[cowboyfisherman]

Nice morning, 8:30 - 11:30, relaxing in our boat in the No Wake area.......but, not one single bite on three rods. Very few fish showing up on sonar, some fairly shallow areas showing up the Depth Finder (that were not there two weeks ago). Also, noticed some small tree branches floating around in the area. Talked to some other people who were fishing, they told us they hadn't caught a thing. In fact, as we were taking our boat out of the water, my wife asked some guy how he did fishing.......he didn't say a word, just gave her a dirty look and looked pretty upset.
So, what the heck has happened to Chatfield??????????? This was our 4th time there and SKUNKED AGAIN. If the trout fishing is crap, what is biting and being caught??? Or, has the fishing at Chatfield really (and we do mean REALLY) that bad this year??? Will it improve???
Should we consider going somewhere else to fish???? However, we do have to be on water that allows gas motors.
ANY HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Cody & Wife

 

[Mr. Ed]

Nice to see you post! Was out there yesterday and the same result. Looks like the water level is going to be the same as two years ago. It's going to be tougher this year than last (and watch that prop in the shallow area).

As far as other places - Cherry Creek reports have been good but that lake is just as tough to fish. I'd say it's time to start going out of town (fight traffic in the mountains, go south to Pueblo, or go east).

Good luck!

 

[AZbassernco]

come down to pueblo we can put you on good size trout decent walley BIG!!!!! wiper and big cats and lots of fun to

 

[roth2000]

You can almost always catch some smallmouth along the dam at Chatfield to beat the skunk. Try casting small plastics like minnows or worms or if you are fishing bait you shouldn't have much trouble at all. Cherry Creek is fishing good right now. I was there the other day but didn't post a report...sorry. Anyways I caught a few crappie between 10-14 inches and caught lots of walleye in 6'-8' of water off the end of the island. Hope this helps.

 

[lgombos]

The only thing I ever caught in the no-wake area was a giant carp on a Ratt-L-trap. I've heard that you can do well if you find the gravel pits back there, but I haven't found them. I think the water level will get better. There's good flow going in, but they have to fill those eastern plains lakes down stream. Once that's done, maybe they'll let Chatfield fill some. I took my son to the ponds upstream of the lake and south of the river. Saw some VERY big smallmouth cruising the shallows. I've never seen smallies do this. Landed a couple between 12" and 14" on a flatfish and something called a blade dancer, a soft plastic minnow with a huge metal spoon/lip thing. Not great size, but they fought like hell. Only fished for an hour and only saw 3 other fishermen the whole time.

 

[fishmore]

Was also out there on Sunday, actually started Sat night about 7:30 pm and overnighted. Fishing late by the dam, was getting hard hits on a leech using a bottom bouncer (used a floating snell to stay off the snags). Only got one walleye and a few smallies, though. Got a lot of leeches ripped off before I could react. The next morning, the walleye were hitting around 14' of water around the west end of the submerged road. There were quite a few fishing boats out there (so many that the water skiers started going around us by turning early into the center of the lake), and I saw lots of folks pulling in walleye pretty regularly. Didn't see any keepers though. Saw folks using bottom bouncers, split shots, and Lindy rigs, plain snells and spinner harnesses. The walleye seemed to be hitting all of them. I'm guessing most everyone was using leeches, though I can't confirm that. After the water got rough, we retreated to the no wake zone. Spent most of the day down there getting skunked until a couple smallmouth that were on a drop off ate some leeches. Caught walleye in that spot last year (off Catfish Flats). Not many fish caught, but a nice day on the water and the geese and goslings were kind of fun to watch. Hope you have better luck next time.

 

[jrfish]

What a great fishery as some tree huggers would say!! But the reality is welcome to inner city fishin!!---you have to have way to much patience or you can beat the skunk as been said getting desperate on those smallies or save all those parks passes & fees and travel for some real fishing! its out there and cheap in advance and those fish are the one's of dreams and so worth leaving this state to go catch, real rivers, real lakes that are gems, but if youre like the rest of us you would rather go more often and punish your skills knowing a skunk is likely" or enjoy the embryo's we catch here in town"with an occational blood rise wooohoo" there's good fishin here but when it hits or when its on is anyone's guess ???

 

[cowboyfisherman]

Last summer trout fishing was really, really good to us. We landed a 19" Brown in the No Wake area and got a number of nice "keeper size" Bows also. There were a couple of times last summer when we did get skunked......but only a couple. Problem with fishing for Bass or Walleye is the size limit. We know why there is a size limit, but it does make it kind of hard to catch/keep-for-dinner either of these species. Next time we go to Chatfield, we are FIRST going to fish over by the Dam and a couple of other places that have been suggested. Shoot, we may even try CC, since we have never fished there before. When the heat simmers down some, hopefully we can head to Pueblo for part of a weekend.
It was great relaxing in the boat with the binimi up. Heck, with no action going on, my wife feel asleep in the forward part of our boat. I looked forward and she was all curled up on the seat cushions.
Definitely not a good day of fishing, but a great day for relaxing on the water.
Thanks to all of you guys for your recommendations.
Cody & Wife

 

[SHunkins]

I fished Chatfield last week for catfish and the wind was blowin pretty good, hard to detect any hits. Talked to one guy and his son caught one the night before.
Might go out one night this week.
Will let you know how it goes.
God Bless

 

[jrfish]

I don't understand why these city lakes dont sustain great numbers of catfish? oh there are some there" but you could fish for them for a week and not catch one (its not natural) Is it not possible to make some of these lakes good catfish lakes, since they're racing,waterskiing jetboarding our praised fisheries that we live in denial with. A awesome catfishing enviroment would it work? it seems there are some big cats out there! just not enough" they are pretty hardy fish also and in lots of regions pulled through the ice yea' I would like to see it payed more attention to than stocker slimers eh :

 

[craigknws2]

I'm going out to chatfield this week end the "no wake zone" and hope to reel in a few, so far creek has been a great producer, not alot of keepers , but fun to catch them walleye's . chatfield was a big producer last year, the wife and i caught many in the NWZ at chatfield in 15 to 25 ft of water, east side. bottom bouncing with leech's. evening was the best for us out there. i have an old olive green chsyler tri hull. very old but still catches fish !!!!

 

[jdferguson]

Does anyone know how much more water that they are going to release from Chatfield??? The water level is down big time...

John