DENTRY: Future at Bonny may not be bright

By Ed Dentry, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, January 4, 2008

Ed Dentry / The Rocky

Kenny Condrey, owner of Papa's Bait Shop, takes advantage of one of the rare opportunities there is to ice fish at Bonny Reservoir.

Ed Dentry / The Rocky

Kenny Condrey has watched his favorite fishing hole shrink to 20 percent.

It happens, but not often, that Bonny Reservoir freezes hard enough for some ambitious ice angling.

Imagine a sweetheart fishing hole hard by the Nebraska line shrunken by water shortage to a size that freezes fast. Bring on the Arctic air.

Imagine hordes of walleyes, wipers and other warm-water fish corralled in that relatively small area. Fishing through a hole in the ice should be like shooting fish in a barrel.

That brainstorm struck last week after Howard Paul, Bonny State Park's manager, revealed that Bonny's ice had grown to 6 inches thick.

"Nobody's ice fishing, though," he said. "The diehards are hunting ducks and geese."

Owing to that lamentable water predicament, the 1,900-acre reservoir has dwindled to 800 surface acres. Imagine walleyes packed like sardines.

Of course, you can't get there from here. The previous time I visited, in November, so much of Bonny's bottom had become shoreline that a pair of duck hunters and their john boat became hopelessly mired in the muck.

Now that muck is frozen into a speedy ramp that beckons toward the snow-covered ice sheet.

Bonny is good to go.

Dark side

There is another reason for Bonny fans to visit the once-brimming lake and still-great wildlife area. This could be goodbye.

Colorado owes Nebraska and Kansas a backlog of 50,000 acre-feet of water from Bonny's only source, the South Fork of the Republican River.

To make matters worse, drought and irrigation wells have lowered the aquifer and reduced the South Fork to a drip.

"We do have to come back into contract compliance," said Grady McNeill, water rights specialist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "Some wells might have to be shut down."

Also, it is possible that every last drop of Bonny, one of Colorado's finest warm-water fisheries, could dribble away.

There is hope, though, in talk that Kansas is more interested in seeking compliance from Nebraska than grabbing the few drops that ooze from Colorado's headwaters.

McNeill said Bonny might get by without releasing water this year, but evaporation estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 acre-feet per year remains its main problem.

Always hope

It didn't take much to convince Kenny Condrey to try a bit of ice jigging. After all, he hasn't been swamped with customers at Papa's Bait Shop.

"I hope they find a way to keep it open," he said.

He meant the state park. But Condrey, a Deep South transplant who hopes never to leave these beautiful riparian digs, also worries his shop might not survive.

Meanwhile, what can you do? He went fishing.

Condrey said fishermen caught lots of 10- to 15-pound wipers last year. He was jigging a spoon and staring dubiously down our 8-inch fishing holes.

"Well, you just pull his head up to the hole, and I'll reach down and filet him," he said.

The fishing was great, as they say. It was the catching that left something to be desired.

Ranger Bob Shade, who hiked out to join the biggest crowd on the lake (all both of us), described Bonny's notorious brooding spells.

"About 18 years ago, we had good, hard ice," he said. "So we gave these guys permission to go on a snowmobile. They went all over this lake and never could figure out how to catch walleyes. And they were professionals."

Shade said he hopes the area's famous summer downpours will return this summer.

"Then we'd be back in business. But even if the rains don't come, it's going to be a good wildlife refuge. We'll take care of it that way."

Senior biologist Doug Krieger said he believes Bonny's fish will make it through 2008, barring unforeseen water troubles.

"We're going to keep managing it as a fishery and hope for the best," he said. "It's always been our crown jewel."

As for heaps of fish corralled under Bonny's ice, have at them, but be safe. Some melting is certain this week.

For updates and safety tips, check Parks.State.CO.US. Click on Bonny Lake State Park and Conditions.

The last guys known to fish there left a few behind.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com