[silicone boy]

I'm a chronic lurker who is now surfacing. I've been on a fishing kick lately to moderate my rifle shooting obsession. If you think lost lures are expensive, they are nothing compared to bullets that you purposely fire, some costing more than a dollar apeice-what a waste. Anyway, I have learned a ton from you guys and my wife says it's a much more wholsome hobby.

I started the day at the Arsenal, but it was slow and I was more in a trout mood anyway. I packed up and headed up to Silverthorne for some fly fishing. Along the way, I stopped by Prospect Ponds in Wheat Ridge to scout out it's potential for taking bass on a light fly rod. (I have this fantasy of taking a whale on the fly). The west lake looks like those clear, warm southern lakes with forests of weeds. Perfect for bass, but better with heavy spinning gear ripping lures out of the weeds. Sure enough, I saw a couple of 20 plus inch fish that I'm sure were bass. Millions of minnows and not many panfish (must have been eaten by the above)

Then I scouted out the pond just to the east. I saw a sight that was simply amazing. The clear pond bottom was covered with a carpet of bullfrog tadpoles. It's a sight to behold. It's not a big pond, and I'm sure that if you counted them all, there would be over a couple million of them-not kidding! I didn't see any fish except for a 4 inch bluegill. I'm told that each of these ponds has a different biology. I propose that someone accidentally drop some juvenile bass from the west pond into the east pond. The bass would promptly grow into 10 pounders in no time, or die of gluttony. This would soon become the best bass habitat in the western US. Another solution is to have someone secretly connect the two ponds with a small channel. They are only 20 feet apart and it wouldn't take much digging. If we all pitch in, we could get in done in an hour or two.

By the way, I got skunked on the Blue River later in the day, as did every other fly fisherman I talked to.

 

[Mattsabasser]

I think you might be talking about Bass lake. It has the big wooden sign saying no wading, boats, no bait fishing. It has concrete sidewalk on the north side and heavy cattails around 3/4 of the lake. (Its just east of West Lake on the same side of Clear Creek).

Bass Lake has a few bass in it. In the morning you might see a few of those bass come in and scoop up the tadpoles. I like to throw black 4" grubs to mimick those taddies.

West Lake is also no bait but not posted very well. I see bellyboaters with fly rods do real well on West in the summer.

 

[Red Sox Rock]

West Lake has a good population of ok sized bass. I've never seen any over 3 lbs but hey i'll take a 3 pounder. I don't know about Bass lake though to lazy to walk over there. And we totally could dig that ditch if we wanted to i would be easy if enough people showed up.

 

[Mattsabasser]

In another decade or so, Bass Lake will be a sedimented swamp and unable to support bass. Every year I see the cattails encroach further and further into it.

I scout this lake every spawn and see fewer and fewer fish...even the panfish have dropped off in numbers.

But I do like this area for its diversity. 4 ponds with 4 completely different environments gives an angler a wide variety of water types...something for everyone.

 

[kokaneeking]

were are prospect ponds ?

 

[Mattsabasser]

Prospect Park Ponds (not to be confused with Prospect Ponds in Fort Collins) are off Youngfield and I-70....look for the big Camper World sign and turn into the parking area next to Clear Creek.

There is another parking area off of 44th but you have to walk further to reach the good water.

IMO this is not a "great" bass spot for many reasons but if you live nearby, its a good place to work in a few casts.

 

[1eyered]

I've caught BIG crappie there. Only a few tho. What happened to the rest?

 

[Mattsabasser]

Took my little girl (soon to be 4) over to Prospect tonight for an hour. Fished West Lake mostly. I caught one bass in the 13-inch range but the action was very light for this time of year.

My little crumb muncher usually is good for an hour or two and at least a few sunfish...but today she wasn't into fishing at all. I pretty much carried her scooby doo pole the whole time while she threw rocks and picked up sticks.

This is the rig I caught the fish on and typically use this time of year (pic taken early in the season) to mimic those tadpoles. Which were infested on bass lake. Never seen anything close to that many in previous years. Bass Lake looks pretty brown and stagnated as well.

 

[Red Sox Rock]

Matt have u ever walked around the lake and found the smaller little pond to the west? While the bass where spawning i just sat and watched the big ones float by there are some BIG bucketmouths in there. Never got one though.

 

[Mattsabasser]

Red, I caught a 16'er out that tiny little pond during the prespawn. There were some other bass in there too. This is the only year I've seen that many fish in there. Went back a couple weeks later...water level had risen and the small channel between West and this "pond" was full.

Didn't see any fish or get any bites with the mini-senko, so I assumed they moved back to West. They have the no tresspassing signs on 3/4 of that area so you can only access one side which makes it harder to work.

 

[silicone boy]

That rig sure looks like a tadpole to me. I'd eat it if I were a fish. Then again, there are so many tadpoles around that it would be like winning the lottery to have a big bass munch on your lure as opposed to the other millions of baby frogs. Good work.

 

[Mattsabasser]

Silicone, usually there are only a few dozen tadpoles swimming around and in the early morning you can see one or two lunker bass patrolling the shallows, along with some 12'ers. The bass will move in slowly then the tadpoles, gobbling up one or two with each pass. This keeps the tadpole populations alot lower than what I am seeing now.

Water quality has dropped on bass lake considerably. Those two elements put together lead me to believe that the bass population on bass lake has been knocked down considerably. Just a guess.

Tabor Lake's bass populations have picked up a bit. They allow belly boats on here after July 31st to protect nesting habitat on what I call "Bird $#@& island".

More bla bla bla....

To get the most out of this place for bass, (without the bellyboat) I like to park at the area off of Youngfield (to the north of Camper World). Sight fish the weedbeds on West Lake, then scout Bass Lake covering as much of the northern shoreline as I can quickly. Then roll over the wood bridge and fish a few structure spots on N. Tabor (I don't even bother with Prospect Lake).

If I haven't caught fish by then, I'll head over to Ward Pond. On the good days, I can land double digits. On a bad day I will still be able to "beat off the skunk".