Fort Collins – This is not to say that catching smallmouth bass at Horsetooth Reservoir is an absolute certainty, but even a caveman can do it.
Or certainly a couple of marginal bass fishermen from Denver, which pretty much means the same.
On a day last week when cotton-ball clouds swept clean a sky of brightest blue, brown fish swiped eagerly at a variety of offerings at a spot that is emerging among the most reliable fisheries along Colorado’s Front Range.
Thing is, water temperature at the big foothills reservoir west of Fort Collins measured just 50 degrees, several digits below the point at which smallies hit their feeding stride. The best is yet to come.
“They turn on at about 55 degrees. At 60, it’s a riot,” said Chad LaChance, a man who, from several vantage points, is in position to know. A successful tournament professional, LaChance earns a considerable part of his livelihood by knowing where, when and how to catch bass at a wide variety of locations.
But Horsetooth is his specialty, in large part because he almost can cast from his balcony to the shore. LaChance knows every seasonal nuance of a lake that, since it was drained in 1998 and refilling began in 2003, keeps getting better each year.
Complementing the natural assets of a freshly flooded lake bed, Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Ken Kehmeier added a baitfish bounty of spottail and emerald shiners. The spottail has thrived as a prime forage base for smallmouth, along with a carpet of crayfish. The emeralds, more accessible to walleye, boomed for a time, then faded.
Kehmeier last year captured smallmouth up to 5 pounds in his net, along with lots of fish from 14 to 16 inches.
“They definitely have a set of shoulders on them. Last summer, if you found a fish that was on crayfish, it had good body condition,” he said.
Smallmouth seem to be almost everywhere at depths of 12 to 15 feet along the secondary banks of Horsetooth. But to find the precise spots, simply trace the travels of LaChance.
On Thursday, those places generally were rocky points or terraces trailing off into deeper water near the several coves that sprout from the western shore. As if through some telepathy with the fish, LaChance switched among a watermelon flake Berkley Power Grub, a Berkley Gulp Shaky Worm and a brown tube jig. A dozen or so bass, along with a solitary walleye, loved them all.
LaChance, who can be reached at 970-231-0252 or Chad@FishfulThinker.com, offers this advice for the remainder of the season:
Smallmouth
Work the points and secondary shorelines for the next couple of weeks as the water warms. After a couple of weeks, when the temperature reaches 60 to 62, the bass will migrate into the coves for spawning.
Post-spawn smallies return to the secondary shoreline, where they respond to topwater lures during periods of calm. As water warms in mid-June, bass move to deeper water off long tapering points, where more erratic jerk baits provide a wake-up call. During summer, anglers should target specific feeding areas, especially early and late or on darkly cloudy days.
Walleye
These bottom dwellers are just coming into a post-spawn bite. LaChance uses diving crank baits while focusing on mud lines and offshore rock piles.
In summer and into autumn, he uses vertical jigging to reach deep rocks and rubble offshore. Shore anglers find success in places like Satanka Cove, in Inlet Bay and along the east shore of South Bay.
The Horsetooth revival, which includes a surprising number of crappie and bluegill, along with an explosion of smallish yellow perch, is muted by the fact the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has placed it, along with Carter and Boyd reservoirs, on alert for mercury contamination.
The agency has established a protocol based on size of fish and number of meals per month. Anglers who insist on a fish dinner may elect to do the math or simply roll the diet dice, caveman-style.
Or they might simply enjoy the bite during this Horsetooth revival and put them all back.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
