Horsetooth Reservoir

It was a beautiful afternoon, and another tough winter bite. I worked hard to put my jig in front of some fish, and it paid off. Started with a nice 14-inch smallmouth, and couple hours later landed a tank of a 17-incher. Finally, I wrangled an absolute pig of a 24” cutbow that managed to conjure up the feeling of a Pyramid lake fish. No matter how many big ones I catch, it always gives me a feeling of awe when a TWO FOOT trout on the end of my line becomes visible near the surface. Some words usually escape my lips in that moment like, “oh my gosh that’s a big fish.” The bigger smallie and the cutbow make the fifth and sixth master angler qualifiers of the year. No matter how tough the bite was, a master bass and trout in the same session is a REALLY good day.

This is the 17” smallmouth bass from the session with the 24” cutbow that I just posted. But gratuitously I felt like this fish deserved its own post. So I saved the classic straight-arm vertical hold shot for this post. Hard to beat the straight arm vertical when it comes to bass. Makes it look like a 22-incher 😂💪🏽🐟

Spent the afternoon looking for bigger fish on the sonar and found very few marks to target. The ones I found weren’t taking it, and there was just enough breeze to make vertical jigging a challenge. As I was nearing the end of my time on the water, I saw a mark at 47 feet. I thought it was a walleye or smallmouth bass the way it was hugging the bottom, and the way it ambushed my jig on the drop. To my delight, it was a fat 23-inch cutbow hen! I’d estimate it to be twice the weight of the 22-incher I caught last week. My fourth CO master angler qualifier so far this year. A great ending to a challenging midwinter session.

Caught a nice rainbow, over 22”. Ice is forming in the back of the cove. The days of winter open water fishing may be limited - we shall see!

Another late afternoon session, with just a bit of time before sunset. I lost a few hookups - I blame the wind - but did manage to land one tank of a rainbow. I think its size belied its age; its relatively small mouth tells me this was maybe a fast-growing three year old. A pure chromer, but long enough removed from the hatchery to look more like a sea-bound steelie than a stocked slimer. Nice fish.

I got out late in the afternoon shortly before sunset, and the wind was picking up. Thankfully I managed to rustle up one nice smallmouth from the depths!

There were strong winds on my birthday, and Xcel turned off our power all day as a measure of wildfire prevention. Kayaking was a definite no-go. Finally in late afternoon it calmed enough to head out with one of my daughters to fish from shore (still blisteringly cold). She caught a couple smaller trout, and I caught a decent male cutbow, around 18-19 inches. Normally I’d have high ambitions for a birthday fish, but this one was a blessing considering the circumstances!

An unusually calm January afternoon during an unusually warm winter on the home lake. Ended up catching eight smallmouth bass and finished up with a 21” cutbow shortly after sunset!