I'm a big fisherman from Minnesota and moving to Colorado....

[Ely Lake Expert]

Gsp,

My gsp's turned a year old at the begining of november. I have 2 sister's. (could never seperate them) I got them on some pheasants and grouse this year, they did very well. I have not been out fishing out here yet. I work monday-friday during the day. I have a pretty busy weekend coming up this weekend too, but maybe next weekend if your going again, i could meet you out there.

Shiner, I will send you an email tonight from my personal email at home.

[Ely Lake Expert]

Shiner, i forgot to send the email. i will try to remember tonight.

[Nate McVey]

Sounds good Ely

[Tom Linderholm]

Shiner, while you are at it give Ely some advice about "up the hill" if you know what I mean.

Another MN-CO-back to MN transplant here. I have caught large cutbow's in Nottingham Lake in the summer believe it or not. It's worth a try.

[Nate McVey]

Nottingham Lake in Avon is a great spot, although it does get very crowded. Casting cleos and mepps from shore will get you Cuttbows and a few nice rainbows....but I would stay away from eating any of those.

[Lund4Fish]

Crankbait, I moved from Michigan back in 1980 to Longmont, CO (30 miles south of Ft. Collins), so I know what you're up against. I see you've got a lot of good information here already, but I thought I'd add a little more. First of all, you are comparing one of the best general fishing areas in the country to Colorado, which doesn't make the list. There are not near the amount of lakes or water in Colorado that you had in MN. Last I checked there are about 3 Million people living in the Denver, metro area, which equates to a lot of competition for the fewer number of lakes available and once the water warms up enough for the water skiers and jet skis, it's really tough on the weekends. Compared to the good fishing and availability of lakes you're used to, you're going to be a little disappointed fishing around the Ft. Collins, Longmont or Denver area. I never used to drive to far to find good fishing in MI, but in Colorado, you've got to change that mind set. If you want "GOOD" fishing, you're going to have to drive a ways. There is a lot of competition for some mediocore fishing locally to Ft. Collins. However I did do OK fishing for Walleye in Horestooth reservoir, on occasion through the week while fishing the east shoreline pulling harnesses. Did pretty well in April there too for lake trout on the same walleye spinner rigs. For the best fishing with a lot less pressure I fished up in Wyoming (not that far from Ft. Collins) most of the time, my favorite walleye reservoirs were Glendo (2-1/4 hrs from Ft.Collins), Boysen (4-1/2 hrs from Ft. Collins and Seminoe (3 hrs. from Ft. Collins). They are big reservoirs and full of walleye. I've had many 50-100 fish days on all three, plus Boysen and Seminoe have some really nice trout (4-10 lbs) as bonus fish that you'll catch while fishing for walleye. If you want to fish for Muskie, Longhagler (Loveland area), Pinewood (above Carter), Quincy (near Denver),Greyrocks (Wheatland, WY) are the ones I know of and caught some while fishing for other species. For Bass, I'd go to Peublo Res, (west of Peublo 3 hrs from Ft. Collins), Carter Lk. also has a few. There is some really good Wiper (Hybrid-White bass/Striper) fishing in Sterling Res (north of Sterling, CO 1-1/2 hours east of Ft. Collins)my wife and I caught 150 in 2 days there one weekend (released all but a couple) and had a ball, they put up a good fight. There is also decent walleye, crappie and catfish in Sterling. The mountain lakes are pretty much trout fishing, but you'll have to travel a ways to the west for the "GOOD" fishing there too. Most of the lakes anywhere near you are put & take and you mostly catch 10"-12" stocked trout. My favorite mountain lake was propbably Granby, while ice fishing for lake trout. You'll catch a lot of 20"-24" fish with a shot at a real hog there too. There are some good ice fishing opportunities out there too. Anyways, Minnesota it's not, but there are decent fishing opportunities, like I said you just have to be willing to travel. We usually just made a weekend camp trip of it. In 2005 we moved to Washington State, so now I've started over once again, but this time I'm in some awesome fishing territory and enjoying it too! Good luck to you!

[Lund4Fish]

Post deleted by Lund4Fish

[Ely Lake Expert]

Thanks for some good info Lund. Where I live actually overlooks Carter lake. I have fished there and pinewood quite a bit since I got out here with a little bit of success, but it's not northern MN that is forsure. I met someone that lives on horsetooth and I am going to try there one of these days.

[Lund4Fish]

If you go up to Horsetooth and want to fish for walleye, try the east shoreline about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the resevoir from the south boat ramp. I did pretty good there at times running spinner harnesses in 12' to 20' of water. It's on and off though, I think the fish suspend out over the deeper 60'-70' water and then come in to the rocks near shore and feed on the abundant crayfish and minnows up in there, then back out to rest and suspend over deep water. Also the bays back up on the nortwest end can be good for bass and occasionally a walleye or nice trout. The walleye fishery was just coming on at Carter Lk. about the time I moved to Washington, so I never fished it for walleye. That's a pretty area to live in. Good luck with the fishing!

[smellzalilfishee]

Just scrolling through this post I have read that fishing is not all that great here in Colorado. Funny, I grew up in MN fishing my tail off for 18 years. I have been in Colorado for 18 now and you would have to shoot me and drag me back to MN. The fishing here is in my opinion awesome and I enjoy it much more. I love banging big lakers through the the ice flyfishing for giant browns and rainbows and am 100 yards from catching large mouth left and right with my flyrod. Go to colorado fishermen.com and you will get a much better understanding of the scene here. I love it here but am also glad that some people don't care for it and bail!!! You can have the frozen tundra and for all who didnt think the fishing was that good here did not put in their time and do their homework, if you do you will enjoy it big time.

[Dragon Fish ll]

Coloradofishermen.com has a serious problem with letting me or my girlfriend get signed in. I tryed ten times. were flying out to Denver next saturday for the first time to do some fishing an outdoor sightseeing. Granby looked really good to me, found it searching around on net before coming here. But wheather report for next weekend does not look real good. Will be comeing anyway since the tickets are bought. could anyone put me on to some sure trout in or around the Denver area or within a 100 miles or so. Was driving thru a few weeks ago an stopped on road side at the colorado river about 25 to 40 miles east of rifle thru spinner out four times for a nice 17 to 19 inch brown trout. CPR,,D but that is a little to far from Denver. Forcast rain an thunderstorms scattered PS Just lures and Bait fishing

[Nate McVey]

Dragon, 100 miles will put you in the Vail area (about 2 hours) and on the Eagle river. There are plenty of trout to catch in there. If you are up for a few hour hike to some mountain lakes on Beaver Creek Mountain, shoot me an email shiner2367atyahoodotcom. If you want to save 45 mins, stop in Silverthorne and fish the Blue. Anyway, good luck!

[breezymoney]

We're yet another couple of Minnesotans who lived out there (Colorado Springs, 5 years) but moved back home. As others have mentioned, it's a beautiful state but it is different from home as far as fishing goes.

One thing we really enjoyed was ice fishing for rainbows up at Elevenmile. You can't drive out on the ice there, so you have to drag a portable (can be a lot of work at that elevation!) but it's definitely worth it. (Though I do recall they started allowing 4-wheelers after the drought because it was really hard to pull your gear out over all the sand with the low water levels...not sure if that's still in effect or not?)

The water is crystal clear...almost like fishing in an aquarium. Another bouns is when the sun is out it's much warmer than MN ice fishing...didn't even need a heater most of the time. We usually used small jigs tipped with a wax worm, sometimes rubbed a little power bait on for good measure. There are also some big northerns in that lake.

We did go out east a few times to try some of the warmwater resivours (primarily John Martin) but we didn't own a boat and just caught mostly rough fish offshore. There are walleye out there though if you're willing to drive a bit.

We never did take up fly fishing, but I kind of wish we had learned...looks like fun.