Let’s make a number of things clear about the relative merits of Cherry Creek Reservoir as a place to pursue that popular gamefish, the wiper.
1. Other reservoirs contain greater concentrations of these string-stretching hybrids. Pueblo leaps immediately to mind. Ditto Nee Gronda, another southeast favorite.
2. Almost any spot you care to mention earns higher marks for aesthetics than a thoroughly urbanized impoundment where transportation noises, land and sky, nettle the senses. Toss in a perpetual algae bloom that limits both visibility and any desire to actually eat the catch and you have a lake that won’t win many beauty contests.
3. No location in the state delivers larger wiper on average than Cherry Creek. Not even close. Which means you can toss Nos. 1 and 2 into the trash, grab a stout rod and head straight to a southeast metro lake where ugly changes faces in a hurry with a 13-pounder tugging on the line.
Which is exactly what Nathan Zelinsky found while casting a white Rat-L-Trap tight against the dam last week.
“Big one,” Zelinsky grunted, feeling the fresh energy of a fish that has no Colorado equal in raw pulling power.
A Bailey resident who grew up fishing the lake, Zelinsky counts Cherry Creek wiper among the several targets for his Tightline Outfitters guide service (303-947-8327).
“I’ve been getting eight to 12 fish this size most mornings until the recent storm systems stirred things up,” Zelinsky said. “I won’t do guide trips when it’s slow like this.”
It had taken him the better part of three hours to connect with this prize, a lag that could be blamed on a full moon still hanging high in the western sky. Given such opportunity for night feeding, wiper have no difficulty chowing down on another Cherry Creek superlative, the state’s most prolific population of gizzard shad.
Whether pursuing wiper or walleye, the lake’s other trophy species, success during late summer depends wholly on learning to play the shad game. Zelinsky starts his day along the dam, where predators herd bait fish along the rocky drop-off.
As light grows, he targets the several aerators scattered around the lake in what appears a futile attempt to mitigate an algae problem caused by nutrients washed down from continuing development higher up the drainage. This oxygen-saturated upwelling attracts the bait, which brings the wiper. In addition to a variety of crankbaits, Zelinsky favors a white spinnerbait for its visibility and overall commotion in the murky water. Trolling with planer boards completes his ample bag of tricks.
The preponderance of larger wiper can be attributed to an interruption in Colorado Division of Wildlife stocking during the early part of the decade, a lull that biologist Paul Winkle began rectifying four years ago with an annual plant of 8,000 fingerlings.
“These big fish are from plants in the late 1990s,” Winkle surmised. “We’re not seeing these younger fish yet.”
One finds separate rewards for launching well before sunrise on a morning too cold for the usual assault of water toys. Along the west side of the lake, a young buck deer still in velvet strolls warily, sips a drink, then melts into the vegetation.
Headlights announce the arrival of bank fishermen, who sift like ghosts through the cottonwoods to their positions at water’s edge. Minutes later, small fishing boats appear from the early mist, forming the thin line of a dawn patrol.
Close to shore, a yellow warbler darts among the branches like a flying flower, pushing back the chill with its cheery song.
Come to think of it, Cherry Creek Reservoir might not be such a bad place after all.
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com
Zelinsky on stage
Angling expert Nathan Zelinsky will present two free seminars at the Sportsman’s Warehouse store, 8500 W. Crestline Ave. The first, 7 p.m. on Sept. 10, will cover all aspects of trolling. At 3 p.m. on Oct. 18, Zelinsky will offer his expertise on electronics and jigging spoons. For information, 303-947-8327.
