[bergwsu]

Is it too early to make the statement "the large amount of baitfish in Chatfield have seriously impacted the 'eye fishing"?
I've noticed on the Chatfield reports so far this week, there has not been a report catching any 'eyes. I know it's early and the water is still pretty cold, but.........
What do you think?

 

[GMCO45]

Is it too early to make the statement "the large amount of baitfish in Chatfield have seriously impacted the 'eye fishing"?
I've noticed on the Chatfield reports so far this week, there has not been a report catching any 'eyes. I know it's early and the water is still pretty cold, but.........
What do you think?

Am sure that the increased forage base (over what was there last year) will have an impact. Mostly in favor of the walleye. The fishing will be tough but that is mainly because "it's early and the water is pretty cold".

 

[NeWcS]

Oh no, Should we start calling Chatfield; Cherrycreek-field?


[me=Jay_In_Parker] [/me]

 

[CaptHook]

I agree, I think it has impacted the walleye fishing. This time last year I was catching them pretty well with minnows on jig heads. I went there again today 03-07-06 and tried everything. Not one bite! I hope it picks up soon.

 

[Pynkerton]

Im sure it should pick up soon.  The water out there is still about 39 degrees in any spot of depth, but i have heard rumors that some of the shallower spots (i.e. south cove west of plum creek, and in between the large body of water and King Fisher) have been recorded at 40 to 41 degrees.  So it is deffinately warming up.  It should be no time before they start moving to spawn.

But you are deffinately right.  I have been out there a few times on some of my favorite shore spots, and haven't even had a bite.  And everyone I read that goeas out there has not been pulling any eyes out either.

 

[BigDaddyDon]

fished chatfield last night from my boat, marked lots of fish, 28ft to 35ft, water temps 41, 42 , no hits, still early, tried minnows, little trolling, slow jig plastics, and some metal, stayed out until 10:00pm,

 

[bergwsu]

We should start a contest, for the first documented 'eye caught this year at Chatfield the winner gets:
1) all of the Senkos we have in our tackle boxes that were purchased for use at places like Quincy
2) a coming out party with the idiot that decided Chatfield needed some shad

Other suggestions?

Do we have a winner yet?

 

[NeWcS]

We should start a contest, for the first documented 'eye caught this year at Chatfield the winner gets:
1) all of the Senkos we have in our tackle boxes that were purchased for use at places like Quincy
2) a coming out party with the idiot that decided Chatfield needed some shad

Other suggestions? 

Do we have a winner yet?

LoL LoL LoL

Great post man!!! Great quincy crack!!!


[me=Jay_In_Parker] [/me]

 

[bergwsu]

No takers on the contest, has anybody caught a prespawn 'eye out of Chatfield yet or are you just afraid of what you might win?  ;D
Hey BigDaddyDon, where were you marking all those fish if you don't mind saying. I spent about 6 hours searching Saturday, checking out the dam, the underwater bridge, the old river channels, the gravel pits, the southern deeper areas..... I marked tons of baitfish but not much else.   

 

[hatchmaster]

If I lived in Denver I would be in the contest. I never caught a walleye before but hey senkos are senkos!

 

[BigDaddyDon]

Fisheye's, i was marking fish out in front of that concrete inlet just south of the north boat lunch, 25ft to 40ft depth, out around the drop off, lots of fish, no biters, didn't see anything out in front of the marina, or on the shallow point, marked a few along the dam, lots of bait in the mouth of the north boat ramp, birds diving all over em at sunset, threw a few plastics in where the birds where diving, they were the only one getting anything, must be smarter than me,

 

[fishinlooney]

The DOW put out 2 test nets on Monday to check the progress of the spawn. Lots of walleyes caught with 30 females that are still "green" which means they are not yet ready to spawn. All fish that were in the nets were FAT!!!
They think the fish will be ready to spawn late next week and once we get to post spawn we should see some overly fat 'eyes on our lines. The fishery is in great shape, which means the fish will be hard to catch!

 

[GMCO45]

Hope the weather we are going to have over the next several days does not hamper the
spawn operation. Remember well the March blizzard of three years ago. If I am correct,
they came up short on eggs that year.

 

[GMCO45]

We should start a contest, for the first documented 'eye caught this year at Chatfield the winner gets:
1) all of the Senkos we have in our tackle boxes that were purchased for use at places like Quincy
2) a coming out party with the idiot that decided Chatfield needed some shad

Other suggestions? 

Do we have a winner yet?

"the idiot that decided chatfield needed some shad"   

I would rather fish a lake full of healthy hard to catch walleye than one that was depleted
due to the fact the the hungry hammer handles would bite anything that passed their way
(Chatfield early last year).   I stopped fishing there early last year due to the pathetic
condition of the walleye I was catching.  Did not return until November.  By then they
were much harder to catch but very healthy.

 

[jamiehughes]

i would also rather have just a chance to catch a big fat healthy white tip, than to catch a bunch of skinny, unhealthy walleyes.

 

[Guest]

i would also rather have just a chance to catch a big fat healthy white tip, than to catch a bunch of skinny, unhealthy walleyes.

Me, too. And the trout have been absolute pigs in those years when shad were abundant!

Hooray for forage!!

 

[jamiehughes]

all the trout that people have put up pics of since ice out are pigs. no wonder i couldn't catch anything through the ice there.

 

[bergwsu]

Healthy fish is one thing (of course I agree with you there) but have you been out there? The numbers of shad are unreal, clouds of baitfish everywhere I went. Maybe it wasn't being an "idiot" to add some baifish but tinkering that heavily and causing such a huge change to a fishery in one year seems to be idiotic. What about incremental steps?

Switching to a positive side of this, the ski jets might start sucking them in. I've heard jet engines don't do well with birds, maybe the shad can do some damage.

Just my opinion, what do I know.

 

[jamiehughes]

i don't know if there is such a thing as incremental when you are talking shad, those things can just take off. we just haven't had any bad enough weather to kill any of them off.

 

[fishinlooney]

I can promise you that what little "stocking of shad" the division did last year did not have the effect that Mother Nature had. Shad are not new to Chatfield. Remember two years ago when the lake got real low really early in the spring? The shad had nowhere to spawn that year which means the fish got skinny and hungry. Last year the lake stayed pretty high all year and the shad spawned at least 3 and maybe 4 times! That is a HUGE difference in only one year. In my humble opinion I think that proper water level fluctuations have more control over the amount of shad than what a small crew of biologists can do with a boat and small net! I could be wrong but a lot of what I know comes from people who are knowledgeable in the division and have seen this happen in years past. It is just the predator/prey cycle and it's feast and famine routine.