Loveland Fishing Club Blog

  This free event for kids 15 and under will be 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 23rd at the North Lake Duck Pond at the corner of Taft and 29th Street. To qualify for free raffle drawing prizes and prizes for the largest and smallest trout caught, anglers just need to register at the pond before starting to fish. Registration and loaner fishing gear will be available on the east edge of the pond, and at the band pavilion on the southeast. For a second year, the Derby will be earlier than its traditional date of the first Saturday in June, when Colorado Parks and Wildlife has a free statewide day of fishing. The change was done at the recommendation of CPW biologists out of concern for warming water temperatures. Holding the derby on the 23rd provides a longer window after the derby to fish for trout not taken by the kids.  After the contest, everyone of all ages will be free to fish the pond (License required for older anglers). The derby is a collective effort of Loveland Po...

  From Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Note: The following only covers state-managed properties, but other spots like Horsetooth and Carter are also being impacted. We'll just have to fish while we wait and see what happens next.   DENVER — As Colorado navigates  drought conditions  and a historic low snowpack year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Northeast Region is evaluating boating recreation options for state parks and wildlife areas. Reservoirs often act as storage spaces for water used in agriculture, irrigation or municipal purposes, with aquatic recreation as a beneficial byproduct. Snowpack runoff typically begins to fill reservoirs during early spring and summer. Reservoir levels will decrease during the boating season through evaporation and withdrawals made by water rights holders.  In low snowpack years, such as 2025-2026, reservoir storage becomes a critical safety net to ensure continuity in agriculture or municipal operations, which may result i...

 For years now the Loveland Fishing Club and CYO have worked together to support youngsters, and CYO's Maverick Shoot, its biggest fundraiser of the year, will be Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2.  Volunteers from our club annually help make the trap shoot at Sylvan Dale Ranch it a big success.  Club member Bob McHale, who does a lot of volunteering at Colorado Youth Outdoors says this is "a big Big event that brings shooters from around the nation. As a volunteer, your duties are to help with the Shooting stations. We have six opportunities for individuals to volunteer on Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 8:00-5:00 and 20 on Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. To volunteer, contact Courtney Strouse at cstrouse@coloradoyo.org  You can also contact Clinton Parker at 1-805-705-8225. It's a fun day at a beautiful facility just west of Loveland off U.S. 34. And lunch is provided.      

This month's general meeting will be at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20. This month's social fishing day will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 22. Location to be announced on Tuesday. We're all invited to Don Knudsen's 90th birthday party! The old boy will be celebrating the milestone between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. at Mahaffey Park on May 2.

On the left, Dragonfly and Sandpiper Ponds downloaded from Google Earth. On the right, same download, Bass Pond, enhanced using Gemini Nano Banana.    By Bill Prater  You’re likely right to be concerned about where technology is taking this world, anglers and hunters along with everyone else. But meanwhile, there’s a new software tool called “Gemini Nano Banana” that can wring the last useful details out of your Google Earth satellite images. I tried it out while using Gemini to restore old family photos, and found it also works magic on images taken from space.  Trust me on this. And just forget about some other futuristic electronics like “forward facing sonar,” which lets you spy on fish through a high definition camera, like a pervert in a public restroom. Not that those things don’t work – we all know artificial intelligence is changing the nature of tournament fishing, and helping even novices empty some lakes and ponds of their biggest fish. Too much...

First, a short history lesson.    The informal title of Loveland's Toughest Angler has been conferred intermittently for two decades now, with no particular rules or a democratic vote, just the whim of the club's editor: Me. To qualify, you just have to impress the editor by unexpectedly tossing aside common sense or, over time, consistently perform memorable fishing feats of skill or guts. For no particular reason beyond showing yourself and your buddies that you still can. And will. Before we get to this year's winner, let's do a quick review of the club's history of questionable behavior. I recall that the title was initially bestowed on former member Frank Zupanc, known for solitary, crazy angling adventures in a notoriously leaky belly boat. Those feats were made even more adventurous and memorable by that broken neck of his. And don't forget Jim Clune, whose reputation for questionable good sense was cemented by his 2013 risky black powder moose hunt with ...