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.
Tom Miller, our club's first President, dug back in his archives and came up with this group shot of nine of the club's charter members on a successful first outing to Lon Hagler Reservoir.
From the left is Bob Ray, naturally the one who seems to have caught fish; Dottie Bethel, Shirley Smilley, Skip Kral, George Kral, Pete Gibbons, Dick "Fish Head" Hunsaker (almost unrecognizable without his trademark fish head cap, Jim Clune and Tom Miller with his belly boat.
A fund-raiser for Rocky Mountain Flycasters Chapter of Trout Unlimited began a few years ago with a few tables of fly tying demonstrations, but this year it’s evolved into the “RMF Trout Fishing Expo,” a one-day exhibit with speakers, 30 or so exhibitors, door prizes, a raffle and more. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 23 at the FNBO Exhibition Building, at the Ranch Event Complex.
Encouraging Fishing Club members at Tuesday’s meeting to attend was Terry Gibbons, who wears two fishing caps, one as an LFC member and another as vice president of the Fort Collins Trout Unlimited chapter. Terry says tickets are $25 at the door, $15 if purchased in advance at this website: http://Rmftu.org/expo2024.
You can also bid online for raffle items. The cost for veterans, students and first responders is $10, and ages 10 and under are free.
Money raised at the annual event goes to help fund a variety of conservation efforts in the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson watersheds.
Terry Gibbons, vice president, Rocky Mountain Flycasters
This is 10th year for the contest to catch the largest fish of any species. The following summarizes that decade of competition, what kind of fish, and where they came from:
2023: Danny Barker tallied a 21-inch largemouth bass from Boyd Lake, measuring 1.167 percent of Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife’s criteria for Master Angler (MA). In second place, Bob Dierkes, with a hefty 19.5-inch largemouth from Bass Pond. Third place in 2023 was our only tie to date, 19-inch largemouths, Darrell Knight’s from Sandpiper, Bill’s from Berthoud Town Pond.
2022: Norm Engelbrecht won with a 28-inch walleye from Boyd Lake, measured at 1.0769 percent of MA criteria. Bill Prater’s 24.25-inch rainbow from South Delaney Buttes was second.
2021: Danny Barker yanked a huge 18.5 inch yellow perch from Boyd Lake, 1.5 percent of MA, biggest fish we’ve recorded; Bill Prater’s 21-inch largemouth from Bass Pond was second followed by the late Charlie Higgs’ 34-inch catfish from Sandpiper.
2020: Bill Prater pulled a handsome 26-inch rainbow out of Dragon Fly, 1.0833 of MA criteria, apparently a brood fish unexpectedly stocked by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. In that wretched first year of Covid, we had no other entries.
2019: Danny Barker again turned to Boyd Lake for a winning 19.75-inch white bass, 1.1618 percent of MA. Dennis Kelsey’s 20.5-inch largemouth from Dragonfly was second and Bill Prater’s 34-inch channel catfish from Pella Crossing was third.
2018: Bill Prater’s 24-inch cuttbow trout from South Delaney, 1.0909 percent of MA, took first place. Danny Barker’s 27.5-inch Boyd walleye was second and Wayne Baranczyk’s 12-inch grayling out of Joe Wright Reservoir was third.
In 2017, Danny Barker’s 20.75-inch Boyd Lake largemouth was first, 1.1528 percent of MA. 2016: Dave Boyle yanked a 17.5-inch smallmouth bass from Horsetooth Reservoir for second.
2016: Dave Boyle’s 23.5-inch brown trout out of Boyd Lake was 1.0682 percent of MA, good for first place. Second was Norm Engelbrecht’s 27-inch Jumbo Reservoir walleye, followed by Bill Prater’s 14-inch Sandpiper crappie.
2015: Kathleen Barker blew the covers off the 2015 contest with an enormous 18.75-inch crappie from Ish Lake. It measured out at 1.3393 of Master Angler criteria. Footnote: The state record for a white crappie in Colorado stands at 18.25 inches!)
2014: The late Tom Garland won the inaugural contest with a 19.5 inch largemouth bass from Bass Pond in Rivers Edge, 1.0833 of MA criteria. Second was Mike Schaber with an 18.5-inch largemouth, Dave Boyle was third with a 17.25-inch smallmouth from Horsetooth.
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The 2023 Loveland Fishing Club Angler of the Year is newly minted President Danny Barker, who this summer pulled a 21-inch largemouth bass from Boyd Lake. Competition chair Jim Roode did the calculations, and the beast measured 1.167 percent of the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife’s criteria for a Master Angler (MA) citation, based on length.
In second place was Bob Dierkes, with a hefty 19.5-inch largemouth from Bass Pond. Third place in 2023 also went to largemouth anglers - in a tie between Darrell Knight and Bill Prater. Darrell’s Sandpiper Pond bass and Bill’s from the Berthoud Town Pond were both a half inch shy of Bob's mark. (Footnote: the club competition is now limited to fish taken from water available to all club members. We say this because Jim Barbarok caught a whopping 16-inch yellow perch but it came from ... a private pond.
Below, Danny Barker, first; Bob Dierkes, second; and in a tie for third, Darrell Knight and Bill Prater.
By Bill Prater
Alert Loveland Fishing Club Reader Walt Graul has passed along fascinating news from our neighboring state of Kansas: it seems that last year's new state record crappie has been abruptly yanked from the record books.
Last year an 18-inch white crappie was caught with a minnow in an eastern Kansas reservoir. It was subsequently officially weighed in at 4.07 pounds, shattering an old record set way back in 1964. But an anonymous tipster later reported that he or she saw the same fish being weighed in earlier at 3.73. After an investigation, Kansas Parks and Wildlife staff seized the crappie and used a hand-held metal detector to scan its insides., and later did the same thing with an x-ray. This (steel bearings) is what they saw in its belly:
This week Outdoor Life also weighed in, noting the previous Kansas record has been reinstated. The angler with the new fish, who had apparently kept his prize in the freezer, has denied all wrongdoing. He was quoted by Outdoor Life as saying he caught the fish legally, and that Parks and Wildlife had illegally come to his home and taken the fish away for that damning x-ray. A Parks and Wildlife spokesperson responded that its actions were so legal.
The discovery of steel weights in the belly of the beast reminds us of a similar case in 2022 where two men were accused of stuffing lead into their winning walleye at an Ohio fishing tournament. A lot of prize money was involved in that case. Those folks got fined, lost the right to a fishing license, and had their boat taken away. There's no word on possible repercussions in the Kansas situation; the angler reportedly even got his fish back; he just lost bragging rights to the state record.
If you're as fascinated by all this as I am, here is a link to the complete Outdoor Life article: https://www.outdoorlife.com/fishing/kansas-record-crappie-removed/
In unrelated but also interesting news, the new Colorado state record for a BLACK crappie was set on Nov. 12 of last year, an 18.25-inch fish that was carefully measured and unofficially weighed in at 3 pounds 15 ounces. It's the new "state record by length." Colorado bases its Master Angler program on either length or weight, something Kansas might want to consider. Short of still allowing someone to mash a prize fish flat to squeeze out an extra inch or so to make it legal to keep and eat, it sure sounds like a way to encourage ethical angler behavior.
Anyway, here is something else I admire about Colorado's new record holder, kayak angler Eric Allee. Eric and fishing buddies admired his prize, measured it and took lots of pictures - and then he gently released it back into the water to fight (and maybe get measured again) another day. I'm betting the Kansas fellow wishes he'd done the same.
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A memorial service has been set for 11 a.m. Friday, March 8 at Foundation Church for Mavis Kelsey, wife of long-time Loveland Fishing Club member Dennis Kelsey. Mavis passed away Tuesday night after a long illness. Foundation is located at 1380 N. Denver, Loveland.
