JEFFERSON — For Brent Facchinello and friends, a party outcast turned out to be the life of the party.
Facchinello, a recent Colorado State University graduate from Castle Rock, was fishing on the ice of Tarryall Reservoir last Saturday and, as the story goes, enjoying some good times with a group of friends. To add a bit of spice to the outing, he had entered an ice fishing tournament being conducted at the lake.
Trout most likely would be the primary catch, but the reservoir also has a resurgent population of northern pike. Facchinello set out a tip-up rig, baited with a frozen sucker, just in case a pike happened to swim by.
The times were just getting good when someone noticed the flag on the tip-up had popped up.
“Got a fish!”. . .
Facchinello grabbed the rod. The battle was on. A crowd of spectators gathered to witness what had become an epic struggle.
Back, forth . . . clearly, this was no ordinary fish. Presently, it began to tire. It was time to bring it through the ice.
With a couple of friends kneeling around the hole in the ice, eager to assist if needed, Facchinello began lifting the fish through the ice. A giant head emerged, then the front quarters of a large pike. Half, maybe two-thirds of the fish was out of the water when the line broke.
“I jumped on it and grabbed it,” said Nick Kennedy, also of Castle Rock, who helped wrestle the fish onto the ice. “I saw the line break and wasn’t about to let it get away.”
The fish finally in hand, Facchinello took it to the tournament’s weighing station.
Twelve pounds . . . but no prize. The fish was disqualified.
“They said we were party fishing,” Facchinello lamented. “Oh, well . . .”
“Those are the rules,” a contest official explained. “They were fishing in a group, and we couldn’t be sure who actually caught it.”
Northern pike have reappeared after the reservoir was drained and refilled several years ago, and their size range has been increasing. Though most are caught during the summer months, especially in the shallow, weedy upper end of the lake, they also can be taken through the ice.
Tarryall, the 175-acre impoundment off Park County Road 77 between Jefferson and Lake George, may not have the reputation of the county’s larger reservoirs, but it’s become a favorite among a growing number of fishermen, whether ice or open water.
“The fish may not be as big here, but the activity tends to be better,” said David Geisler of Colorado Springs, enjoying a day on the ice with his wife, Annette. “That’s why I pretty much stopped going to Elevenmile.”
Trout are stocked through the open-water months, and they grow quite well in the reservoir’s productive waters. While many are taken soon after stocking, plenty remain in the lake when winter arrives and are available to ice fishermen.
Fishermen have been catching their share of 10- to 14-inch rainbow trout, with an occasional Snake River cutthroat or larger brown trout also appearing in the mix.
However, pike are top-of-the-line predators, taking a toll on the reservoir’s trout. As in other waters, the Colorado Division of Wildlife encourages fishermen to keep all the northerns they catch.
Meanwhile, back on the ice, good times continued to roll. As fish stories were told, and conversation became a bit boisterous, Facchinello, Kennedy and the others could smile.
This time, the big one that didn’t get away was on the ice.
