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Reporter-Herald article: Heat and Drought Drive Major Fish Kill at Horseshoe Lake

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  By Jocelyn Rowley | Loveland Reporter-Herald Originally Published: August 5, 2026 At a Glance Location: Horseshoe Lake (flowing into the Boyd Lake inlet). Cause: Extreme heat, low water levels, and severely depleted oxygen levels. Impact: Thousands of fish lost (primarily common carp, along with walleye, white bass, shad, and catfish). Boyd Lake Status: CPW confirms Boyd Lake’s existing fishery remains unaffected and safe. For months, Bill Prater watched Horseshoe Lake slowly disappear. From his home a few hundred yards away, the past president of the Loveland Fishing Club saw the privately owned reservoir shrink into a patchwork of isolated pools as places that had held water earlier in the summer gradually became mud flats. So he wasn’t naturally surprised when the lake’s fish began dying and floating through the inlet to Boyd Lake. “The lake is essentially emptied, and that’s when the die-off really took hold.” — Bill Prater , Loveland Fishing Club Past President What fol...
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Massive fish kill hits Loveland's Horseshoe, Boyd reservoirs

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Warming: photos at the bottom of this article may be disturbing. By Bill Prater Horseshoe Lake, the privately owned, shallow reservoir across the street from Boyd Lake State Park, has been drained of virtually all water, choking Boyd's Marina Bay with thousands of dead and dying fish. The water in both reservoirs is owned by the Greeley & Loveland Irrigation Company, which uses the water for agriculture and the City of Greeley's municipal water. Boyd is leased to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for public fishing and other recreation. The irrigation company, which has not commented publicly about its actions, began draining water from Horseshoe last month as water evaporated from the shallow reservoir. It normally covers about 300 acres.  Only tiny pools and trickles of water remained in Boyd's Marina Bay Sunday, as the inlet was choked  with thousands of dead and dying carp, shad and catfish, along with opportunistic gulls and herons with a poor sense of smell. Colorado ...
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Like Colorado, Wyoming urging voluntary fishing limits

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  Editor's Note: The following was issued Monday by Wyoming Game and Fish CHEYENNE —The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is calling on anglers to help protect Wyoming's trout populations by shifting their fishing to the early morning hours during the summer heat. Due to elevated water temperatures in parts of the state, the department has issued voluntary closures on some waters, asking anglers to either stop catch-and-release fishing after noon or cease fishing altogether.  Unseasonably warm temperatures and low water flows across the state are causing stream temperatures to regularly exceed 70 degrees in the afternoon and evening, posing a serious threat to caught-and-released trout. What Anglers Need to Know: Catch-and-release anglers — rise and reel : Focus your fishing between sunrise and noon. Water temperatures are coolest in the morning, giving released trout the best chance of survival. Please pause catch-and-release fishing after 12:00 p.m. Harvest-focused anglers: A...
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New fishing closures announced as heat and drought continue

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 Editor's note: Here's the latest information on closures from Senior Colorado Parks and Wildlife Senior Aquatic Biologist Kyle Battige. And here's a useful link to a CPW spreadsheet with all Colorado fishing closures:  DENVER — Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Northeast Region is enacting a series of voluntary fishing closures due to low flows and high water temperatures. The closures will be in effect from noon to midnight in order to reduce stress on fish populations during the hottest parts of the day.  List of voluntary fishing closure locations, effective immediately: South Platte River (Dream Stream) - closed from Eleven Mile Reservoir inlet upstream to Spinney Mountain Dam. Current flows are 94 cfs (cubic feet per second), compared to historical average flows of 190 cfs. Water temperatures are reaching daily maximums over 73 degrees Fahrenheit.  South Platte River - closed from Spinney Mountain Reservoir inlet upstream to the confluence of the Middle and South...
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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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