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Fish Factors: Items That Influence Your Fishing Success

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  The following article by the Loveland Fishing Club's Walter Graul appears in the Colorado Outdoors Fishing Guide 2026. The guide is available for purchase from the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Shop - Colorado Parks and Wildlife IPAWS   By Walter Graul In 1653, Isaak Walton published The Compleat Angler. Since then, literally millions of publications have been produced globally about fishing. Many are focused on how to increase fishing success via how to fish and where to fish. A modern trend is to focus on new technology, impacting everything from improved reels and graphite rods to equipment like electronic fish finders. The latter has evolved to LiveScopes that can cost from $2,000 to $3,500. These are frequently called "Fish TV." The 2025 Bass Pro Fishing Master Catalog has 500-plus pages of fishing equipment and clothing.  But have you ever had a great day on the water and gone back to the same spot the next day with zero luck? Or perhaps you have experienced a d...
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Walleye Pro Steve Shelton is Tuesday's speaker. And check out these fish!

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  Local walleye angler Steve Shelton will be talking at our 2 p.m. meeting at Chilson Center Tuesday about walleye fishing options during this strange summer of hours.  Meanwhile, despite heat and drought, club members continue to report landing a variety of hefty fish in Colorado and neighboring states: Cindy Graul shows off her personal best cutthroat, a 20-inch plus beauty from a small Wyoming stream. Walt Graul with a big Wyoming brown. Dennis Kelsey and Don Knudsen stayed local, with Don photographing Dennis and his 20-inch Horsetooth Reservoir rainbow. Kathy Barker shows us why she's so fond of Iowa's Lake Okoboji, posing with the 12-pound pike she caught  
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The Barkers test Boyd Lake for the rest of us

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 We always thought that no one pampers their boat more than Kathleen and Danny Barker. You be the judge as the fishing couple made one final visit to Boyd Lake Saturday before it closes for the season, Kathleen reports the water below the ramp was about 2 1/2 foot deep, which looks about right in this photo she supplied. The couple caught three small walleye and a small white bass, not enough for a sandwich.  "Hey, the motor did good," Kathleen says. "We raised it up quite a bit and quickly made it to deeper waters! Should have seen the big ski boats! "It took eight guys to get their boogie board boat out of the lake. One guy tried to put a three-axle trailer into the lake, then out of the lake ... with troubles." Like a growing number of reservoirs around this drought-stricken state, Boyd will close to boating this evening. Hand-launched craft are still welcome.
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If you want to put your boat in Boyd, better do it this weekend

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 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...
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A Boyd Lake Boat Day Boat Ride and a Day of Getting Skunked Both Interrupted by Big Fish

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 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 ...
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Tale of the Tape ...

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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...
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2026 Senior Day at Rivers Edge

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 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
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