I'm thinking of going to horsetooth on Friday with my pontoon boat and new fish finder. I've never been there before. Has anyone fished there recently? Any tips, pointers, etc? Thanks in advance!
After fishing I intend to give a full report on how the fishing went, and comparing the new fish finder (Humminbird Matrix 17) with my old one (Humminbird Smartcast).
A couple weeks ago I was going to Horsetooth quite a bit and doing well catching smallies and walleyes from shore (which I didn't even think was possible at a lake this size and with so much excellent structure that isn't fishable from shore--including the dams and rockwalls in the back coves). But I was able to do well in the mouth in Santanka Cove (off the points, in pretty deep water). So all the coves should be good. I heard Soldier Cove was producing the most bass and the dam faces were producing a lot of walleye (expected most of them to be sub-keeper sized though). But you should be able to catch plenty of smallies and walleyes in all the deep rocky areas in each cove.
Fish the coves with rubbers for the smallmouths and by the dams (there's like four of them) for the walleyes. Watch out for the boats and jetskiers as they are there by the hundreds. I was there about two weeks ago fishing from shore but I got skunked but did see lots of boaters pulling fish in. Good Luck!
Also, I was getting most of my fish on pumpkinseed colored twister tails (though chartruese may work well also), tipped with half a worm. Most of the fish I was catching, both smallies and walleyes, were right near shore, hugging the rocky shoreline at the mouth of the cove. Cast right up against he shoreline on the points near the entrance of the coves. I was actually outfishing the boats who were fishing near me and were either going too deep into the coves or were fishing too far offshore. But that's just Satanka Cove; the other coves may have different hotspots.
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