IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Colorado => Ice Fishing Colorado => Topic started by: SLAYERFISH on Jan 13, 2022, 05:26 PM
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Started fishing at 830am 40F it was freekin nice out. Total count was around 150 in 3 hrs. Stopped fishing at Noon.Mostly 7.5"-8.75". Most keepers in the 8.5" range.. Silver/green Kasty with perch eye at 30 ft was the ticket. it seems the fish are about 1" longer than last year. That bodes well for the next couple years I hope. ;D
(https://i.imgur.com/dsQ0cmZl.jpg)
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The lake needs some thinning out of the herd. Its a great place to take the kids or GF or whomever. Just get up there and get some exercise and harvest a sheet load of these things! ;D
In a couple years the perch will be decent sized again.
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That’s a nice looking pile . Sounds like a good day.
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That’s a nice looking pile . Sounds like a good day.
Warm, Sunny, Action, Fun, and some Exercise! It's what I live for. If they were a little bigger it'd be the bomb! ;)
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Slayer,
Just to keep my arse somewhat safe, we’re you able to walk the ice to the back? Thickness of ice? Thank You! I’m a Loveland guy, but never been there. 😄
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Just walk to the dam, walk onto the lake, and walk to the back if you wish! We caught these just out from the dam- ;)
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5-7 inches everywhere
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Limit 20 there?
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You would have gotten a lot more exercise if you had fished where I did. Just sayin. ;) Not sure that I can make it on Monday but you should bring an army to thin the herd. Yeah, unfortunately or fortunately limit is 20.
s
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What do you suggest on getting the equipment in there? Hand auger, backpack, or can you drag a small sled in there?
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What do you suggest on getting the equipment in there? Hand auger, backpack, or can you drag a small sled in there?
If you clean all my fish I'll go with you :P
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If you clean all my fish I'll go with you :P
If you let me keep all your fish plus carry my equipment in there. ;D
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There was this dude barely moving up the 'Hill O Death'. I bet it took him a half an hour. Hacking all the way. I saw him at the top as we were fishing but never saw him fish. I think he just went back home- :P
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Nice work! Great to see the size going up a little, at least.
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Got my perch fix first fish 11.5 perch the rest average size but easy limit in less than an hour
(https://i.postimg.cc/V5w2YsJx/C6-B90-BA4-D9-FC-4116-8-EDA-3-EC8918-AB516.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/V5w2YsJx)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7GZ7VTsv/984-D3-DC9-397-E-4-EAB-BC0-F-FC19-AC7-A2224.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7GZ7VTsv)
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Hey thank you for sharing the great report!
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What do you suggest on getting the equipment in there? Hand auger, backpack, or can you drag a small sled in there?
Sledding is possible right after a snow. But, they quickly plow the caretaker's road in, unfortunately. Right now, there are bare spots that make sledding harder. With the warm weather, probably even more bare spots and the "hill of death" up the dam is often bare rocks. I backpack the gear into the dam and bring a small sled (like Slayer's kid sled) for once on the ice. As long as the dam ice is safe (and it appears to be so right now), you can walk the mile to the dam with gear in a 5-gallon bucket or 2. If sketchy ice near the dam, I try to backpack everything for the hike around. Fee for parking is $7 a day.
Catfishking. 11.5" is incredible perch from what I have seen for the past few years. Great job.
Slayer, that could have been me scaling that hill. And I could have gotten disgusted and left because someone was on my spot. ;D
s
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Shoe,
did Ft. Collins get any snow today?
Thanks,
Dropshot
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Sledding is possible right after a snow. But, they quickly plow the caretaker's road in, unfortunately. Right now, there are bare spots that make sledding harder. With the warm weather, probably even more bare spots and the "hill of death" up the dam is often bare rocks. I backpack the gear into the dam and bring a small sled (like Slayer's kid sled) for once on the ice. As long as the dam ice is safe (and it appears to be so right now), you can walk the mile to the dam with gear in a 5-gallon bucket or 2. If sketchy ice near the dam, I try to backpack everything for the hike around. Fee for parking is $7 a day.
Catfishking. 11.5" is incredible perch from what I have seen for the past few years. Great job.
Slayer, that could have been me scaling that hill. And I could have gotten discussed and left because someone was on my spot. ;D
s
Thanks Shoe! What about out of shape 59 years old guy? :)
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Thanks Shoe! What about out of shape 59 years old guy? :)
Jeez Dropshot is north of 70 he ran right up that hill. ;D
Gotta pack light. I can fit everything in my medium sized backpack. Sonar, lunch, water, 2 rods, some clothing. Oh and bring your cleats! Someone didn't bring theirs the other day and it woulda sucked to walk to the Isla without them. ;)
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I don’t think Ft. Collins got any snow today, Friday. I live in Loveland, and very few flakes fell; almost unnoticeable.
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Nice pile of tiny tacos, Mike! ;D
Wow, 11.5” is a monster from there, Brian—Sweet!
Yeah, pack light. Backpack and bucket, no sled. Don’t even need a flasher by the island. Just drop a pimple or kasty down to the bottom and bam. It’s CATCHING, not fishing.
Not sure I’m gonna make it Monday, but I’ll let u know ;)
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Went there yesterday with a friend; there were around 9 guys by the dam. Perch were easy to catch, a couple of waxies and eye balls lasted until limit. The hike is easy and good exercise, the drive and the fillet time are not worth it due to the size of the perch. The perch in that lake needs to be thin out so the remain fish can get bigger since there are so many of them. Also caught a 15" brown which fought like a 20 inchers.
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Just like the last time. Got one that went 10.5". HUGE! ;D. 4 of us Me Johnny O Dropshot and Colorado Bob all trekked back to the island and inlet area. some good exercise and fun was had by all. iT DOESNT GET ANY EASIER THAN IT NIS NOW! ;D. Almost any depth and method will catch perch. Most are 8"-8.5".
Johnny got a bunch of suckers for Laker bait!
(https://i.imgur.com/nuJ2Zlnl.jpg)
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Nice. Did you walk on the ice the whole way to the back or do some overland hiking? I will have to make the trek again soon. The herd might need more thinning.
s
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Walked the ice all the way back to the inlet. Island was ok action, Man there's a lot of holes been drilled there.
(https://i.imgur.com/Y05JqRml.jpg)
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Nice haul Slayer!! Those perch look great
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Hey Slayer I have a question about your filets! It almost looks to me like you do not cut out/off the rib bone section before cooking?
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Hey Slayer I have a question about your filets! It almost looks to me like you do not cut out/off the rib bone section before cooking?
Totally boneless fillets! ;D
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Nice work, boys! I was hoping to join you, but got sucked into work.
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Nice! Looks like you guys had a fun day out there. Way to thin them out!
Slayer, the perch nuggets look great! Curious, what would you say is your average fillet time on each of those little guys? ;)
I'm so slow it takes me forever to get through a pile like that.
Shaun and I went a bit further North on Sunday, did plenty of filleting myself.
Made some fried catfish last night, with a spicy cajun dipping sauce.
(https://i.postimg.cc/qvKRtJYY/1025-C687-DBA9-44-DD-9-F0-C-3520-B077-DE70.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
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Nice! Looks like you guys had a fun day out there. Way to thin them out!
Slayer, the perch nuggets look great! Curious, what would you say is your average fillet time on each of those little guys? ;)
I'm so slow it takes me forever to get through a pile like that.
Shaun and I went a bit further North on Sunday, did plenty of filleting myself.
Made some fried catfish last night, with a spicy cajun dipping sauce.
(https://i.postimg.cc/qvKRtJYY/1025-C687-DBA9-44-DD-9-F0-C-3520-B077-DE70.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
There's more meat in that pan then my entire 2 days worth! ;D
I can do 40 little perch in 1 hour. From start to ziplock bag!
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Nice, that’s not bad for that many fish! ;)
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Made my first visit to the Jizm today. Fished in the dam area, best around 40 feet depth, with fish coming through at 20-25 feet. Fish were constantly moving around - hard to keep on them. At times they were so thick, the Marcum registered a false bottom. All fish were in that 8 to 8.5” range as has been mentioned. Must have been one great spawn the year they were born.
(https://i.postimg.cc/5jw1VqPp/2-FF60-E20-430-B-444-B-88-A2-603-D87-E00-B9-E.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/5jw1VqPp)
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Made my first visit to the Jizm today. Fished in the dam area, best around 40 feet depth, with fish coming through at 20-25 feet. Fish were constantly moving around - hard to keep on them. At times they were so thick, the Marcum registered a false bottom. All fish were in that 8 to 8.5” range as has been mentioned. Must have been one great spawn the year they were born.
(https://i.postimg.cc/5jw1VqPp/2-FF60-E20-430-B-444-B-88-A2-603-D87-E00-B9-E.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/5jw1VqPp)
1st visit ever?
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(https://i.postimg.cc/Rh0gQqG3/unnamed.jpg)
Who ya calling Sucker!!
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My final haul, minus a few perch ;)
(https://i.postimg.cc/dQRrQqsd/0.jpg)
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A Sucky day! ;D
Sucre Bleau- :P
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1st visit ever?
Yes, Slayer, my first ever visit to the reservoir. I’ve had lots of excuses over the years for not going, none of them very good. BTW, while I was there a gentleman stopped by, telling us fishing was good for perch right near the methane holes. Immediately I thought of your previous years pictures when you did such a thing. My man-nuggets aren’t big enough to try that! lol
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They’re still bitin’ up there:)
(https://i.postimg.cc/rKx7fPWT/38-EFE680-2-D2-E-40-B0-99-B9-9-E2-B24-F3497-C.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/rKx7fPWT)
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Are there two trails? One easier than the other?
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Da_teacher - nope, only 1 trail. It is pretty easy except for the last 200 yards or so when you climb up the dam to get on the ice.
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They’re still bitin’ up there:)
(https://i.postimg.cc/rKx7fPWT/38-EFE680-2-D2-E-40-B0-99-B9-9-E2-B24-F3497-C.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/rKx7fPWT)
A 21 fish limit! My kind of guy! ;D
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I saw that…close enough.
20 (+/-) 1. ;D
That place is too long a hike to go back for lunch in your car…
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Yes it is! ;)
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That’s a BlackJack perch limit. :o :o
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Facebook/fishexploder blew that place up. 15 vehicles in the parking lot at 8am
(https://i.postimg.cc/7fPCzdzf/IMG-8566.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7fPCzdzf)
(https://i.postimg.cc/BXwvK6sV/Screenshot-20220122-195215-Gallery.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/BXwvK6sV)
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Well I guess we'll see if my plan works come next year! ;D
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That place is too long a hike to go back for lunch in your car…
Bwahahaha! Classic!
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Ha fellas! I realized I couldn’t count after I took the pic and let my last fish go. As an aside, I had 2 floaters pop up into my hole while I was fishing - hope people realize that if you are catching them as deep as I was, 33-36’, most of them aren’t going to survive a release, even if they swim off. Could be a lot of post release mortality happening up there right now…
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Ha fellas! I realized I couldn’t count after I took the pic and let my last fish go. As an aside, I had 2 floaters pop up into my hole while I was fishing - hope people realize that if you are catching them as deep as I was, 33-36’, most of them aren’t going to survive a release, even if they swim off. Could be a lot of post release mortality happening up there right now…
There will be some mortality! They need to be thinned out anyhow. ;)
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Mortality took 20 today - into my fryng pan for tomorrow. They seemed to be a little finicky today but perch eyes were the bait of choice. Fished in 37 feet of water near dam.
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There will be some mortality! They need to be thinned out anyhow. ;)
When you become a fisheries biologist; D maybe when you were busy working, you must did some online classes.
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Mortality took 20 today - into my fryng pan for tomorrow. They seemed to be a little finicky today but perch eyes were the bait of choice. Fished in 37 feet of water near dam.
Heck yeah. Ive found its less work to catch them in like 10 ft of water! ;)
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Facebook/fishexploder blew that place up. 15 vehicles in the parking lot at 8am
(https://i.postimg.cc/7fPCzdzf/IMG-8566.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7fPCzdzf)
(https://i.postimg.cc/BXwvK6sV/Screenshot-20220122-195215-Gallery.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/BXwvK6sV)
This thread has +1800 views. YOU guys blew it up. ;)
I'm glad that lake isn't in my back yard any more, sheesh.
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This thread has +1800 views. YOU guys blew it up. ;)
I'm glad that lake isn't in my back yard any more, sheesh.
If you bothered to read the thread you'd realize that we were TRING TO BLOW IT UP! ;D
Hoping to turn a million 7"ers into 200,000 10"ers. ;)
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I think it might be good to define blown up. 15 vehicles. maybe an avg of 2 people per vehicle? lets say those 30 people are competent and catch a limit. so 600 perch MAYBE gone. only 999,400 perch left in there! Id say that parking lot would have to have 100 vehicles to maybe make a dent. And thats 100 vehicles a day of every fishable ice day there is during ice season. So keep going!
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I think it might be good to define blown up. 15 vehicles. maybe an avg of 2 people per vehicle? lets say those 30 people are competent and catch a limit. so 600 perch MAYBE gone. only 999,400 perch left in there! Id say that parking lot would have to have 100 vehicles to maybe make a dent. And thats 100 vehicles a day of every fishable ice day there is during ice season. So keep going!
Yeah, Like Aurora ;)
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Yeah, Like Aurora ;)
I really think lack of recruitment of new perch is the biggest problem at Atown. The lake was drawn down 4 times in the last 5 years in early summer which killed many of the perch eggs. Last ice season virtually the only year class caught was 12.5". none smaller.
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I think the stunted perch situation at the "blown up lake" has to do with TWO important things: 1)Too many fish 2)Poor lake productivity (food abundance/quality)
Here's an interesting study on Perch population in the sandhill lakes: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2400.2001.00278.x (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2400.2001.00278.x)
These guys found that "Lake productivity may have more of an influence on yellow perch growth than angler exploitation. Increased growth was associated with increased productivity, which is consistent with other studies."
I'm not sure fishing pressure alone will affect the size of those fish in a huge way. If you start with 1 million perch, and then 30 dudes caught limits every day this year (600 fish per day), it would only reduce the population by 22%. You'd still have 781,000 fish by December 2022! And that's 30 limits EVERY DAY! There's no way blowing that lake up online will even make a dent this year. ::)
I think increasing macroinvertebrate abundance and introducing a natural predator (such as walleye and/or smallies) would help a bunch, though. ;D
Yellow perch growth rates depend on "...density-dependence (Headley and Lauer 2008), interspecific competition (Boisclair and Leggett 1989a, 1989b, 1989c; Schoenebeck and Brown 2009), predator abundance (Dembkowski et al. 2017), and prey quality (Lott et al. 1996; Fullhart et al. 2002).
From (https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfwm/article/9/2/486/204590/Population-Characteristics-of-Yellow-Perch-in-a (https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfwm/article/9/2/486/204590/Population-Characteristics-of-Yellow-Perch-in-a)
So, the high number of small fish in this lake suggests 1)Poor predation (since there are TONS of freakin fish); 2)Poor productivity (since there are almost no fish above a certain size threshold). So I don't think it's really going to get much better with the current fishing pressure alone.
BUT WE'LL SEE! ;)
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There used to be many large trout in the lake both rainbow and browns. Rarely see them anymore. Maybe some Wallys would help! ;D
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Seem to be fewer and fewer big browns, for sure. Wonder if it could have something to do with more silt and poor quality of water coming in? That could be affecting the trout spawn (predator population) and then also altering the macroinvertebrate abundance that the perch feed on. Double-whammy. :P
After they drained it in 2008 (wasn't it?) there was a huge fire upstream in 2012, which has messed with silt and runoff all these years.
I think perch can reach 10" in 6-7 years with good lake productivity, sooo...where are they? Some major stuff going on in that lake.
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There used to be many large trout in the lake both rainbow and browns. Rarely see them anymore. Maybe some Wallys would help! ;D
There are at least 3 southeastern wyoming lakes that now have illegally stocked walleye in them that i have heard of. But based on which lakes it is, Im guessing someone is deliberately putting them in all of the lakes they would have a good chance of surviving.
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This thread has +1800 views. YOU guys blew it up. ;)
I'm glad that lake isn't in my back yard any more, sheesh.
Ok then...lol
(https://i.postimg.cc/WtDfbPFB/Screenshot-20220131-191302-Facebook.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/WtDfbPFB)
(https://i.postimg.cc/WtDfbPFB/Screenshot-20220131-191302-Facebook.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/WtDfbPFB)
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I wonder where they got that name.
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I wonder where they got that name.
It started a long time ago, from a famous member ;)
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When you become a fisheries biologist; D maybe when you were busy working, you must did some online classes.
lake would definitely benefit from some butthole throwing in some pike, lol