Loveland Fishing Club Blog

 FYI, Dan Swanson has posted the following on his Facebook page. Colorado Bass Nation is seeking volunteers (20 or more) this weekend to install habitat structures at Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland, CO. Volunteers need not be members. I believe your park pass for the day is being comped. We'll meet at 10:00am (location to follow). Please bring a screw gun (if you have one), work gloves, sunscreen and wear work clothes. Questions? Contact George Mauries, 303-819-1171, or Bill Wilson with Centennial Bass.  Boyd Habitat Project Saturday Sept 18th 10:00 am -  Bill Wilson Centennial Bass Club of Northern Colorado bassinbill@gmail.com 970-218-2895

 Long stretches of the Yampa and Colorado rivers are among the streams currently closed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife as the result of this lingering heat and drought. In its weekly fishing report, the agency noted the CPW director may "  authorize emergency closure of fishing waters in the state when it is determined that environmental conditions in these waters are such that fishing could result in unacceptable levels of fish mortality. Additionally, CPW may initiate a voluntary fishing closure where the agency asks anglers to find alternative places to fish until conditions improve. When such determination has been made, public notice will be given, including posting at the relevant water.  The criteria for any potential action may include:  Daily maximum water temperatures > 71°F  Stream flows ≤ 50% of the daily average flow  Fish condition visibly deteriorating  Daily dissolved oxygen < 6 parts per million  Natural or man-caused enviro...

 Darned if we're going to tell you about it here, though; you'll just have to ask Dennis Kelsey how he landed this fat 18-inch largemouth on a Loveland area pond on Aug. 24. I'll give you a hint:  no, ask him yourself. Or maybe Don Knudsen, who watched the fight and then took this photo.

  Those who know me well know this: For the 17 years or so I’ve been with the Loveland Fishing Club, I have been in dogged, some say mindless, pursuit of a Colorado Master Angler bluegill. They are gorgeous, tough little devils, but don’t grow well here in the land of fluctuating water levels and near-total lack of hard cover. Which perhaps explains why I and a few other lonely missionaries keep chasing a very few big ones, while others mindlessly pursue skinny but tastier walleye. My version of Don Quixote ended abruptly Wednesday morning on an unnamed, snake- and mosquito-infested pond not too far from Loveland. That’s when I (and my secret Gulp minnow) battled and subdued an obese, 10 ½ inch male that had been naively feasting on a ball of bait fish. That’s a full 5 percent over the minimum to qualify for a Colorado Master Angler patch for the species. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the pond, Wayne B muttered said something about catching a couple 4- or 5-pound largemouths that had b...

By   COLORADO PARKS & WILDLIFE   |   September 1, 2021 at 8:16 a.m. RED FEATHER LAKES, Colo. — Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials at its aquatic animal health laboratory have identified an anchor worm infestation as the cause of dead and dying fish at West and Dowdy lakes in western Larimer County. Anchor worm is a parasite that can cause severe inflammation resulting in open bleeding sores on fish. Adult females are permanently fixed to a fish, resulting in the observed sores. It can lead to stress, osmotic imbalance and to secondary infection. The free swimming immature stages of the anchor worm can feed on gill tissue, causing considerable damage that can impact respiration and osmoregulation, in addition to being an irritant. Anchor worms are not new to both West Lake and neighboring Dowdy Lake. They can become problematic to the fish populations every several years according to CPW Area Wildlife Manager Jason Surface. “We want anglers to be aware of ...

 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! Wad...