Sherry's secret Spoonbread recipe!

 Okay, several club members have been clamoring for Sherry Cadle's delicious Cheesy Sweet Corn Spoonbread recipe, and she's just passed it along for the rest of us. 

You start with Krusteaz Honey Cornbreak and Muffin Mix, one 14 3/4-oz can of cream-style corn, 1/2 cup of melted butter, a cup of sour cream and 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. It makes enough 12 servings.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and in a large bowl stir together all ingredients until well blended.

Pour into lightly greased 9x9-inch baking pan and bake for 38-52 minutes. Top with additional cheddar cheese, if desired. Let sit for about five minutes before serving.

That's it! 

A long-winded conversation on getting acquainted with the Loveland Fishing Club

 

By Bill Prater  

Following is pretty much all I can think to tell you about how to become a thriving member of the Loveland Fishing Club. It also describes some specific fishing preferences of a few long-time (and reasonably successful) members that you should get to know. 

 I’m often asked, in front of witnesses, about specifically where to go fishing around northern Colorado, and how to catch fish when you get there. I hesitate to respond with the absolute truth.

That truth is, our public waters tend to run on the small side, while our population gets steadily bigger. So I'm reluctant to share too many specifics about too many specific spots with too many people. Some annoying social media - places like FishBrain and YouTube - have also cropped up in recent years. They allow – even encourage – overly intimate information about favorite fishing holes. Trouble is, you’re not just sharing what you know with a quiet and loveably discreet guy like me. If you’re not careful, that secret bass spawning bed of yours will have has its own GPS tag on Google Earth.

  

So, what is an innocent newcomer to northern Colorado or the sport of angling supposed to do? The best thing I can recommend to new club members is: patiently invest time in identifying and getting acquainted with club members with shared interests. Tact, persistence, hygiene and a reasonably affable personality should get you started. As a group, we old timers do tend to be a bit cliquish. But hey, we all joined the club at some point to find folks with shared interests, and tend to hang with the ones we find. 

Start by going to breakfast with us; just buy a cup of coffee if money is scarce. Thanks in part to Covid-19, we now have three distinct groups that meet each Friday – around 7 a.m. at the Perkins and El Cielo restaurants in in west Loveland; and about 9 a.m. for the Fort Collins crowd at the Breakfast Club on College. Also, show up a bit early for our 2 p.m. general meetings at Chilson Center on the third Tuesday of the month, and board meetings on the third Tuesday, when the B.S. is flowing freely. Point is, we are a mostly talkative, welcoming bunch, even if some of us (like me) are also grumpy and introverted. So introduce yourself (multiple times if you have to; we’re getting old) and take the initiative to start conversations. 

 

Also, do not neglect one of your most valuable club resources: that membership list you should have gotten from Treasurer Barb Ding. You won’t find that useful list of names and contact information on this blog. These days you can’t, or at least shouldn’t, post name and contact information in lists in public places like this. You may find yourself targeted by Democrats, Republicans and other likely scammers. It has been suggested multiple times that the club should add individual member fishing preferences to our membership lists. I’m not sure why, but we’ve tried that several times in the past and not had much success. Most of us are just not that organized, I guess. So, prepare to be a bit persistent and deliberately extroverted. 

 

Another time-tested method for getting the most out of this club is to consider ways to help actually run the club. Talk to Tom Miller or any of the board about volunteer skills we’re needing; often that's not much more than a willingness to help. Look over the volunteerism we do as a group, things like the annual June Loveland Kids Derby, summer trips with Girl Scouts, and the club’s Senior Fishing Derby for assisted living center residents. We come together to help others, and in the process get acquainted with each other. 

 

To help get you started, here are some specific fishing preferences of a few long-time club members, some more likeable or competent than others. But hey, that’s the chance you run in trying to be part of a club.

 

 First, bank fishermen. We’ve got many good ones in the club, some slowed by stuff like arthritis, and others who just prefer the conviviality of a shared shoreline. Club Treasurer Barb Ding and coots like Dennis Kelsey, Don Knudsen, Harvey Purman, Doug Money and Tom Boesch are a few of the craftier ones, and I think most are reasonably truthful. And don’t get me started about Rick Golz and that damned half a nightcrawler technique of his. At this point, I should also concede that Ken Kesterke kicked the rest of us’ butts at the annual club championship at Flatiron Reservoir in September, using some kinda spoon. 

 

I’m not sure who to recommend as a catfishing legend, with the passing of old Harry Case. We do have a pretty strong cat population in the lakes and ponds around here, but for some reason club members just don't target them much, or at least don’t talk about them much. Wayne Baranczyk has caught several dandies from his belly boat. Kelsey has a sneaky trick for catfish and bass that involves live bait. And Jim Roode is a good guy to see about night fishing for channels from his float tube; fun but a bit intimidating for someone scared of the dark. 

 

With open water trout, given our average age, not many of us are still agile enough to regularly wade a Rocky Mountain stream. But we’ve got some scary good folks fishing small lakes and ponds in pontoon boats and float tubes, with spinning gear or fly rods. John Gwinnup immediately comes to mind, along with Jim Clune and Walt and Cindy Graul, though I’ll also concede that others like past presidents Jim Visger and Dave Johnson are handier than me with their fly rods and hand-tied flies. Speaking of which, Roode and Gwinnup have been talking about getting back into offering an introductory fly-tying class. You might ask them about it. 

 

Ice fishing. Around here that almost exclusively means fishing for trout. You can do worse than talking to Baranczyk or Kelsey, though I wish you’d had the opportunity to get on the ice with my now-lost but not forgotten buddies Norm Engelbrecht and Dave Harem. Those rascals would brave any weather, and out fish the rest of us every time. (Don’t bother bringing up the subject of ice with Dan Barker, though; he just mopes his way through the winter season and dredges up memories of his lone, disastrous January trip with us to the Laramie Lakes in Wyoming.)  

For fishing from boats, hats off to Dan and Kathleen Barker and Dave Boyle for introducing the club's Boat Day, a great way to pair up boat owners with others needing a ride when the event resumes next spring. And Club Vice President Tom Miller has a proven, effective way to go after trout and walleye with lead line trolled behind his pontoon. Ask how he does it, and he'll talk your ear off.  

Speaking of trolling, and whatever else some guys will do to chase and eat walleye, I’d start by badgering the Barkers and Boyle, and probably George May.  

 

The above is by no means an all-inclusive list of possible references - just something to get conversations started. (Ask Kesterke what kind of spoon that was) I haven't until now even mentioned Ray Park, for instance, and he can consistently pull trout from Carter Lake in the dead of winter. The point is, find opportunities to just sit with us, or call us, and if you have to, take the initiative to steer the conversation away from hip replacements. In turn be generous in sharing what you have learned about this great sport of ours. 

# # #

Dennis finds a catfish

 I believe he was out with Dan Barker on Boyd this week when Dennis Kelsey hauled in this 22-inch channel cat. Pretty good day’s work. 

Now we'll all know what a darned gaspergou is!

 Okay, everyone else was a bit perplexed Tuesday when Bob Ray, who grew up in Louisiana, took his turn to describe the first fish he remembers catching:  a bunch of "gaspergou." Club President Karol Stroschein should have known what that was, ferchristsakes, being a Bayou girl herself, but didn't utter a word.

Neither did Club Treasurer Barbra Ding, but she looked the thing up on the Internet when she got home. Turns out the fish can be found just about everywhere in the continental United States including Colorado, and I recall Norm Engelbrecht talking about catching one a few seasons ago. But he and the rest of the club should recognize that fat white fish as the "freshwater drum."

I've landed a few over the years, but never tried to eat one. Apparently Young Bob's family and most Louisianans considered them a delicacy. 

Let's add this to a list of must-have species for Darrel Knight's new "Fishing Bingo" club challenge, coming next year. Details to come. 

 

So, should we do Delaney again?

 

So, I'm wondering: should we get back to North Park before snow flies?

You really needed a float tube this week to do South Delaney justice, but the club caught a fair number of fat browns, rainbows and cutbows. Weather permitting, want to try again next week? 

If interested, contact Bill at billjohnp@gmail.com Here's a fat brown hen that fell victim to Rick Palmieri's flawless presentation, before being released to spawn again. Damned thing dropped a bunch of eggs on my float tube. 

Maybe we should get out to Boyd more often ...

 Here's Dave Boyle with a 17-inch white bass he hauled out of Boyd during the club's Boat Day outing Thursday, Oct. 12. And here's everyone else enjoying a celebratory meal afterward at the group picnic area just north of the Marina boat launch.

Kathy and a big Kat

 While Danny was off chasing after grandkids in North Carolina, Kathy was on a nearby dock chasing fish. Here's the result:  a 12-pound channel cat. You can always chase kids. 

Boat Day reminder: Thursday, Oct. 13 at Boyd

 The club is again getting together in our boats and terrorizing the fish in Boyd Lake, followed by lunch. Questions? Check with Dan Barker at 970-302-8965. Fishing will begin about 8 a.m., varying some from boat to boat, followed by lunch at the group picnic area north of the marina. 

Donations in Norm's memory

 

In lieu of flowers, Norm Engelbrecht's wife Gail requests that donations be made to the Loveland Fishing Club.

Club Treasurer Barb Ding says donations should be made to "The Loveland Fishing Club;" funds will go directly to the Kids Fund maintained for the club as part of the nonprofit Chilsen Parks and Recreation Fund, to be used for the annual Kids Derby and other child-related activities by the club.

Barb can be reached at barbra@agroomroom.com, 970-587-4898. Her mailing address is 20059 Northmoor Drive, Johnstown, CO 80534.

   # # # 

So, let's argue over how size matters

 By Bill Prater

 You really can learn useful stuff watching those televised bass fishing tournaments. What I have learned is, those Southern boys and girls mostly throw baits five times larger than needed here in Colorado, and try to convince us we need that stuff too. 

 

These days anyone with time on their hands can walk the aisles of big sporting goods stores and learn what has taken me a lifetime to comprehend: at least some fish, or at least some fishermen, must be kinda dumb. How else to explain the success of hundreds of giant baits lining the shelves of Colorado stores, or the corporate decisions that anything smaller than 1/8-ounce must be used for crappie and bluegill? 

Truth to tell, you can throw just about anything but a brick at most freshwater species, and eventually one or more will at least take a swipe or a bite. You may not catch many, if you’re using barbed or trebled hooks the size of ice tongs. But if you stay with just about any bait long enough, you may conclude that it really does catch fish. Which brings me slowly to the loosely guarded Prater Family Secret I am now willing to reveal:  

Big old baits with names like Whopper Plopper or Husky Jerk DO catch big old bass or walleye or trout. But teensy little baits with names like “Micro Finesse” or “Horsefly” and “Donkey Tail Jr.” also catch big old fish of many different species – along with sackfuls of smaller ones.

On YouTube you can discover bizarre techniques for catching what mosttof us consider bait: “microfishing” for creek chubs and exotic, teeny little fish, particularly where there’s a richer mix of native species than here in the water-starved West. That type of strange hobby is not what I’m talking about. I for one would never mock another guy’s sport (well, yeah, I do, but I also secretly admire anyone who obsesses over any method of catching fish).

 

Yes, I am again beating the drum for micro baits for macro fish, unless you’re targeting musky, catfish, grass carp or some such, when it may be more prudent to sometimes upscale. But most of the time, I recommend snickering at anyone pushing the concept that “bigger is better.” I prefer another cliché’:  “Yes, size matters.” But when it comes to fishing around here - with our climate, fluctuating water levels and typically sparse food sources - the smaller stuff delivers the best goods. Fly fishermen have known about this for years, but selfishly never revealed it to anyone else.

 

The older and wiser I get, the more I appreciate that here along the Front Range of Colorado, fish of most species mostly feed on bugs and on smaller fish closest in size to a 2 ½- or 3-inch imitation minnow. Also, during the Pandemic, a shortage of Gulp-type minnow baits on shelves caused near-panic and sadness. Some of us were pleasantly surprised when out of necessity we began using stuff intended for ice fishing. And a few clever Individuals with a talent for niche marketing went online offering increasingly tiny “micro” baits, made from the tough, flexible plastic previously reserved for big Southern-style baits. Simultaneously, a new generation of tiny jigs began to appear, 1/32 to 1/80 oz., that could be used with these baits without tearing them to bits like crappie jigs cursed with old style lead collars. 

Post-pandemic, that segment of the fishing industry is still thriving, while bigger bait manufacturers like Z-Man and Bass Pro are beginning to get into the micro market, though mostly still online.  Even winners of Southern fishing shows now occasionally concede they won their tournament with a Ned rig tipped with a 3-inch Z-Man TRD. It won’t be long until they’re secretly baiting up with a 1.75-inch “Micro Z-Man TRD Tickler.”