[bnc04]

Horsetooth update.

The fishing was Awesome!!!!!!!!!! The catching sucked!..


I made my second trip ever to Horsestooth today. The plan was to
start at the north ramp and fish that end since I wanted to start
with targeting points and that end seemed to have more than the south
send. As I drove around the eastern shore of the lake, I could see
some ice scattered about. It didn't look too thick and I figured it
would dissipate after the sun came up. But I had to laugh at what my
wife would have said after seeing the ice and decent frost this
morning.

I got to the North Ramp right at 6:00am. It had about 1/4 to 1/2" of
ice out to about 30 yards from the ramp. The dock was not in the
water and due to the gradual incline, I thought I may have trouble
launching being able to pull the boat to the side and close enough to
the shore where I wouldn't get wet. After studying it and deciding
to see what happened when I backed in, I decided it was a little to
thick for me to pull the boat through the ice and to the side of the
ramp so I strapped it all back down and headed off to the western
ramp to launch. They had the dock in and no ice so all went well.

Fishing.
Since for the most part, I was new to the lake , I decided to troll
up the west side and get a feel for the structure. Using a minnow on
a weighted wedding ring spinner and alternating between a flatfish
and white medium diving crankbait on the other rod, I trolled along,
staying between 12-20ft depth with no hits nor really graphing many
fish. I jig fished and bounced minnows every so often off the points
that looked promising. No action at all. The water temp varied from
35. – 39 the entire day. The water clarity was very clear to about
10ft and I was using 6lb test line.

I decided to move to the east side of the lake and let the breeze
drift me along with a minnow on a bottom rig and a mister twister
sometime tipped with a minnow and sometimes not. No hits and some
fish graphed.

I never did make it to the North end of the lake and really just
enjoyed having the lake all to mself and being out on the water so
serious catching took a backseat at that point.
I did end up finding some active fish in the graph, but never got
them to hit anything.

Today was a great learning experience. I found some flats and decent
structure that I plan on hitting again with a little more enthusiasm
and dedication in the next few weeks. I also plan on scoping out the
North end on my nest trip providing we have some warmer weather.

All in all, it was a great day on the water, A little cool at times,
but WAY batter than working!!!!!


Brett

 

[Zman]

Sorry the fishing sucked...Great report though...what some could aspire to...

 

[LUV2FISHHERE]

Sounds like a great way to spend saturday when the brakets are burned!

 

[liquorbox]

nice report I had some good luck there last week. was running a silver castmaster (without the hook) like a weight, a 3ft. leader behind it with a (silver bladed orange beads/float) worm harness. drifting just fast enough to move along bottom in 20 to 30 ft range. both the big fish I caught were hanging at 26 to 30 ft.. I tried the same at carter last friday and all I caught was a nap. they are there but still real sluggish. water temp is on the rise and I think it is going to be real good soon.

 

[fishingchef]

Thanks for the post, answered a few of my questions, wasn't really sure about the water clarity, but sounds like it is pretty darn clear.

By the looks of the map I have, seems there may be some decent structure to fish at night, is there good rock structure to target? I plan on fishing the next two days up there, first time up that way, new to CO, have only spent time on the Boulder res., which is where I live.

Thanks for any help. FC

 

[liquorbox]

fish have all kinds of structure and they spread out. points going into coves and up in the coves are good, alot of big drop offs along main body with shelfs of rock to lay on or next to. If you find them on the depth finder set on top of them and mix it up until you find something they like. horsetooth has alot of nice walleye but they make you work for them. small mouth population is fair sized now. seeing some 16+" but they looked like little footballs last summer, some largemouth as well. The bass fishing is great later on dragging rapalas in the rocks. get a hound dog though otherwise loose alot of $4.00 lures. water is very clear and stays that way most of the time but I still use some form of flash to get walleye,s attention. I have done just as well during the day as night. just have to target them. it is not great lake fishing but if you put in the time it will produce a big one here and there.

 

[john]

BNCO4: Even though you didn't have good fishing, we appreciate the informative report. Thanks! John