As the smoke finally clears, fishing around here is definitely picking up

After a cold, wet, miserable spring in Colorado, and nasty days of Canadian wildfire smoke, Loveland Fishing Club members are reporting a sharp uptick in fishing. Bass and crappie are on their spawning beds, later than normal but as enthusiastic as Dennis as a teen-ager. 

This prognosis is admittedly limited, but virtually every club member talking about their outings this past week has a smile on their face. One canoe full of club members is reporting a total of seven Master Angler-qualified bass and crappie in two memorable days of fishing, along with some healthy numbers and size of crappie, white bass and walleye.

After some scary low water levels, most reservoirs are filled or filling, which can either help or harm current favorable fishing conditions. Rivers are pretty iffy, and likely to get worse as near-record snow levels in the high country are melting away. So just be careful. And get out there and fish, and tell the rest of us about it.

Here are some memorable catches reported on Thursday alone: 

Cindy Graul and friend

 

Walt Graul

Rick Golz

Wayne Baranczyk

15 1/2-inch black crappie

A secret pond and enough big fish for a Tom Miller fish fry - all caught and released

Monday was the kind of day on the water  you hear about occasionally - but seldom gets backed up by witnesses. 

On a morning marred only by smoke out of Canada, Walt Graul hosted Darrell Knight and Bill Prater at private pond located somewhere in northern Colorado or maybe southern Wyoming. His big old green Scanoe was the only boat on the water all day, puzzling when you consider the outing yielded three Colorado Master Angler-qualified fish - and would have produced more if we'd measured Walt's big old largemouth and a couple of seriously overweight white bass. Your editor is known not to brag, but even he will concede we also caught and released enough fat walleye for a Tom Miller fish fry.

The moral lesson for club members looking to repeat this memorable day on the water is this: um, it sure helps to go to a pond filled with a variety of lonely big fish. But you also need to get out there early and often.

Walt with his fattest largemouth of the day

Darrell and personal best yellow
perch