They work opposite sides of the clock, these bold young lions of the Denver bass scene.
One rises long before the sun for the nine- minute drive from his Aurora home to Quincy Reservoir, waiting eagerly at 5 a.m. for a park ranger to turn a gate key that will unlock the opportunity for the biggest largemouth bass of the season.
After hiking toward a promise of the sun along the south side of the lake, he casts at a frenzied pace for an hour and a half, maybe two if the bite is on with cloud cover, then scurries off to join the lineup of commuters.
The other hustles home from work, hitches up a boat trailer at his home in Lakewood, then launches 12 minutes later at Chatfield Reservoir, just as the sun dips toward the foothills.
With an evening bite for smallmouth bass followed by a closing flurry of walleye, he’ll linger deep into darkness, always hoping the next pull will be the big one.
Each secure on his local water, they remain friendly rivals who clash frequently during the season-long series of tournaments sponsored by Denver Bassmasters. Last year, Troy Coburn, a 36-year-old resident of Aurora, edged Matt Massey, 28, by a single point in the standings.
Between tournaments, they enjoy a high old time simply catching lots of fish very close to home. In the process, they deliver a blueprint for success for the thousands of anglers who also live in close proximity to these suburban impoundments.
Coburn relishes early Quincy action
“Look at the way those little trout are jumping out of the water,” Troy Coburn said as he points his rod tip toward a place where the first light of approaching dawn spread across Quincy’s unruffled calm.
“There’s a bass chasing them and I think it’s a good one.”
A half-hour into his morning ritual, Coburn has retired his surface popper in favor of a buzz bait, a classic show of impatience for a tournament angler who has no time for a pattern that won’t produce.
The noisy lure sputters through the target zone once, twice, then a third time. Just when it seems as if the chance is lost, a mouth the size of a coffee mug appears at the surface and the noise stops.
Shaking its head to dislodge the tangle of metal, the bass sends a spray of water across the surface, droplets that gleam lavender and pink. Coburn applies firm pressure, and in short order hefts a fish that, even in the uncertain light, plainly is a big one.
“Three pounds,” proclaims Coburn, who has caught enough to know. He had reason to hope for more. Last Tuesday, he landed a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces. Subsequent trips produced two exceeding 5 pounds. Remarkably, the big female hadn’t yet spawned; the tail of a sizable trout protruded from its maw.
“Things are tough today, what with the weekend crowd. These fish take a pounding. They usually don’t settle down until Wednesday,” Coburn said.
While many bass enthusiasts believe the largemouth bite at Quincy and other eastern Colorado reservoirs is done when the temperature begins to sizzle, Coburn knows better.
“Late March and the middle of June are the best times to be here,” said Coburn, who guides at this and other Front Range lakes under the license of Fort Collins-based Chad LaChance, phone 970-231-0252. His early-morning routine varies only with weather.
“I start with poppers if the water is dead calm. Then, if there’s a little bit of ripple, I switch to a buzz bait or a walking bait like a Zara Spook. When the sun hits the water, that’s usually the end of the top-water action. Then I fish with a Slug-Go or another soft stick bait until the bite stops completely.”
For those willing to arise before the milkman, Quincy bass will remain available in the early hours throughout the summer. The prime period will expand steadily as the water temperature and sun’s rays dip into autumn. And the little trout still will be jumping for their lives.
Massey finds nighttime is right time
When Matt Massey aims his bass boat toward the far shore of Chatfield Reservoir, he finds himself caught up in oceanic crosscurrents of waves caused by jet boats, water skiers and every other type of watercraft known to man.
By the time he leaves, perhaps three hours later, the southwest metro impoundment is glassy calm, save for the placid passage of fishing boats out for the night’s walleye bite.
This watery ruckus seems to disturb Massey not at all; he somehow manages a chuckle when a water skier almost snags his lure less than 10 yards from the dam.
“That’s crazy. The water there is barely 3 feet deep. It’s a wonder they don’t kill themselves.”
With the sun tangled in the tops of the foothills, Massey has moved into the sweet center of what on most evenings is a three-step angling rhumba. Earlier, near the south marina, he landed a largemouth bass, a species on the rebound. Later, in darkness, he’ll toss crankbaits for walleye that creep into the shallows.
But now it’s time to dance with smallmouth bass, perhaps the most plentiful sport fish in a lake that has more than its share.
“People I talk to at seminars don’t believe you can’t catch fish here, but it’s got a great population,” said Massey, who lectures on the staff of Bass Pro Shops.
The middle of June is the very best time, he says, with bass on the prowl and walleye becoming aggressive in anticipation of the shad hatch.
“I’ve been coming out three or four times a week. It’s been great.”
Tossing a 2 1/2-inch green tube jig into the rocks close to the dam, Massey counts a plump 15-incher among the several smallmouth he brings to the boat. He employs a relatively light 1/16th-ounce jig head for better action and to avoid the rocks.
Then, with the sun gone, he switches to a surface popper (“My favorite way to fish”) with similar success.
Those who don’t own a boat shouldn’t fret. There has been a terrific bite close to shore, either along the dam near the tower, just off the rocks in the north marina cove or in front of the handicap pier on the south side. At this point, Massey agrees to tell a secret.
“My favorite thing when I don’t have my boat is to walk to the end of the dock late in the evening. Boats leaving the water stir up the bottom,” he said.
This food chain includes young-of-the-year crayfish stirred up by prop wash.
“Fish gather out there just eating away. It’s an easy meal.”
And easy fishing, as well.
