Chatfield

[Colin/CO]

Hey guys I'm heading out to Chatfield tomorrow after school. Any suggestions? Thanks

Colin in Colorado

[Kevin/CO]

My suggestion is to not go freeze and work your can off. Chatfield is not my favorite resivoir to say the least. The summer abuse leaves it stained and polluted, I wouldn't trust those fish to not be contaminated. I have caught a lot of fish there and never caught one that looked really healthy exccept for a couple cats and a few carp. But if you still want to go I suggest this. Dig up you most sensitive ultra light or jigging pole, use light line with the drag set resonably, get some minnows of varrying size that are lively, use colored or coated hooks (not jigs if you can get away with it), use split shot about 16" up from the hook (just enough to flex the tip a little), hook the minnow through th side below the dorsal fin, put the minnow 2-4" above the bottom (18-20" after the wights hit bottom). Thats the easy part. Now heres the hard part. Over by the marina, handicap "peir", and the cove with the boat rental are in it there are gravel pits. Find those, once you do get ready to sit back and wait for that tip to go nuts on your pole. If you have a sensitive pole its going to move a little always because of that minnow. Thats the system thats been working the best for us, not at Chatfield but thats also the set up that has been pretty popular amongst the regulars out there.

[EricCO]

You would be sickly looking too if you lived downstream from Lockheed- Martin! Walleyes have three eyes and fillets glow in the dark from there.

Actually I've caught lots of Chatfield fish and they were plump and healthy.

[Neal/Co]

The three times I went to Chatfield last summer with Eric I must of caught 40 eye's. They all seemed very fat and healthy. I didn't have to worry about eating them because they were all under the slot. It is an amazing fishery when you consider where it is!!

[EricCO]

I wouldn't recommend going out on the ice after all this warm weather, but if you're going to fish I would try the outlet. Split shot like Kevin said with a minnow. Stand on the outlet structure, cast downstream, and reel in real slow. I've seen and caught lots of walleyes there doing that. Good luck and let us know how you did.

[Crackin Ice]

I was out on Chatfield yesterday the ice in the platte river arm was 8-12" thick it's not going to melt anytime soon.I also ventured out to the bridge there was 3-5" out there but it was kind of scary.I caught trout right at the transition onto the bridge but i could not find any Perch or Bluegill.I moved to the south to one of the pits and found fish but they were very finicky.I did manage to pick up a nice 19" rainbow that looked very healthy.I always jig a kastmaster with either waxworms or a minnow and do just fine.hope this helps.

[Nick]

I went out this morning by the pits and did not do very good. A couple of bites and that was it. I honestly do not think the ice is very safe out there. Even though the ice is 12" thick in some places water was coming up through several cracks in the ice and I watched several cracks form around me while I was fishing. I don't recommend going out on the ice until the weather gets cold again. Are you sure you were out on the bridge? I have tried going out there a couple of times and the ice has been very very thin and that was still about 100 yards from the bridge. I have both sides of the bridge plotted on my gps unit and both times I have tried to go out there it has been impossible. Be careful.

[Kevin/CO]

Its good that you an Neal were getting eyes that were healthy. About the last ten that I got there were absolutely disgusting. They were almost complaetely white and had one tooth. Every trout I have caught at chatfield has been with almost no color and its not because of being stockers these fish were all 3-4 inches over stocker size. Those discolorations have kinda driven me away from chatfield.

[Colin/CO]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-01 AT 11:28PM (CST)[p]Well i went out today after school. didn't get out there till after 4:00. I was over by catfish flats. The northeast corner of the lake was open. I didn't catch anything not even a nibble. The ice was about 10 inches thick but soft. A couple spots made me a little nervous. I didn't see anybody catch anything either.
Colin/CO