HARTSEL — Life’s too short to catch small fish.
So say the “Guide Guys,” more formally recognized as Eric Atha and John “JP” Perizzolo from fly shop in Evergreen. And they say it with purpose.
Without going so far as to call it as their reason for being, Atha and Perizzolo will have a renewed sense of purpose Friday when their favorite place in South Park to find big fish opens for the 2015 season. The Gold Medal fishery at opens at 6:01 a.m. Friday, almost a week ahead of its traditional schedule.
“The reservoir is only 2.7 vertical feet below the spillway elevation, so boats will be allowed to launch at both the north and south boat ramps on opening day,” park manager Kevin Tobey said. “Snowpack in the South Platte River Basin is 85 percent of normal, and 74 percent of normal in the upper Colorado River Basin — the two basins where we get our water from. April is typically a pretty wet month, so we hope we can add to the existing snowpack and have good water levels throughout the summer.”
Water levels should have little impact on the fishing during the reservoir’s opening weekend, much less the big rainbow trout it is known to harbor.
“The annual opening day at Spinney can be the best fishing of the season,” said Jeff Spohn, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s aquatic biologist for the upper South Platte River Basin.
That’s because of a variety of reasons, certainly not the least of which is that the 2,450-acre impoundment just south of U.S. 24 and east of Hartsel has been closed to fishing since November. Factor in an annual fall trout stocking program and the general phenomenon of hungry fish prowling the shallows for food just after ice off, and you have ideal fishing conditions.
“Colorado Parks and Wildlife stocks 10- to 12-inch trout each fall, enabling them to continue to feed and grow during the winter,” Tobey said. “They are less likely to be preyed upon by the northern pike in the winter, since the pike’s metabolism slows down and they become less active, while the trout remain active throughout the winter.”
That’s all well and good when it comes to fish counts, but what about those big fish?
As one of only three Gold Medal lakes in the state (Steamboat Lake and North Delaney Butte Lake are the others), Spinney’s primary management goal is to produce “quality” rainbow trout fishing. It’s the preferred South Park fishery for folks such as Atha and Perizzolo primarily because of the regulations in place to achieve that management objective.
Foremost among them is the rule banning bait at Spinney, unlike at just upstream, and downstream at Eleven Mile Reservoir. Only artificial flies and lures are permitted at Spinney Mountain Reservoir, and lures with any scent are prohibited.
A strict bag-and-possession limit with the minimum size for trout caught at Spinney of one fish, 20 inches or longer, also leads to bigger catches. Meanwhile, there is no bag or possession limit on pike, and anglers are encouraged to harvest all the pike they catch to help maintain a proper balance between the two species.
The Guide Guys learned long ago that use of a boat greatly enhances the chances of finding fish in such a big body of water. But while Spinney Mountain State Park doesn’t open until all the ice is gone and boats are able to launch, the reality is that this may be the best time of year for fishing from shore.
Wade fishermen casting to shallow shelves have about the same odds of finding those big prowlers in the cold waters of early spring as do anglers in boats. The opportunity won’t last forever though.
“As the water gets warmer, the trout go deeper,” Perizzolo told a gathering of curious South Park anglers . “And a lot of it depends on the bug activity.”
So what’s an angler’s best bet for landing a lunker this weekend?
Spohn recommends fly-fishermen tie on egg or scud patterns in the early season, then turn to callibaetis and damselflies as summer progresses. Trolling with spinners and spoons is also an option before trading for tube jigs as the water warms.
“Basically they are feeding on whatever is there at ice out,” Atha said. “I’d probably have a leech pattern or a slumpbuster and maybe a couple of chironomids (midges).”
“I lean toward scuds and leeches early, then move to chironomids when the bugs pop up,” Perizzolo added. “But these fish don’t swim up and down in the water column in a lake; they are at a specific level. They are there because that’s where the food is.”
