Planning some club fishing trips

There's still ice in the high country for the stalwarts in the club, but it's time to begin planning warm water expeditions for spring and summer.

(Don't forget the planned 10:30 a.m. outing Wednesday, set for the north shore of Carter but possibly involving a reset because of a troubling ice cap over about three-fourths of the lake. Should we do Lon Hagler instead?

Anyone can suggest a trip; you just have to persuade other anglers and ideally take the lead in setting dates, finding out housing options and other details of a good trip. The same goes for local outings; just let the rest of us know what you're planning to do and when. Send Bill Prater or Rick Palmieri a note and we'll post something on the blog.

See Club President Jim Visger, visgermnj@aol.com for details on plans to date, particularly for overnights. He'll have signup sheets at monthly meetings, and you can pigeonhole him at Friday breakfast.

Here's what we've decided to date:

So far, we have the Jumbo Reservoir walleye trip set for May 13 and 14th, and Lake John trout on June 11-14. In both cases you'll need to plan for an overnight stay. We usually carpool and share a room to hold down expenses. 

• We'll also be heading for the Delaney Butte lakes at ice out in mid April; we let nature tell us when to go, and Jim Roode sets the date. We usually motel it overnight in Walden, though some prefer to make a long day of it.For Jumbo, which has been a good source of walleye in past years, 16 anglers have signed up already, a good sign for optimism about the coming season.
• At Lake John, you can stay in town or at the Lake John Resort, which has rooms, cabins and campsites. Here's a link to their website.
• Another almost certain overnight trip is the Ranger Lakes campout, a club tradition popular with spouses since our inception. There's a nice campground with electric hookups about two hours up highway 14 past Fort Collins, and easy access to several good trout lakes. It's been held in August in years past, but we're also looking at dates in July, set make your preferences known. 
• There's no reason we can't plan regular trips to local lakes and ponds, and we seem to be missing trout streams here. 

It's been too damned cold lately for after-breakfast outings to local lakes and ponds, but they will resume at any time. Stay tuned, and keep your rods handy.