Lonetree Reservoir

Got out for an hour during daughter’s horse riding lesson. Caught a couple of nice walleye, and lost a couple too. The first was about 22” and the second 25”. The second one (first picture) is so skinny, it hardly looks like a near-master-angler (26”). But with such proportionally large fins, it’s a really cool looking fish! Like a freshwater sea robin (ok maybe that’s a stretch). Finished the session with another 18” largemouth hog! QUESTION: which photo/hold do you like better for the bass - horizontal or vertical? (Geeky photo notes: Vertical is the classic bass hold, but I sometimes have a hard time placing it ideally in the frame. Horizontal seems to highlight the belly, but requires at least a finger under the tail to properly support the fish. I take all my fish photos in standard 1.0 perspective, relying on forced perspective to make the fish look bigger rather than distortion. I also value good fish handling at this point of my fishing career. That means I never hold a fish by the gills, and therefore always have fingers somewhere in the shot. So it’s an artistic challenge to find the best composition where the fish looks good (big but natural in my opinion), my hands don’t look distracting, and the background looks good too. Of course it’s a debatable matter of opinion whether one should even try to make a fish look bigger in a photo. I could write an essay on it, but you know where I stand. However, the degree of forced perspective is still a gray area to me. For example, the vertical bass picture here is extreme compared to most of my pics. It’s 18” and I’m presenting it as bigger than my entire upper body. That’s crazy in one sense, but the fish and my face are both in focus, so from a photographic standpoint I think it works. It’s a bit more extreme than I would choose from a documentarian standpoint, but it’s the shot I would choose for a magazine cover if I were the marketing director.)

Got out for a brisk sunset shore session during my daughter’s horse riding lesson. Caught a bruiser of a largie, and a couple decent walleyes on the superfluke and the hollow-belly paddle tail. Lost one fish that badly bent my jig hook.

Happy Thanksgiving y’all! Six fish in an hour during my daughter’s horse riding lesson! Four solid walleye in the 20-25” range, one hog of a 19” largemouth bass, and one dink (but still great looking) walleye. These fish are acting like winter’s coming! I tried a few lures with no bites, and then caught them all on the super fluke. The walleye all flared their dorsals, which I love to see! What do you think, was it the right choice to put a walleye as the first picture, or should I have featured the largie? I know what you’ll say Dez Bass! I’m thankful for y’all and for this fun platform to share the love of fishing.

Had a nice session under cloudy skies during my daughter’s horse riding lesson. Caught a Colorado master angler qualifying largemouth on a spoon! Then after a while with no bites, I switched to the X-rap so I could slow it down. The next catch was another hawg of a bass (by Colorado standards; I know 3.5 pounders are considered to be dinks in some states 😂). I followed that up with a decent walleye, which is what I was hoping for with the slower approach!

Had a little time to fish during my daughter’s horse riding lesson. Stormy skies swirled overhead. With no bites, I went with a hunch that I needed to get out further. So I tied on a 1 oz kasty; heavier than what my rod was rated for, and requiring a faster retrieve than ideal, but knowing I’d be able to huck that thing a mile and cover some water. It paid off with a solid walleye! These short shore sessions are a fun challenge to see if I can quickly find something that works.

Consolidating a couple sessions here. Caught a nice largemouth and a small walleye during daughter’s horse riding lesson. Both on the KVD 1.5. Caught a couple smallies on the home lake. Water level on the home lake is still dropping like a rock!

This was from two locations on the same day. First I fished in a private lake during my daughter’s horse riding lesson and caught a small walleye. Later I landed a couple of smallmouths on the home lake. Wildfire smoke in the air made for a beautiful (but somewhat disturbing) sunset.

Caught a nice LMB in an irrigation canal flowing into a lake. With permission on private property. Fun to catch one in moving water.