Check out our Interactive Fishing Maps!
AURORA, Colo. Cherry Creek Reservoir has produced more trophy size fish than Chatfield this year, says Louise Maddox, owner and operator of the Valley Country Tackle (303-680-3544) just south of the reservoir at Quincy and Parker Road.
Maddox is a wealth of information on fishing Cherry Creek, Aurora, Chatfield really any Colorado lake and she's always willing to share her knowledge.
She's introduced me to several lures or techniques that have proven themselves many times over the years, including the old faithful Smelly Jelly, the Fle-Fly slab spoon, clip-on bottom-bouncers and numerous others.
Valley Country has a good selection of gear and a variety of live baits, including large shiners.
I used to only fish Cherry Creek occasionally because every time I went there I had to wash the scum ring off my boat. I didn't have that happen on other metro area lakes. However, this year something has been done to clean the lake up.
Someone told me they filtered the water somehow, but all I know is that the water is clearer and my boat came out clean. Hooray!
Thanks to those who took action to clean up the lake. I don't know if the cleaner lake has anything to do with larger fish being caught, but it sure hasn't hurt.
I've heard several reports of walleye being caught in the 10 to 12-pound range. The DOW reported that a female angler caught bass, walleye, wiper and crappie on a No. 6 jointed Rapala recently.
The bass was a 10-pound largemouth, the largest bass I've heard of out of Cherry Creek.
Others have told me of largemouth in the 4 to 6-pound range caught along the dam on crankbaits. This time of year, low-light periods of early morning, evening and after dark usually produce the most bites, but I managed to catch a 30-inch, 10½-pound walleye at 12:50 on a sunny afternoon recently.
Planer board
I'd gotten to Cherry Creek later than I should have on that mid-June day, but I mainly wanted to test out some different planer board trolling techniques and wasn't worried much about catching fish.
A planer board is a device designed to get your lure out away from the path of the boat and is meant to release from your line when a fish strikes.
With your line free you can fight the fish without the extra weight of the planer board. However, if the board releases you also have to wind in your other lines and go back and get the planer board, which can use up valuable fishing time.
One way to keep the board from releasing automatically is to double-wrap the line around the front clip on the board. With this technique the back clip on the board releases, but the front clip does not.
The board rides funny in the water and you know to reel it in. The key is you have to keep the boat moving to keep tension on the fish until you get the board to the boat, then unclip the board and drop it in the boat and continue winding in the fish.
This technique only works if you have a trolling motor that continues in a straight line automatically, or if you have someone with you to continue trolling and controlling the boat while you fight the fish.
I don't have that kind of motor, and this particular day I was fishing by myself, so I needed a new technique.
I was attempting to tie a string onto the planer board so that it would still release when the fish struck, but after landing the fish I could pull in the planer board with the string and not have to go back to retrieve it. Sounded like a good idea, but I couldn't get it to work.
The string lay on the water creating drag, and the planer board wouldn't go out very far to the side. I've decided that if I had a pole in the air with a string going down to the planer board without laying in the water it might work, but I eventually gave up my experimenting and got down to fishing.
Trolling
When trolling for fish 20 feet deep or shallower, especially on pressured water with lots of fishermen and skiers like Cherry Creek, the planer board gets your lure out away from the path of the boat so you don't spook the fish you're trying to catch.
I use the Off-Shore Side-Planer. It's a hard plastic board, weighted at the bottom so it stands up with a wedged front cut to the left on the left-side planer board and to the right on the right-side planer board.
I went back to clipping on the board so that it would release when the fish struck and put the boards out about 30 feet on both sides of the boat.
Several times I almost had a skier come between my boat and planer board but was able to motion them off. You couldn't have your boards out that far on a weekend or your line would get cut for sure.
The big 'eye hit on my inside rod, releasing the planer board, then headed under my boat to the other side, about bending my 6½-foot medium heavy rod to its limit.
I had to turn off the engine and get the prop up before the line could be cut.
Next I had to push the rod tip further into the water and work the rod around the boat and under the prop to the other side. Then I passed the rod under my other trolling rod and fought the fish to the side of the boat.
At first glance I knew it was a big fish, but I didn't know how big until I brought the fish on board with the rod in one hand and the net in the other.
The fish measured 30 inches and weighed exactly 10½ pounds. Tom Yanke at Valley Country Tackle took my picture for their wall of fame and verified the weight and measurement.
I was trolling a chartreuse shad colored Lucky Craft Staysee 90sp on 12-pound fluorocarbon P-Line about a cast behind the boat.
I normally don't use scent on crankbaits, but this day I put a stripe of Eagle Claw green Nitro Grease down the back of my lure.
I was amazed how the Nitro Grease glistened in the sun and stayed on the lure even while trolling. After trolling at idle speed all morning it was starting to run rough, so I punched the speed up a notch.
The planer boards, Staysee lure, Nitro Grease, power trolling, or all of the above, you can believe I'll be trying this combination again.
Walleye are also being caught on worm, minnow or leech harnesses either on Lindy Rigs or bottom-bouncers, and on crankbaits like Rat-L-Traps.
Fish along the old Cherry Creek Channel and between the midlake ski buoys and idle buoys along the dam.
Getting bass
To get bass, toss crankbaits toward the riprap at the dam during low-light periods, but remember that shore fishermen have the right of way, so give them plenty of room.
Fishing with live bait, worms, leeches, minnows or cut bait like shad or shrimp can catch you a walleye, bass, wiper or maybe a large catfish.
Fishing from the dam, in Marina Cove or in the southwest section of the lake where Cottonwood Creek comes in can be effective, especially for catfish as the waters warm to summer highs.
Material from Fishing & Hunting News
published 24 times a year.
Visit them at www.fishingandhuntingnews.com.