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I'm looking forward to the opening to, thats a long walk to fish it now.

 

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If you have a 4wd then head there from the Springs, Rampart Range road starts in Garden of the Gods right before balance rock. There are alot of side trails to have fun with your 4wd on the way there. You can make it on this road in a 2wd and it is faster then going threw woodland park. It is also a great drive with lots of scenery to look at, except the litter from the shooting range.

Alot of things will catch Macks at ice out, their eggs start raising to the surface and hatching so you have alot of little fry swimming around headed to the shallows. THis brings the Macks in, and they are opportunists so they will tag what ever is in their path if they consider it food.

 

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my son has a baseball game, its really cutting into my fishing time. =P
I'm hitting the Arkansas this weekend though the caddis are calling me.

 

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First off the DOW has nothing to do with rampart reservior or any other water that is in the City's ownership. So even if you drew up a patition or anything like that to do something about allowing ice fishing at rampart you'd have to direct it to the City of Colorado Springs. I asked the DOW about these reserviors at the meeting I went to the one that is fenced off is the only one you cant fish and that is because it is the last spot before we drink it.
Also there needs to be certain regulations on these waters for security purposes, you can what if all you want but if someone drove a bomb on the damn and blew it up it would hurt us greatly. However unlikely it might be there is always the chance.

 

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As for it being the last place in the water works before we drink it, it's the last place in the water works before it goes into the TREATMENT PLANT. Using water quality as a reason to restrict access also is groundless. So many natural contaminants enter the system from ambient wildlife and from surface runoff, and it is thousands of times greater than anything any anglers, even messy ones, could introduce. And the treatment plants take care of all these contaminants that occur naturally. So water quality protection isn't a valid reason either.

Go to any local pond here in Colorado Springs or Denver look at all the filth there, broken glass, trash, walmart bags, old bait containers, McDonalds and BK trash. You name it, its there. I dont think that statement has any merit. HUmans are gross, messy, lazy creatures they destroy alot more then they take care of. I wouldnt want all that crap laying around a lake that was going to be treated for water that would be coming out of my drinking fountain. Yes natural run off adds contaminants but those are usually from man to I've worked community service in a water treatment plant before it sucks working there and the chemicals they add are designed to treat the contaminants they get. New contaminants mean new chemicals which means different taste and more money. This is one of the reasons water tastes different no matter what part of the country you go to because they all use different chemicals for the different contaminants of that part of the country.

Basically this is a runaround question there will always be supporters and nonsupporters, I just wanted to point out that the restrictions on these reserviors have nothing to do with the DOW.