i have lived in colorado my whole life and the fishing here is fantastic. However I want to know if there are any really decent largemouth ponds in colorado. if you know of any good spots please do respond.~~~thanks~~~

What part of CO are you looking? There are some fun ponds to fish in Denver, Littleton and Englewood. The CDOW puts a book out called Fishing Close to Home that gives a list of ponds around the metro area with a profile including types of fish and the regulations for those ponds.

hey thanks for the feed back! i live in highlands ranch so any ponds in the littleton area would be fantastic. also where can you get the dept of wildlife book?

hey JL thanks for the advice. ive fished the spillway and havent had great luck. however about a 1/2 mile down from the spillway at the dog park theres a pond. it is never fished and there are 1-2 lb smallies and largemouth along with walleye, rainbows and crappie.  it is never fished . try using a small jighead with a worm. it works. try wading to the backside for bigger fish.

Thank you for the tip. The best fishing I have had at the spillway has usually been between early March and late May. The only problem with that time frame, is that becomes elbow to elbow fishing. I've done decently for walleye using a 1/4 oz chartreuse jig head with a red eye tipped off with 1/2 of a baby crawler. I also like the same colored rattle head jigs tipped off the same way. I now live in SE Aurora and I do a lot of fishing at Aurora Reservoir and some at Quincy. Quincy is fly and lure only, but there are some huge largemouth out there with a size limit of 18 inches or bigger. I've done pretty good along the south shore line in June using spinners and tube jigs.

Ive been to Aurora a few times and only caught trout. what other species are in there?

In addition to rainbow trout, you have the possibilty of catching some older brown trout. Aurora also has Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Wiper, Walleye, Crappie, Perch and Channel Catfish. Both Aurora and Quincy only allow boats with electric trolling motor. I've done decently froma belly boat too. I've done decently for walleye trolling a crawlers harness off of a 1 oz bottom bouncer. I've also caught them trolling a triple teazer off of leaded line. I've seen Wiper swimming by the boat dock in the past and they are getting huge. Unfortunately there is no fishing allowed from the boat dock there. I have yet to catch a wiper out of Aurora. I heard one fellow caught a 13 lbs wiper using a deep diving rainbow trout pattern rapala over near the diving area the year before last. JL

yeah i have heard that bottom bouncers work good but i cant get it goin fast enough in my belly boat. i have caught pike in the belly boat before and it is some fight. it was fun uintill a small one got off the hook into my lap. it was terrifying! its also scary because at 11 mile the water is so shallow for so long that you get monster pike right at your feet. but a belly boat is the only way you can access the weedy shallows.

I have some good childhood memories of Elevenmile. Back when I was about 10 years old (back in the 80's), my Dad used to spend almost every week-end down there chasing those toothy critters with 2 lbs test line and 6 inch mister twisters. He had a couple world record attempts on 2 lbs test line with his last attempt over 12 lbs two weeks later a fellow in Canada caught an 18+ lbs pike on 2 lbs test line.
I've always thought it would be fun to have a monster pike tow me around in a belly boat, That would be scary having one flopping around inside it.
I've done plenty of belly boating, but have since picked up a little 11' coleman crawdad with a trolling motor and Eagle fish finder. This is one of those few boats you can take into shallow weedy areas.
 Unfortunately with the winds at elevenmile, I'm real reluctant to take my crawdad out there. I would say it's probably more suited for small boats like Bear Creek Lake, Quincy and Aurora that don't have big gas powered boats and are easy enough for me to get off the lake if weather turns too crazy. This next spring if you want to do some trolling give me a shout.
JL

yeah that sounds like a good time. last time i was out at elevenmile in my bellyboat my dad and I had gotten caught up in a nasty storm. on our way in all of the campers were reeling in their lines and watchin because it took us a while to paddle in. even if you wade out on the end by the dream stream you can get into pike. try using a booyah! buzzbait or a prop bait. the pike love em! and you dont get em snagged.

I bet that was a sight. That is one lake I wouldn't want to be caught in a storm on. There a lot of boats at the bottom of that lake as a result of some of those storms. It looks like we're getting closer to ice fishing season. I was driving over the Cherry Creek Dam road this morning and noticed that parts of it were icing up. A friend of mine at work has already been out ice fishing. I need to find out how she did.

my fishing buddy is an ice fisherman and he is trying to get me into it. it sounds pretty fun. do you need an ice pole to ice fish or will a micro pole work just as well? where did your freind go?

that would be pretty fun ice fishing elevinmile. ive always wanted to toss in a big ol' minnow and see what hapens.

hey, just went ice fishin with my buddy at golden gate. we caught about 80 trout and countless suckers. it was freezing in the lower pond though. it was a ton of fun and the ice was 10 inches thick in some spots.

Was there any size to them? The trout I usually catch at Golden Gate ponds are stocker size, but my 5 year old and I sure have fun though. I talked to my friend. She went to Tarryall the week-end before last and said it was pretty slow. She went to Antero this last week-end and said it was slow, but the trout were pretty good size. I heard Antero has been producing some monsters lately. As soon as I get a free moment, I think I'll make my way down there. She said it was about 6 inches of ice, but the outside temp was reading -40.

i also heard that antero was practically sub-arctic. however one of the guys out on the ice at golden gate said there was a 17 lb cutthroat or some kind of trout caught out of antero when he was there. at golden gate there were a few 13-14 inchers but mostly they were 10-12 inches. it was still alot of fun.

In the spring try Ward Road ponds, Wheat Ridge Green Belt, Adams County Fair Grounds, Union Res. in Longmont and Bear Creek Res. in Lakewood. Most of the city lakes has bass in them just got to go after them in the sping time and learn where they hold up at. Plus if you are really wanting to truely be in a world of your own start looking at rivers ie; Yampa River and Arkansas River. I hope this will give some good ideas for some good bass fishing next year.

 

Good luck and tight lines to you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.