The club is open to all, but club events take place during the week and we meet at Chilson Senior Center in Loveland, CO. Our basic purpose is to fish, but we're easily distracted by the chance to work with youngsters or improve northern Colorado outdoor resources.
Wading way through record high heat and record large crowds of tourists, Cindy and Walt this summer completed one of fishing's coveted awards, Wyoming Game and Fish Department's "Cuttslam," landing the final of four Wyoming species of native cutthroat trout.
Walt can't remember exactly what stream produced his handsome Yellowstone cutthroat. Cindy can, but she's not telling. Judge for yourself, but it sure looks like Cindy's was the bigger of the pair.
By Bill Prater
Newbies! Don’t do this. Or if you must do this, wear a life jacket.
Today’s column is less a column and more of an appeal for advice from one of angling’s least trusted sources: the lunatic fringe of the float tube community.
This requires explanation. I am an aging example of a fishing fraternity that looks forward to late, late fall and early early spring - glorious, ice-age like times when the most cautious of trout throw caution to the wind. Even better, the more milquetoast, numerous members of the angling community turn to football and chasing moose and stuff. Trouble is, it’s also when Colorado/Wyoming’s usually balmy winds morph into damned hurricanes.
Over the years, I have acquired a level of success casting ultralights into the teeth of those gales. Don’t ask me how, exactly. But over years of cursing wind knots, I have stumbled upon combinations of eye and wrist coordination that allow me to fish amid the whitecaps.
Trouble is, I’m getting old! Wading into ice-cube filled water was questionable behavior even in my ‘60s. Now bones creak whenever autumn winds shove ice water down the front and back of my waders. Plus, with every passing season I am less steady on my feet and judgment.
So, with fall approaching, I’ve been thinking. One alternative is to simply wade out and cast from an upwind shoreline. Trouble is, that’s for wusses. And I suspect, but can’t verify, that biggest fish are more likely way downwind.
So here’s an alternative: Rather than wading in and hoping for the best, let’s flip, flip, flip, flip our float tubes out to the edge of a downwind honey hole. And then anchor! We can then cast with deadly precision to monsters lurking close to shore. Our lines are straight. We now detect every subtle bite. And we cast as far as Chad LaChance (who is no doubt hunting deer at this point, or watching TV.)
Trouble is - and here’s where I need your help - out in the whitecaps, how the hell do we safely anchor? I have an adorable, Navy-style miniature anchor that weighs maybe 2 pounds. Under milder conditions, it holds my Fat Cat over a sandy bottom barely long enough to reach for my coffee. Logically, if one were to swap that tiny anchor for a big old potato sack full of rocks, what happens next? Are you snugly anchored? Or was Linda right after all, and the wind is gonna flip myy belly boat over and leave me upside down flailing like an Olympics artistic swim team?
Let me know whether you’ve tried this, and whether it works better than I fear. The brutal, but tempting conditions of late fall are almost upon us. I can hardly wait.
By Bill Prater
One of the many great things about ultralight fishing gear is, it doesn’t matter whether your intended catch is a whopper or a smaller over-achiever. If you match your gear to the size of your intended target, you’ll get more enjoyment out of most fish encounters, get lots more bites, and won’t have to fall asleep waiting for the bite of an occasional whopper of one specific species. You’ll have a legitimate shot at darned near every type (and size) of fish that swims in places like water-starved eastern Colorado.
Here in our little part of the fishing world, chain stores tempt us with an enormous selection of heavyweight rods, reels and baits. I contend you needn’t be tempted by a 4/0 hook fixed to giant yellow baby duck, foot-long plastic worm or imitation rat. A 1- to 2-inch soft plastic minnow or bug imitation (aided where legal with a thoughtfully chosen scent), will attract darned near every species that swims in the streams and irrigation ponds and lakes around here.
Granted, this sage advice won’t hold water if you’re going after a giant lake trout in the high country with legends like Bernie Keefe, or if you’re a member of that secretive society of nighttime cat fishermen that prowl our shores after midnight. And darned if I can say (or really give a darn one way or another) whether it applies to walleye. But for most water and most fish I’m aware of, yes, size matters. Smaller is definitely better.
If I were to give advice to a next generations of anglers, it would be this: “To succeed in one of the more important things in life, you don’t have to throw a lure the size of a full-grown bluegill or a stocker trout.” (Okay, sometimes that stocker trout thingie does make sense)
Truth to tell, the older I get, the smaller the line, hook and bait I use. Granted, folks like tournament anglers who stick to the bigger stuff eventually catch big specimens of their species of choice. But crafty ultralight fishermen catch some too - while we’re also catching additional species, large and small. I’ve long been told - and once believed - that ultralight gear meant an eighth ounce or so of lead attached to a tiny hook, size 1 or size 2. Now I typically use an ultralight or medium light weight spinning rod to throw soft plastic, mostly on a 1/16th ounce jig, and much smaller if I can get away with it in this damned Colorado wind. Trout Magnet, for example, sells a terrific 1/64 oz jighead, on a size 8 hook, that works well with a 1-inch Gulp Minnow or a tiny grub sold almost exclusively as bait for crappie.
None of this probably makes sense on the enormous fishing holes in places like Florida or Texas. Fish grow bigger and faster there, in a different climate where fish don’t have to compete for water rights with irrigation companies. Truth to tell, warm water species and trout swimming around places like eastern Colorado don’t often grow as fast or as large as we’d like. That simply means we should match our gear to our fish. And give more consideration to catch and release and selective harvest, though that’s a subject for a different day.
Want to argue? In the words of Charles Barkley in his book about basketball and life, “I may be wrong, but I doubt it.”
Richard's son Jason is passing along word that a memorial for our long-time friend and fishing companion will be held at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26 at St. Luke's Episcopal Church Memorial Garden, 2000 Stover Street in Fort Collins.
Jason says they'll be having refreshments and "my Mom (Sheilah) was wanting those who knew my father to come by and celebrate his life."
The fully catered annual picnic begins at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday with the meal being served at 4 p.m.
The meal will be followed by a raffle, and traditionally the picnic offers the best prizes of the year!
People will likely begin showing up at the Railroad Park pavilion around 3 p.m., and we'll wind up around 5 p.m.
Warren W. Wolf, 82, of Fort Collins died Thursday, Aug. 12. Memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at http://allnuttftcollins.com
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.allnuttftcollins.com
Dan's been fishing up on the Blue around Breckenridge for a few days. Take a look at what he caught using spinners that he makes for himself. Some good meals here.
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