The dark blotches on Matt Massey’s fish finder tell an indelible, yet adaptable story.
Large, undulating blobs mark a proliferation of freshly hatched gizzard shad that form a moveable, helpless feast for anything and everything eager to eat.
Several feet below, well-defined arcs reveal the presence of large game fish, predators tracking the balls of shad like neighborhood kids following the Good Humor wagon on a hot summer afternoon.
“They’re right there under the shad,” Massey shakes his head at what normally would be a celebratory discovery of tightly bunched targets. “You just can’t get them to hit your lures. All they have to do is swim up and open their mouths and they’re full.”
This annual rite, usually in early to mid-July, now a bit later, marks the begging of dog days for anglers who seek walleye, wiper and, to a lesser extent, smallmouth and largemouth bass at a variety of eastern Colorado reservoirs. For about six weeks, from late May through early July, the grab is on. But when the shad hatch stops, a lot of mouths snap shut.
Massey is not accustomed to not having fish bite. A seasoned tournament competitor, the Lakewood resident leads the standings for the Club 5280 tour, a newly formed circuit under the nationwide FLW Outdoors umbrella. For information about the tour, .
A few hundred yards away, where cottonwood shadows decorate Chatfield Reservoir with a green velvet tassel, a different story unfolds. Casting an assortment of soft plastics, Massey and Shane Emerson of Morrison attract a bite on nearly every cast. One might imagine this near-shore location is carpeted with smallmouth bass — hungry smallmouth bass.
Trouble is, these eager fish rarely are more than 10 inches, often smaller. A pattern comes clear. Larger, bolder bass gather toward the middle of the lake with the shad balls; the hungry small fry hug the shore away from all those teeth.
“It’s a great place for kids, except parents spend most of their time taking fish off the hook,” Massey said.
Massey touts a bubble or bobber with a smallish crappie jig or twister for such purposes. The same rig baited with a minnow or leech would be almost sinful.
The best bite, from 6 p.m. until dark, suggests an after-work family dinner outing.
For Paul Winkle, Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist, recent management of Chatfield has been no picnic.
A crash of the shad population a few seasons ago deprived walleye of essential nutrition. Then, in 2007, a large flush of water through the South Platte River system caused many fish to escape through the dam.
Winkle hopes a net survey in September will show that a solid sampling of walleye remains. Meanwhile, he’s delighted with an abundance of smallmouth that he refuses to term overpopulation.
“They’re very plentiful, but the body condition factor also is good,” he said of a species that thrives on a wealth of crayfish.
It appears that nearly everything is dining well at Chatfield these days — everything except anglers trying to catch a keeper-size fish for dinner.
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or .
