Horsetooth Reservoir

Another glassy day! Again struggled to find the big trout, so I pivoted to smallies and landed four. The first was 16” and each catch trended smaller at 15”, 14”, and 10”. No master anglers today, but no complaints!

Had a couple hours before Valentine’s date with wife. Only landed one, but it was a decent 17” smallie. 11th MA qualifier this year.

Whenever I kayak fish, I go with the expectation and preparedness for more wind than the forecast, because that’s what usually happens. A rare and glorious few times each year, the opposite happens, and the wind never materializes. Today was such a day. I spent a few hours trying to find the big trout, and didn’t. Just one scrappy rainbow. Then I found a school of savage smallmouths. They were deep, and the calm conditions allowed me to stay on them. I hooked up with a bunch and landed at least nine. The three biggest were all over 17” (Colorado MA qualifiers #8-10 for the year, just keeping track for fun). There were a few in the 15-16” range and the smallest was around 14”. A few were puking up smelt. Cool variety of body colors ranging from brown to greenish-bronze to orange-bronze within the same school! Toward the end of my session in the fading light I hooked up with what had to be a huge walleye. It got off quickly and bent the jig hook. An amazing day in spite of the big one that got away.

Got out for an afternoon session. Lost a couple hookups but landed one little rainbow to avoid the skunk! Water temp is 39, but it’s still relatively summer-like for February.

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!