A taste of spring looks to be arriving next week. A couple of days in the 60s will trigger the fish in the pond to be even more active. Most of the ponds in the northern front range have lost their ice. Yesterday checked the Longmont area, and all the ponds I saw had open water. The only pond at St. Vrain with a little ice floating around was Blue Heron.
Had a little over an hour to fish at St. Vrain before the NE Sportspersons Caucus. I got a couple of bites while pitching a jig and plastic on Pelican. Then got a chance to catch up with Austin Parr who was fishing Sandpiper with his family. Austin had caught a couple of nice trout snapping a hair jig.
One thing I noticed yesterday was most of the bites came within 20 feet of the shore. The shallows are warming up more as the day progresses and the warmer water is leading to increased bug activity.
Hot Bites
Fish the ponds, especially those stocked with trout. Target fishing in the late afternoon. Try using lighter jigs, jerk baits, or a fly and bubble to fish the shallow areas.
CPW NEWS
I attended the NE Sportspersons Caucus last night and got a chance to talk the the NE Region Senior Fishery Biologist and hear a couple of presentations regarding fishing/water issues.
CPW has hired new fishery biologists for the Denver, South Park, and Fort Collins areas. I plan to do a short Q&A with each of them once they have a chance to get settled in their new positions, probably in April or early May.
Summary of NE region Aquatics Update from CPW:
Kyle started talking about the overall status of fisheries in the NE region.
Next stocking in the region was discussed. Over 54 million fish of all sizes were stocked in NE region in 2023. Remember most of these fish are stocked as fry and fingerlings.
Finally, there was a discussion about the 18” minimum size regulation on Cherry Creek. Someone had questioned the possibility of allowing some harvest under 18”. The goal of the 18” on Chatfield, Cherry Creek, and Pueblo is to ensure the state has adequate numbers of walleyes in the sexually mature age classes. Brood female walleyes are in their prime from age 3-6+.
The 18” minimum size for the walleyes in Cherry Creek is doing a good job protecting the 3-year-old brood females. Colorado is one of the top states in the number of walleyes it produces through it’s spawning operation. This is critical to keeping the quality of walleye fisheries in the state. I know it can be frustrating at times catching tons of fish under the minimum size, without these regs there is the possibility the state would not be able to produce enough walleyes to stock all the lakes. I would much rather catch a bunch of fish under the size limit than not catch many walleyes at all.
There was a short discussion about Union and I will include that information in the lake breakdown coming soon.
FISHING FUNNIES