The latest fishing report was released by the office on Tuesday.
Aurora Reservoir
Open to boating and water temperature is 45 degrees. Trout fishing from shore is rated from fair to good, and the west and east ends of the dam have been productive areas. Most trout are being caught using PowerBait from a slip rig; some using crawlers. Boaters are reporting slow to fair success on trout trolling slowly with lures and crawlers. Fly casters are reporting slow to fair success using olive leech patterns and bead head prince nymphs. Some reports of walleye being caught from shore using jerk baits and jigs.
Quincy Reservoir
Open to boating and the water temperature is 50 degrees. Bass fishing has been tough due to the cold weather, and trout fishing is slow to fair using spoons, spinners and flies.
Carter Lake
Fishermen are catching rainbow trout along the north shore using brass colored spinners and orange and green PowerBait. A few large walleye have also been caught.
Eleven Mile Reservoir
Open to boating. Trout fishing is slow to fair and weather conditions have made it difficult. Night crawlers have done well along with salmon peach PowerBait, and better with some nice sized four to six-pound trout coming in from shore and by boat. Try everything from eggs, worms, and PowerBait to Kastmasters and Taz Devils. Northern Pike are slow and not cooperating yet, but a few nice pike were reported on Kastmasters and tube jigs. Dream Steam are good, and there are reports of some very nice browns and rainbows this week. Egg patterns, black midge, San Juan worms are suggested. Fly-fishers can expect to see sporadic hatches of midges and a few blue-winged olives. Anglers are catching a mixed bag of rainbows and browns on midge-nymphs, Baetis nymphs and some dry flies in the slow pools and tailouts.
Flatiron Reservoir
Rainbow trout have been caught using orange and green PowerBait, as well as salmon eggs.
Fishing has been fair to good for wipers, walleye, crappie, and trout.
Spinney Mountain Reservoir
Trout have been successful with Wooly Buggers, chironomids, leach, egg patterns, and blood worms. Hot spots are in the northeast corner of the dam and along the north shoreline from belly boats. Buffalo Cove is seeing some success as well, and evenings are best. Dream Stream are good with reports of some very nice browns and rainbows last week. Egg patterns, black midge, and San Juan worms are suggested.
St. Vrain
The past few weeks have shown a spike in crappie activity on Pelican and Bald Eagle ponds,with jigs and tubes being most productive. Walleye have been biting on Kastmasters and spinners in the depths of Coot Pond. Trout have been stocked recently, so throw your salmon eggs and PowerBaits to the bottom of Coot, Mallard, Redtail, and Sandpiper Ponds. Catfish are slow until the water temperatures rise, but there have been some reported channel cats caught in Pelican Pond. The pike are post spawn in Pelican Pond, so get ready to fight a fish with an average catch size of 25 to 35 inches.
Arkansas River
It was a productive last week of April with baetis mayflies, brachycentrus caddis flies, and crane flies all emerging and bringing fish to the surface. In addition to afternoon caddis activity in Bighorn Sheep Canyon, expect morning emergences of crane flies and afternoon hatches of blue wing olive mayflies. When feeding on blue wing olives, trout will feed rather delicately on the adults, just poking their nose above the surface, and will present a porpoising back and tail when feeding on emergers.
John Martin Reservoir
There are reports of anglers catching wiper and white bass and crappie are starting to be caught. The water temperature is warmer south of the tressel, where most of the success is being reported. Fishing at the stilling basin and Lake Hasty is slow.
Lake Pueblo
Water temperature is 52 degrees. Namely, walleye are all the talk
at this time of year. Fishermen are having success using a variety of methods, and caught some in the 16 to 18-inch range at a depth of 12 to 16 feet using soft body jigs. Smallies are responding to jigs and crankbaits as well as jerkbaits from the rock rubble shorelines. Some bass are using plastics as well. Fishing has been good on the tailwater for trout. Anglers report success on blue wing olive and midge patterns.
Lathrop
Early season is a great time to chase big pike, and several are
being caught on Martin, as well as Trout on both Horseshoe and Martin.
Trinidad Lake
The surface temperature is in the mid 40’s. Shoreline anglers are still catching trout using various PowerBait and homemade dough baits. We had a report of a catfish being caught in Reilly Canyon using nightcrawlers. There are a few reports of walleye being caught from deep water using jigs and trolling minnow-type lures.
State Forest State Park
For the most part, ice fishing is coming to an end. During this time of year, try using light tackle with a wide, slow revolving in-line spinner to get the trouts’ attention.
Steamboat Lake
Fisherman have been fishing Willow Creek and Dry Creek Inlets and doing OK.
Sylvan Lake
No activity due to ice conditions. Lake 98% iced over. If you are willing to put forth the effort, nice brookies and browns
can be caught on flies in East Brush Creek.
Vega Reservoir
Fishermen are catching some very nice rainbows in the 16 – 18 inch
range using PowerBait, spinners, worms and salmon eggs.
Crawford
We have had anglers catching pike up to 36 inches. There have also been reports of trout, catfish, perch and crappie. Trout were recently stocked. Bow fisherman have taken a few carp recently.
Mancos
Fishing for rainbow trout is very good to excellent. Try a small (approximately 1/8 oz) curly-tailed or Maribou jig tipped with a piece of worm or nightcrawler. Fish the rig under a bobber with as long a leader as you can cast (six feet or so). Or, use a slip bobber and set the depth for 6-12 feet for the trout. Perch tend to be a little deeper, below the trout. This is also a good time of year to try to find the larger brown trout. They’re eating small yellow perch, so perch imitation crankbaits are a good choice.
Ridgway
Water temperature is at 48.6 degrees and the fishing is excellent! There have been browns to 11 pounds and rainbows to 20 inches! For browns, try using a rainbow rapala, and for rainbows, try a Kastmaster, red or yellow rooster-tails, and worms. The reservoir was last stocked on April 12 with 2,000 rainbows. The tailwaters fishing is excellent for rainbows, browns and cutthroat. Try using a #14 gold ribbed hare’s ear, royal wulff, or midges. The tailwaters were last stocked on April 5 with 2,000 rainbows.Inlet water temperature is at 42 degrees and rising. Some browns and kokanee are being picked up at the color line, which has moved further into the reservoir.
