Welcome to the Escape

On a normal year late winter and early spring means open and ice free water on front range ponds and gravel pits. This time of the year can yield successful days on this type of water for anglers on a personal watercraft. In this 2 part series Jeff Nielsen takes us through what it means to be an angler and how he went about becoming an accomplished one with his belly boat on Colorado's front range small reservoirs, ponds and gravel pits.

Colorado is a mecca for many different types of fishing. The Centennial State is filled with fishing opportunities from the peaks to the prairies. For years, former Colorado Division of Wildlife (now Parks & Wildlife) has maintained THE COLORADO HUNTING ATLAS which is a valuable mapping tool for hunters.

Get excited anglers because CPW has now released the fishing version of this very useful mapping device: THE COLORADO FISHING ATLAS. Whether you ice fish, fly fish, bait fish, troll, or just want to find a place to take your family the atlas can be a great resource to help you find a new fishing spot, look up the regulations, print maps, and more.

CPW's video production crew recently put together a tutorial to help you get started with the Colorado Fishing Atlas:

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife video production crew teamed up with a couple great guides out of Cutthroat Anglers in Silverthorne, CO last May, 2012. Mitch called me up early the morning we planned on heading up to float Pumphouse to Radium. He said the forecast for wind was not good and considered canceling the trip. We had been up there the week prior to film the giant stoneflies and knew the hatch was going on. Coming from Denver we were already to Floyd Hill so Mitch said "screw the wind, lets go for it."

We ended up having a great day on the water - while it was windy, we managed to land some nice fish as well as some getting some great instructional stuff from Mitch and Ryan. (We shot the close up of the bugs on a different day as you may notice its not windy during the bug segments)

For more info vist CPW'S FISHING PAGE
FISH EXPLORER COLORADO RIVER PAGE
BUY A FISHING LICENSE
Cutthroat Anglers FISHING REPORT