When Conner Peitsmeyer, 11, started shaking that chilly November morning it wasn’t for any lack of cold-weather clothing. Bundled in his goose-hunting outfit — long johns, jeans and coveralls — he set out with his father, Mike, to fish for bass on Aurora Reservoir.
He had a free day from Campus Middle School, where he is a sixth-grader, and though the temperature was around 24 degrees when they left their home, about 30 minutes from the lake, he might have had a feeling he would be catching a large fish that day.
His father had done the necessary homework. The elder Peitsmeyer had located a lake-bottom structure where smallmouth bass appeared to congregate on a circuit from deeper holding water to a feeding flat teeming with crayfish and other forage. And, he he marked it with his GPS unit. He had enjoyed a two-week spree of catching smallmouth bass exceeding 18 inches with his sons Mike Jr. and Brendan, as well as Conner. The largest had weighed 5 pounds, 9.1 ounces, just a little less than the state record of 5 pounds, 12 ounces, taken in 1993 from Navajo Reservoir by Carl Dewey.
“We had caught quite a few big bass there, so we knew they were in there,” the elder Peitsmeyer said.
When they arrived at the spot, the electronic fish finder showed activity. With his father controlling the boat and jigging from the stern, Conner began fishing over the side of the boat. He baited a No. 6 Gamakatsu hook with a fathead minnow, suspended just above the bottom, placed his St. Croix graphite rod in a holder and waited. Soon enough, he had a typically light, cold-water bite. He let out some slack, then tightened the line.
“At first I thought I’d caught up on the bottom,” Conner said. “It just stayed down there like a lead weight.”
After a five-minute tug of war near the bottom, followed by two surface rolls, the fish was brought to net. Through his winter-weather gear, Conner began shaking with excitement.
“We knew it was close to a state record,” his father said.
True enough. The fish measured 20 3/4 inches and according to a farm scale at their house, weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces — a state record.
“I sure wasn’t expecting it,” Conner said, “My brother put it on the scales, and I was watching it go 1-2-3 . . . When it went to 6 pounds I knew it. I started yelling, ‘Hey Dad, it’s a state record,’ and I got excited again.”
A visit to Colorado Division of Wildlife headquarters confirmed it. The record smallmouth and another, somewhat smaller fish caught by Brendan, are bound for the taxidermist.
“It’s finally sunken in,” Conner said of his accomplishment. “It’s pretty cool.”
He has been hunting geese with his father and brothers since catching the record bass and will return to the water as soon as possible.
“Hunting and fishing are what I enjoy doing the most,” he said.
Record water
The hits keep coming at Aurora Reservoir and the records just keep falling. Conner Peitsmeyer’s 6 pound, 8 ounce smallmouth bass, caught Nov. 12, is the third state-record fish taken from the 640-acre reservoir in 2010. Jessica Walton brought in a 43-pound, 6 ounce channel catfish Oct. 4. That broke the record of 35 pounds, 8 ounces, taken June 28 by Daris McKinnon. McKinnon’s catfish had edged the previous record of 35 pounds, 4 ounces, also from Aurora Reservoir, caught a year earlier by Mike Stone.
