Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Dentry: Colorado anglers dare to share online

Published January 27, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Outdoors Columns & Blogs

More stories »

Until recently, anglers trying to bag a little inside fishing information in the "off" season have found the effort to be exactly that - trying.

As in pulling hen's teeth. Or impossible.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife's weekly fishing reports, which are published in this newspaper and others during the warm months, quit in September and don't start up again until April. Internet reports from some fly shops can be as dated as last summer's carp carcasses.

The standard explanation is that few people are out there fishing, and those who are fishing aren't sharing. The communication vacuum can be especially vexing when you try to drill for current ice-fishing conditions.

Take it from someone who attempts to fill in the blanks on a regular basis. Marinas are closed. One fly-shop informant works winters at a ski resort, another has fled to Costa Rica. Summer staff is gone from state parks.

As for wet water, you would think no one was there.

You might think wrongly. In Colorado, where fishing season runs all year, there is a strong undercurrent of anglers, including those piloting boats and in waders, who cast flies or dangle hooks at every opportunity, and many prefer to do so not blindly.

As one of those perennial anglers, Ken

Broeren was both frustrated and intrigued by the paucity of up-to-the minute fishing intelligence, especially in winter. So he set up , a Web site dedicated to Colorado fishermen who are ready to talk.

When Broeren started up in 2003, his site was typical of many angling Web sites, offering general fishing tips and links to other sites giving official stream-flow data and reports from tackle and fly shops. Then, a year ago, he started the chat flowing.

"I'm an entrepreneur by nature. I thought there was a huge market for this," said Broeren, 30, of Colorado Springs. "I started looking and found out there was no competition."

Broeren was so sure it would work he quit his job as a Wells Fargo technology manager and sank a decade of retirement savings into the project.

"I'm everything from the CEO to the janitor," he said.

While he manages the Web site and fishes as often as possible, his brother, Donald, does road- trip research and writes many of the Web site's where- and how-to articles. Judging by Donald's repeat appearances on the site's photo bragging board, he is no fishing slouch.

Increasingly, other fishers and writers have jumped on board, with articles and photos on a wide range of local fishing opportunities, from fishing for lake trout at Lake Granby to catching walleyes at Horsetooth Reservoir. Most of the advertisers also are local fishing businesses.

"We're very how-to and locally oriented," Ken Broeren said. "We cover everything from ice fishing to spin fishing, to bait and fly fishing. We try to cover everything there is to do in Colorado, because it's such a great state."

What sets his site apart from others is its forum, a chat room that allows anglers to share successes, failures, techniques and observations gathered during real-time forays.

Some of the commentators are experts happy to coach others. Many are ordinary anglers who recently have plied waters for which we crave fresh information. A few, apparently, just like to brag.

After a year of chat, 970 members have registered free, which allows them to write personal fishing reports, ask and answer questions of each other. But anyone can read their chat without having to register.

Apparently, many are eager to read. Ken

Broeren's tally sheets show his Web site received 21.1 million hits in 2005. In December alone, there were 900,000 page views.

The Web site has been such a hit that Ken expanded it into a monthly, glossy magazine, Colorado Fisherman, which has been on the stands since August and has a booth at the Denver International Sportsmen's Exposition this weekend.

A recent perusal of the Web site's forum found fishers discussing whether big rainbows might be spawning in the "Dream Stream," bottom contours at Williams Fork Reservoir and how some folks are going about catching winter walleyes at Pueblo Reservoir, among others.

"All in all, it's been a great bunch of people," Ken said.

On occasion, the Colorado Fisherman staff and readers get together in person "to share techniques and have fun." The most recent outing was three weeks ago, at Granby Reservoir, where 50 anglers met to fish through the ice for lake trout.

Last autumn, another group met on the South Platte River upstream from Elevenmile Reservoir to fish for spawning kokanee salmon.

"We had everyone from novice fly fishermen to very advanced fly fishermen," Ken said. "It's amazing how, when you get these people together, they start sharing."

Some anglers aren't meant to share. A few pride themselves on having tight lips. That's OK. But for those willing to learn and teach, Colorado Fisherman stands ready to oblige.