Goodbye 2019

2019 has been one of my favorite fishing seasons ever. I caught my PB Laker about 3 times in a week, ending on a 42" at the Flaming Gorge. Caught a ton of Pike, and my first Pike on the fly. Caught countless Walleye. PB Smallmouth, PB catfish, PB Carp, PB Kokanee, PB suckers hah. Learned a lot of new stuff. Fished quite a few new lakes. Got a new boat, truck, and camper. I hope this is not the high point in my fishing hobby

Goodbye, 2019. You will be remembered fondly!

Pueblo 12-26

Thursday was the only day for at least a week that would be in 40s and not snowing. Hit the lake about 8:30am. Fishing was very slow. On top of that my Solix touch screen and side imaging just stopped working. I had to shut down the unit and then turn the master power switch off for a minute to get it working again. The day was also about 3 times as windy as predicted. It was a tough morning hah. In the afternoon I started catching fish, walleyes and SMB, on Puppet Minnows. Mostly on a white and orange glow puppet minnow. Manged a few fish on blades too. Caught the fattest rainbow I have ever seen in person on a blade. Ended up being a decent day. Water temp was about 41 on the east end. Water was up about 2-3 feet, lot of wood and sticks floating around.

Stocking Up

I really really like blades and glide baits!

Pueblo 12/21 and 12/22

We had nice weather this weekend at Pueblo. Friday morning was 30F at 8am, but quickly warmed up to about 49 and sunny by noon. Fishing was a little slow at first. I did mange a pair of big catfish. At the end of the day we both got into some bass. Water temp was around 41F. Saturday was a good deal warmer, 36F and mostly sunny at 8am. Fishing was great. Found bass and walleye on structure most of the day. Managed one big bass at the end of the day. Blades and jigging raps as usual. Side note: I tried mono for jigging raps. I hate it. Braid is the only way to go for myself.

Pueblo 12/12

Water temp was about 43. Not too windy. Air temp in the low 30s. Fished structure in 18-40 FOW. Didn't do real well. Managed a couple of decent walleye and foul hooked a big catfish. Hit 'SMB' hump and managed a bunch of smallmouth. I saw a few tight groups of marks on structure. I think the marks are too big to be shad, and too many of them to be walleye. I think maybe the are crappie. I was not able to get them to bite..

Pueblo 12/1

Hit Pueblo on Sunday. It was about 18F when we arrived at 7am. The first hour was pretty rough. The guides on my rods kept freezing and even the line on the spool was frozen. This made casting really hard, got a lot of wind knots and break offs. We still managed to catch 20+ fish. All Smallmouth except for one Walleye and a big Carp. I caught the Walleye vertical jigging a jigging rap. That was a first. Snagged the carp casting a jigging rap near middle island. At the end of the day we caught a bunch of decent Smallmouths on a rocky hump near the south marina. Diane caught her first fish on a blade bait. Probably lost about $30 in blades and jigging raps, lot of submerged trees and brush in Pueblo. Pretty good day.

Pueblo 11/23 and 11/24

Fished Lake Pueblo for the first time this weekend. Pretty slow start on the first day. Caught one fish all morning. I was fishing a bit deep with a 1/2 oz silver blade. Amazing amount of shad everywhere. Huge school fooling my sonar into thinking they were the bottom of the lake. At time I could see big packs of what I guess were walleye or smb setting under the shad schools. In the afternoon I found a cool finger that came up to about 15 FOW with gradual drop offs around peck creek. Caught 8 fish in about 2 hours using a jigging rap. Also caught my person best SMB using a blade. Next day was decent. Caught some fish off that finger and a hump right outside the north marina. Wind blew really hard in the afternoon making it hard to fish.

Chatfield 11/16

Water temp 42-44. Wind 5-9mph. Water level 5 foot down. Diane and I caught 30 walleye today. Did well in deeper water, 25-35 FOW. 1/2oz blade bait did really well. Also managed some fish on jigging raps. Diane caught 8 on a jig and worm.

Chatfield 11/8 and 11/9

Water temp 41-46. Water clarity poor. Caught 9 on Friday and 10 on Saturday. Nothing too big. Blade baits and worms. Anytime I could find a few stacked up on structure I could catch a couple of them.

Chatfield 11/3

Water temp from 40 - 47 depending on location. Bite was pretty decent in the morning and afternoon. Mid-day was slow. Caught 5 fish, two keepers! All on blades. Did get a good hit on a jigging rap but missed it. Found most fish between 13 - 17 FOW. Cooked the Walleyes in Franks Red Hot with flour. It was awesome!

Jigging Rap

Finally got comfortable with the Jigging Rap. I have always thought it was a cool bait, but I had no confidence in using it. Tuesday I used a Jigging Rap all day at Chatfield and just cleaned up on the Smallmouth Bass. Jigging Raps and Blade Baits are quickly becoming my go-to baits for Walleye!

Here is a great video from Tom Boley that helped me understand how to use the bait.

Ezee Steps

When trailering my Lund I step off the bow onto the trailer so I can crank the boat up while trying not to get wet. It's a little sketchy stepping off the bow and I'm pretty sure eventually I would fall off into the lake. I looked around for some aftermarket solutions and came across Ezee Step. I ordered it and got it installed today. Extremely well built and looks good too. This should make loading and retrieving the boat a breeze now.

Update - Oct 25th. I fished until 7pm on Friday. It was very dark when it came time to pull the boat out. Now I can say I literally LOVE these steps. It made trailering the boat super easy and safe, even in the dark. I have ordered a thick pool noodle that I'm going to use as padding around the step supports just in case the boat ever tries to rub on them. I don't think its likely to, but for the price of $5 I can make it a non issue.

Chatfield 10/13

Diane and I got 19 walleye today. Water temp 55-58. Catching in 13-18 FOW.

Chatfield 10/12

Started fishing about 9:30. Water temp 55. End of day at 5 water temp was about 58. 13 fish.2 giant suckers, rest walleye. Blades and worms. Found a nice rocky spot that help a few walleye.

Chatfield 10/8

A few weeks ago I went on a guided walleye trip with Austin Parr. I have spent most of the last three years primarily targeting Lake Trout. This year I decided I needed to mix it up. That's why I have been taking more pike trips and fly fishing. I contacted Austin so I could learn more about walleye at Chatfield, and just walleye in general.

Because of the heat the walleye were still in more of a summer pattern. We found them shallow on humps around the gravel pits in the back of Chatfield. The three presentations we used were jig and a worm, blade baits, and jigging raps. This was my first time to use a blade bait. I really enjoyed working the blade bait, it was also very effective. I think we managed around 20 fish. Mostly walleye, a few trout, and one 10lb carp!

Austin uses Lowrance electronics. I have always use Humminbird... until this trip! The maps available for Lowrance are amazing. All of the Colorado lakes I fish are mapped in very high detail. You can't get this for Humminbird unless you make your own, which is a tall order for a big lake like Blue Mesa. So I am now the proud owner of a Hook2 9", installed it myself today. I did not hook up the transducer, I'm still using my Solix 12 for sonar. The Lowrance unit will just be used for maps...for now.

I took my new Lowrance and the new techniques Austin showed me and went back to Chatfield today. I was able to find fish right away. I deployed my trolling motor getting ready to spot lock, but it would not turn on... hopefully I will get that worked out soon. So I reset a bit up wind from the fish I wanted to target and threw out my anchor, old school lol. Using the blade bate I was able to catch about 7 walleye. I caught another 3 or 4 on a jig and worm. I am very happy with the results.

If you want to learn more about the Denver area lakes I highly recommend Austin Parr. Of all the guides I have fished with I feel he is the best teacher and just fun to hang out with.

Dream Stream and Spinney

Hit up the dream stream and Spinney with my friend Travis. Managed to catch my first fish nymphing. Caught a a spawning male Kokanee and a small brown trout. In the afternoon we hit Spinney and caught 7 pike.

Aurora Res w/ Dan

Fished for a few hours with Dan today at Aurora Res. We drug worms on bottom bouncers and did pretty good. Got quite a few walleye, one keeper at 20" Also managed 3 jumbo yellow perch. Good eats!