TWIN LAKES — Ice fishing? Open-water lake fishing in the high country? . . . Through some mixed signs of the season, at the foot of Mount Elbert the answer to both is yes.
Beneath a steady kaleidoscope of passing clouds, some leaden-gray, others merely dreary, the summit of Colorado’s highest peak remained in a shroud. Snow lay heavy on the ground, with fingers of white reaching upward through the clouds toward the unseen mountaintops.
Somewhere beneath the snow, thick ice covered the surface of Twin Lakes, but in a setting so surreal as to suggest Mother Nature might have taken leave of her senses, wind-whipped waves lashed against the rocky banks of the Mount Elbert Forebay, situated above the lakes to the north.
“Pretty slow today,” said Ben Hawthorne of Buena Vista, helping his brother, Carl, push and pull a small aluminum boat up a snow bank toward their parked pickup truck. “We didn’t do very well today, but it’s still pretty cold.”
“Yeah, it’ll be a lot better when things warm up a little,” Carl agreed. “But at least it’s open and you never know.”
Indeed, not. In what surely must be the highest lake in Colorado to be completely free of ice, many things are possible.
The 275-acre forebay is part of the federal Fryingpan-Arkansas Project and connected both to Twin Lakes and Turquoise Lake, a little to the west of Leadville. It receives water from Turquoise through a conduit but also from a hydropower plant on Lower Twin Lake. Water is pumped from the power plant up to the forebay — then released back to the plant to run the turbines and generate electricity.
When the pumps are operating, the net effect is open water in the forebay and on a portion of Lower Twin Lake extending out from the hydro station. Ice caps may form in cold winters, but with the pumping and mountain winds, open water usually returns fairly quickly. The tradeoff is rapid fluctuation in the water level.
Though conditions are less than optimal because of the fluctuation, fishing in the forebay can be surprisingly good. Trout are stocked from May through August and provide much of the catch through the warm-weather months. A significant number survive. Holdovers from the summer run about 15 inches, according to Colorado Division of Wildlife population surveys, and a few grow to 20.
While most standard fishing techniques produce their share of the forebay’s trout, for many fishermen its true attraction is a self-sustaining population of mackinaw, also called lake trout.
DOW surveys consistently indicate the forebay has the best abundance of lake trout in the region. The most recent turned up 62, ranging from 7.7 to 41.3 inches. The average length was slightly less than 15 inches and the average weight was 1.4 pounds.
Plankton, Mysis shrimp and other fish, including plentiful suckers and recently stocked trout, are the primary forage for the forebay’s mackinaw. The smaller lakers, typically, are comparatively easy to catch; the larger mackinaw are considerably more challenging. Consistency demands time, dedication and some study.
Lake trout typically are in shallow water in early spring and again in the fall, when they move in to spawn. They can be finicky at any time of year, but generally can be taken on tube jigs, usually tipped with strips of sucker meat. Large, diving crankbaits, such as Rapalas, sometimes smeared with anise oil or shrimp, shad or crayfish scent, and large Dardevle-type spoons also can be effective. Fly-rod fishermen can catch mackinaw on a variety of streamer flies, often fished on a sink-tip or full-sinking line.
Though early and late-season mackinaw can be taken from shore, small boats improve the odds. Trolling or jigging near protruding points of land or similar structure can be especially effective. During the summer, when lake trout are in deep water and deep-trolling gear may be necessary to reach them, some type of boat is a virtual necessity.
The forebay has no launching facilities, and parking is limited, but boats, canoes, inflatables, belly boats and similar craft that can be carried to the water are permitted.
“It’s actually easier to bring the boat up now, rather than later, over the rocks,” Ben Hawthorne said, preparing to lift it onto the pickup bed.
“We’ll be back,” brother Carl added.
Both noted the fishing likely will improve as the spring progresses, but with snow and ice all around, the forebay already has much to offer. Its big macks are on the prowl, and as the man said, you never know.
