Loveland Fishing Club Blog

 Guess we all knew it was coming in this drought-cursed year: Colorado Parks and Wildlife Friday announced that Boyd Lake will be closed for the season to boating starting at 9 p.m. Sunday, June 28. And we have more grim news about water.  The boat ramps at Boyd are currently sitting in only two- to three-feet of water. CPW has also approved "emergency public fish salvages" due to the imminent drawing down of reservoirs at three state properties, including Douglas Reservoir west of Wellington. And there's now a voluntary total ban on fishing on the Yampa River near Steamboat Springs due to low water and high water temps.  For years now, when the state has shut down the boat ramps at Boyd they've annoyingly banned all watercraft. This summer, though, hand-launched vessels like belly boats, kayaks and paddleboards will still be allowed, along with swimming. With the fish salvages, the state hopes to provide anglers with increased harvest opportunity before water conditi...

 Reports are coming in about highly successful days of fishing at Boyd Lake. Below, Jim Barborak, who organized this month's Boat Day, shows off a mixed haul of white bass, walleye and trout caught by him, Bill Rottman and Doug Money during Thursday's Boat Day.  Jim adds: "Doug has a great story too, about hooking a big walleye and losing it near the boat. He reeled in his line to find that the walleye was actually hooked on (someone else's) lead line and had a perch shad rap in its mouth for who knows who long. Doug actually caught the lead line with the fish and lure on the other end, and the fish broke free of the lure. Doug reeled in just the line and lure - so he got about a $10 Rapala lure but no big walleye." A few days earlier, Jim had been despondently casting for white bass and walleye near the pump house, on spinning gear with 8-pound test line. He was about to leave "when I hooked the biggest fish I have ever landed in Colorado ... a 47-inch long ...

Usually we tell a veteran Loveland Fishing Club angler they kept their thumb on the scale measuring a fish (Not mentioning anyone by name here; just saying. In this case I think relative newcomer Ken Tarvin is being way too honest in his measurement of the big old Colorado Master Angler-class largemouth he caught last week.  "Big ol' Bass today," he reported after visiting a local pond. "Biggest I've ever caught. Measurement comes in at 18.75 which should qualify me for a Colorado Master Angler Award." It should also put Ken in the running for Loveland Fishing Club Angler of the year, the annual competition to see who can land the biggest fish based on Colorado Parks and Wildlife criteria for Master Angler. But your Editor keeps looking over a blowup of the tape measurement Ken did on the beast, and here's HIS semi-professional conclusion:       From the front, t he yellow tape measure extends past the lip. If you look closely at where the tip of the fis...

 The fishing was a bit slow but the conversations proceeded at a rapid pace Saturday, June 6 at the 2026 Loveland Fishing Club Senior Day, a joint project between the club and City of Loveland Open Lands & Trails.  About two dozen senior anglers were hosted by the club at Rivers Edge Open Space, along with some younger folks we welcomed as well, fishing during Colorado's annual Free Fishing Weekend.  Thanks again to all who volunteered, and to Debbie Eley, Resource Specialist and volunteer coordinator for Open Lands & Trails.  Click here for photos taken during the event:  2026 Senior Day

  As a well-aged fisherman, I am like a well-aged wine, one that gets a bit better with each passing season. (My fishing buddies think of me more as aging catfish bait.) But the net effect is the same: Like the infinite number of monkeys sitting in front of an infinite number of typewriters, occasionally my time in a belly boat pays off with something useful. In this case, I’ve found a quirky way to ambush some fine fish that have been safely hiding in shallowest water they can find.  I’m not conceited enough to think there aren’t other anglers experimenting with something similar. (On the other hand, at least one of those social media geniuses should have spilled these beans on Facebook or something before now.) Regardless, let me tell you about a new (to me at least) tactic to adapt gear meant for "forward facing sonar" and deep water to fish Colorado’s notoriously shallow, weed-choked shorelines. If you fish gravel ponds and other small bodies of water along the Front Rang...

  Ken Tarvin and a friend recently decided they had to  drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and fish before the crowds and reservations came into effect. He shares this report: (Editor's note: ignore the byline at the top; I don't know how to delete it. Ken wrote this: ☺ We wanted to fish Moraine Park and so, with the morning sun shining, we made the drive up the canyon into Estes Park and headed to the Beaver Meadows entrance. There were few other vehicles and we were quickly in the park after showing our pass.  The plan was to fish the Big Thompson around the Fern Lake trailhead first. It was full however, so we backtracked to an open parking space down the road a bit. We both fish Tenkara, and so with rods and flies in hand we made our way to the river. The flows were good and the water was COLD at 46°F. The problem, as my friend put it, was it was a great day for fishermen. Bright and sunny with almost no clouds isn't a recipe for eager trout and it turned out th...