Graul has passed along fascinating news from our neighboring state of Kansas: it seems that last year's new state record crappie has been abruptly yanked from the record books.  Last year an 18-inch white crappie was caught with a minnow in an eastern Kansas reservoir. It was subsequently officially weighed in at 4.07 pounds, shattering an old record set way back in 1964. But an anonymous tipster later reported that he or she saw  the same fish being weighed in earlier at 3.73.   After an investigation, Kansas Parks and Wildlife staff seized the crappie and used a hand-held metal detector to scan its insides., and later did the same thing with an x-ray.  This (steel bearings) is what they saw in its belly: This week Outdoor Lif e also weighed in, noting the previous Kansas record has been reinstated. The angler with the new fish, who had apparently kept his prize in the freezer, has denied all wrongd...

A memorial service has been set for 11 a.m. Friday, March 8 at Foundation Church for Mavis Kelsey, wife of long-time Loveland Fishing Club member Dennis Kelsey. Mavis passed away Tuesday night after a long illness. Foundation is located at 1380 N. Denver, Loveland.

  If you've not paid your club membership dues for 2024, please bring to the February meeting and see Treasurer Ken Kesterke. To get a better understanding of club members' interests, we're asking that you also fill out and sign a membership application again.  If you've misplaced yours, Ken will have copies; you can also find  on the Pages Directory of the blog, Loveland Fishing Club Blog: LFC membership application Dues are $25 a year, $30 for a couple. (Even if your sweetie doesn't fish, the extra $5 covers the cost of their attendance at the legendary August club picnic.) 

 Fly casting, including a Terry Gibbons, a past club member who just re-upped, will be talking about fly casting an upcoming event at The Ranch planned by Rocky Mountain Flycasters, the Fort Collins chapter of Trout Unlimited.  Also on the agenda for the February meeting is the announcement of the 2023 Angler of the Year, awarded for the biggest fish of any species recognized under the Colorado Master Angler program and caught by a club member last year out of public water!\. The crowning normally takes place in January, but hey, competition manager Jim Roode was sick last month, like half of the club. So we waited until Jim got to feeling better. He's reportedly recorded some really good entries this year.