What's going on at Spinney?

Was up there yesterday stepped out of the truck and got blown back 10 feet. The 50 mph wind had 4-5' rollers beating the dam... The only safe place to fish was the south ramp but I refused to disrupt the spawners Did see several fish roll but none caught while I was there .. Lots of pelicans feasting below the canal.
Both ramps are open with the water down 4-5 ft. The breakwaters are laying by the ramp and not installed.
Should be good once the wind lays down. Any info on the ramps opening at Antero. Cheers

South ramp is open at Antero. North was still closed on May 6th.

Vinnie,

According to 9news, Antero opened May 1st. According to Denver Water, it's 98% full.

Glad to hear the south ramp is open at SMR. Without the breakwaters I usually won't launch at the north ramp unless the winds forecast is <10MPH.

I know you're anxious to toss some big drys at those starvin marvins.

I hope to get to SMR on Sunday.

Mike

i had one of the best days of fishing of my life saturday on opener..hooked over 20, brought 12 20-24 inch cutbows to the net n hooked a 40+ inch pike but he shook me off when he tried to jump. I accidentally tied all my flies on barbless hooks so blaming that for why my hookup:net ratio was so low

It seemed generally slow for some though n I didnt see a lot of people hooked up around me

Fished sunday too and it was WAAY slower, only netted 4, n it was insanely windy, I had 3 guys fish near me and only saw them get one small one

couple of pics

nice fish porn 3way....care to share on what worked....

the usual suspects, 80% on balanced leeches (got fish on olive, black, dark brown), 20% on tube midge style chironomids in black/red (landons pattern), being on a good spot where fish like to feed is key

quite a lot of fish are in spawn mode right now it seems and ignored my flies..I watched a 24 inch male cutbow chase off any cruiser that came by all day, was pretty cool

I notice the State Parks site for Spinney does not indicate the South Ramp as open. Is it actually open? Thank you and good luck.

Yes, I was over a couple days ago and both ramps are open.
Bill

Yes, south ramp is open but......
The concrete ramp ends well before you can float a medium size boat.
Trailer tires drop off the end into the mud....arrrrrrrgh

Been fishing Spinney forever- haven’t missed an opener for 20+ years. Very poor job by park getting out “ice off” info on the web/voice mail, esp considering the huge number of people there on the opener- must have been 200+ vehicles waiting in line. Never never had to wait 3 weeks after ice out for it to open. Usually opens a day or two after ice out and opener involves some huge chunks of ice still on the beach. Rumor is they forgot to take out a dock last fall and ice out caused damage. Also left in the orange barrel breakwater in the ice. Jeez! Glad to see a few picts of cutbows. Chironomids have been slow. 4 trips this year- just over 20 fish and only 2 have been cutbows- all the others have been browns - very very strange. Seems like a whole age class of cutbows are missing - hope I’m wrong. Water temp 50f with some shucks and bugs on water but chironomid fishing has been slow for me. Seeing few people land fish on fly rods considering the 50f water temp. Very concerned.

CoFishing Report,
Over 200 cars? Wow, the first update I saw on FxR said there were FEWER people than normal.

do you think it's CPW that held up the opener, or Aurora Water? Seems to me that whoever controls the opening date has decided to gift the weekend warriors with only Saturday Openers. Really sucks for me, because I don't like fishing on weekends with the "warriors", and Ice-Off happens when the ice comes off, not when it's convenient for the staff.

I'll still go to Spinney to fish, but not on Saturday!

ya tbh i could hardly believe how busy it was on opener..I got there at 7 and people were lining the shore for a long ways, I had to hike well over a mile to get to a decent open spot

fished spinney last weekend too, and its slowed way down, think the fish are just in full spawn mode, only picked up 1 on a balanced leech where as it was over 10 last saturday...weird....saw so many bows chasing each other around..seemed only 10-20% of the bows i saw were cruising for food

3 WAY,
I've only been there once since arriving, spent two hours from the bank last Saturday at Cheerio Beach, 30 or so toons and tubes in view and saw one fish come in and lost at the net.
Moved down to the North ramp and spent two hours in that area drowning various chicken feathers w/o a tap, still didn't see a fish landed. A close fishing
buddy who toon fished had four bites and landed two both on leech patterns
that outing.
Bill

The fish don't always bite no matter what you do, that's what keeps it interesting. It can be a humbling experience on any given day, and it doesn't seem to be limited to just lakes or streams, I have been shut out on both before..

Went on Tues of this week. Beautiful day, lots of sun and no wind. I like a bit of wind. A lot of boats and cherrios all over the lake. Saw one fish caught, but not on my boat. There were a very few small midge hatching. Tried all kinds, colors, and sizes of midge. Even tried shrimp, cress bug, SJW, small PT, and damsel. A few fish were eating the midge on top. Hope things pick up for someone. Reservoir is still very low, and don't know how this has affected fish survival over the winter.

Survival from winter kill is normally not a problem with 11 Mile as well as Spinney as the depth of these reservoirs provides the needed oxygen when heavy ice occurs.
Antero on the other hand has more of a problem as the current max depth is 18', back in 08/09 Antero experienced a winter kill estimated at 50+ % the lake max depth that year was 14'. I have not personally seen any winter kill over the past several years at any of the SP Lakes.
Not a ton of activity, catch wise, at any of the lakes so far this season based on my outings as well as several friends.
I have talked with a few spin fishermen at Antero who had some success on small swimming plugs, Rapala type baits, very few bugs and water temp is 50-53.
Snow and 29 degrees currently out here.
Bill

Whats the water temp at Spinney. thanks

Malty, by contract Spinney won’t open prior to May 15. Per internet source. In years passed they allowed walk-in traffic. Apparently that’s stopped? I’m certainly not sure why? We don’t need any ANS people for walk-ins. Plus it doesn’t need to be ice free with no boats. It’s not a safety issue for wade fishing. Just my opinion…

I2

MAgoo
Last week itt was 48-50 not sure now but it’s been in the low20s the
Past few days with more than a foot of snow.
Bill

Don,
When did this new alleged "contract" take effect, and why ? We all know that Spinney "used to" open when it was ice-free, not when some Non-fisherman decided to allow us onto the lake.

It's frustrating that I cannot find any info online about a "contract".

Malty, your right I was a month off 4-15-11-15 that spinney can be open. [log in for link]

Thank you! Bill

Hello, does anyone know if the buffalo midges are hatching now? This is usually the right time of year . . . .

Yes, they are! Water is 55 degrees. Black or red or black with red wire chironomids are working great!

You coulda got Churchill fins for much less $ haha -)

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