DENTRY: Anglers can anticipate high water after snowier season

By Ed Dentry, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:45 a.m., March 5, 2008
Updated 02:43 a.m., March 5, 2008

Imagine a short trip down the boat ramp, and you would be looking at water prospects this spring.

Think of bass and crappies pulling off actual, successful spawns in the shallows, wipers chasing shad through weeds.

Imagine weeds growing in reservoirs accustomed to bony drawdowns. It wouldn't be extravagant also to envision burly rivers sweeping substrates clean for trout and their natural food.

Denver Water announced Tuesday that its reservoirs are 90 percent full and sure to fill when spring runoff starts.

By late February, Elevenmile Reservoir already had hit 101 percent of average; Antero, 99 percent; and Chatfield, 98 percent.

All this and more comes thanks to an unusually snowy winter. Mountain headwaters are charged and then some. Water storage dams across Colorado are making ready to dump water so they can catch more when runoff comes.

The statewide snowpack stood at 132 percent of average Tuesday, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The heartiest heaps are in southern Colorado: upper Rio Grande, 163 percent; Arkansas, 155 percent; San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan, 152 percent; Gunnison, 145 percent.

Northern Colorado also has been dealt generous snow: upper Colorado River, 129 percent; Yampa and White, 112 percent; North Platte, 111 percent; South Platte, 110 percent.

Compared with the infamous drought of 2002-03, that paltry 110 percent deserves full-fledged bounty status.

What all this likely means for fishermen is that river runoff will be long, many reservoirs flush and productive and high mountain lakes could be socked in until late summer.

Whether there will be enough water to quench the thirst of reservoirs in southeastern Colorado beyond the state's obligations to Kansas remains to be seen.

TRUCKING TROUT: The hatchery trucks are revving up for 2008 to deliver 3.8 million catchable trout - among many other fish - to state waters.

"We're getting them rolling," said Jim McKissick, the Division of Wildlife's assistant state hatchery chief. The big push starts this month.

March fish plants include trout for Cherry Creek, Brush Hollow, Green Mountain and Granby reservoirs and two rivers - the Blue at Silverthorne and the Arkansas River below Pueblo Dam.

The agency's stocking schedule calls for 76.8 million fish, most of which will be small fry.

"That's why those numbers are extremely high," McKissick said. "A lot of them will be walleye fry, which go right back into Pueblo and other brood waters."

In addition to trout, the division plans to stock 58.4 million warm-water fish for put-and-grow operations, and 134,000 non-game fish.

BOYD FIRST: If Front Range reservoirs fussed over who opens first the way Colorado ski resorts do, Boyd Reservoir would make headlines. Boyd Lake State Park opens for boating today. It is first among state parks.

The main boat ramp and a channel 7-8 feet deep provide lake access. The Heron Cove ramp is closed because of low water.

A parks pass is needed for entry, and boats must be registered for 2008. Boyd Lake is located north of U.S. 34 near Loveland.