I fished Chatfield for 5 hrs this morning. The lake was like glass and for the first 3 hrs it was overcast and perfect conditions for fishing. Around 9 I make my way over to the dam and started catching 15-17" male walleye in 10 to 15' of water. At 12:00 the water temp was 48.6 degrees. I caught 8 walleye,2 smallmouth and 1 rainbow. It was great to get out and be in the boat.
Here are some pics.
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Thanks for the report UP-
What did you take your fish on? What do you think of Chatfield?
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I caught 3 on curly tail grubs. Then after losing 20 jigs I started slip bobber rigging flathead minnows. They worked well until about 1:00 and then the boat traffic shut them down.
I liked Chaffield, the bottom had varried structure with many mid lake features. The area next to the dam has several humps and pocket holes that I know will hold fish. I graphed several large fish on the edges in deeper water, but no takers. I can see that I will have to break out the drift sock for afternoon fishing. The wind picks up like most western lakes. I think that in the next two weeks that we will have a shot at some bigger fish several days of higher temps will move the ladies.
There were 2 jet skis and many some wake boarders making tracks by the dam. I can only guess how bad it will be when the lake gets warmer. How's the night fishing? In Utah Deer Creek was the same. I only went mid week early or late in the day to avoid the crowds and on the weekends I only night fished or went to a cold water lakes. For my first time on the lake I enjoyed it. I didn't get down to the other end so I guess I will just have to go next week and check it out.
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There is a lot of great structure in that lake. And some Big fish. But the ski and PWC traffic keeps me off a lot of the time. Even mid-week in the summer can be a real problem. A lot of those folks have no common courtesy - or common sense. But the south portion of the lake is wakeless and there is some structure down there, too.
Welcome to Colorado!
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I fished Chatfield for 5 hrs this morning. The lake was like glass and for the first 3 hrs it was overcast and perfect conditions for fishing. Around 9 I make my way over to the dam and started catching 15-17" male walleye in 10 to 15' of water. At 12:00 the water temp was 48.6 degrees. I caught 8 walleye,2 smallmouth and 1 rainbow. It was great to get out and be in the boat.
Here are some pics. [/reply]
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Aaron-
A good sonar may not be essential to fishing Chatfield, but it sure is helpful. Chatfield has a lot of underwater structure that will concentrate fish such as submerged roadbeds, river channels, bridges, and gravel pits. Good electronics will certainly help you locate those.
However, there is a good map of Chatfield's structure (published by Fish-N-Map Co., I think) and it along with some good old fashioned "dead reckoning" will take you a long way. For instance, if you look at the submerged roadbeds on the map (particularly the one that runs roughly east-west across the lake) and then look in that general area on the water you will almost always see a bunch of boats strung out along it. Then you can simply run right to it. It frequently holds fish as do the deeper flats along it.
Hope this helps you!
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