Are Colorado UB Members taking the Rest of the Summer off???

[HogMaster]

Haven't seen much action on the forum lately from my fellow Colorado UB members?  Everyone on family vacation?  I will be heading out to the South fork on the Rio Grande for 5 days with the family to do some Fly Fishing?   Can anyone up north give me a report on the smaller lakes for LM or Smallies? 

[TxT]

Hey HM,

Were you out at Quincy this a.m.?  I thought I saw a Sylvan across the lake.

When you heading out of town with the family? 

[HogMaster]

Sup Tx! How was your vacation?  No I wasnt at Quincy today I was there last night and Mon & Tues.  Heading out on the 24.  Let me know if you need help setting up the boat.

[TxT]

Vacation was nice.  Lots of traveling though.  But saw some awesome sights!  Favorite was the Coliseum in Rome.  Kids had a great time too.  But I think we are all glad to be home.  Food wasn't great over there.

I will definitely take up your offer on the boat.  My biggest thing is getting a casting deck up front and I'm not real sure how to do it.  So any help would be greatly appreciated.  I got the trailer registered yesterday and will try to apply for the boat registration today. 

I am going to Quincy this morning since I can't sleep.  I will give you a call to see what your schedule is like.

[PaulRoberts]

Howdy all. Thanks for the prompt, HM.

Just returned from 10 days back East visiting family. My 5 year old son now knows his family. He felt right at home. A nice visit. Oh yes, my son caught his largest fish -a ~19inch channel cat.

Prior to that I was buried in work. My work comes in spurts and it was a busy time. I also coyote-proofed (buried fencing) and bear-proofed (electric) my wife's chicken coop. And I set-up my float tube -several runs to the hardware store.

I've made a few fishing outings in that time, all in my float tube, and taken some nice bass including a three more 19's. Still waiting on that 20.

A few highlights:

Had an interesting day a month or so back -lessee...6/15 to be precise. Pre-summer. Second 90degree day following a cold front. Mature bass were right on the shore soaking up heat. One ~18" came in close enough to the shoreline that her belly must have rubbed bottom. You could almost hear her saying, "Ahhhhhhhhh, that's nice." I fished weightless worms tight to the shoreline from the tube and had a good day. Lipped a 19 and lost a very large one. I was expecting to pull her to the top over the weeds but she would not be moved. I was using braid and the connection parted. She left a huge boil and vacated with my worm. Glad I'd gone barbless. Ooohhhhh I wanted to see that bass. Maybe she was just a 19 with her fins dug in, but I suspect she was bigger.

A few hot days later the basking was passing but I spotted a large bass along a shoreline while hiking in with my boat. I thought, "A 20!" I put down the boat and tossed her a worm and she ate it, and I missed her! It's so easy with sighted bass to hit before she really crunches down on the worm. I gave her five minutes and then probed the area with a jig-n-pig and caught her. She jumped and jumped, throwing heavy resounding splashes. When I lipped her she still fought, thrashing in my grip. She was deep-shouldered, huge-headed, and wide-backed; An impressive bass in pretty good body condition considering the time of year. And she taped only 18-3/4! I had to measure her twice. I decided to weigh her but as I started for the boat she wrested free of my grip and was gone. I believe she was in the middle 4lb range -heavy for an 18. I'd like to see her in August or September.

I took a 19 a couple days ago, on a tube-jig from a defined offshore weedbed (summer's here). She was big-headed and a bit hollow-bellied but pulled 4#2oz. on my calibrated Chatillon. Posting this later: My scale was off by about 5oz, putting her at 3#13oz.

Yesterday was a slow day for me. I can't blame the bass. The summer options (in this pond) are: offshore weedbeds, some fish relating to the shoreline, and under the slop, but I never really homed in on them. I took three, and lost three in a consecutive comedy of errors -I decided then to stop and have lunch. The three were 13, 13, and 14, and were shoreline related.

[HogMaster]

Good to here from you Paul great report.  Come hit Quincy you have a great chance at hitting a few 19's and 20's. Hit a  19.5 & 2 20"s the other night 3.13 4.0 & 4.5lbs!  Its a great tube lake.

[PaulRoberts]

Thanks HM. I might just do that one of these days. Right now I'm busy probing a couple more local favorites. If things get dull I'll start ranging.

[camelcluch]

I started school.  With work that makes for a busy week.

[bferg_80002]

Hey Tx...I am not sure what kind of boat you got but there are a couple of web sites that show some bass boat conversion.  (For some reason all the guys that do this seem from the deep south or texas!)  Anyway- here is a link to one of them: http://userpages.sofnet.com/robertg/boat.htm

That might be a bit of overkill for what you want/need but could give you some good ideas.  I think it is important that you keep an eye on the weight.  Especially since your favorite place requires you to hand launch. 

Oh- if you buy a fish finder I would consider the Eagle Fish Easy 245 DS portable.  It runs off of AA batteries and is completely portable.  I have one for the canoe and it is pretty nice.  It is not super high def but it is a great bottom finder to show you where drop offs are and the water temp.  I can show you mine next time we are both out there...

[TxT]

Bferg,

The boat is a 14' Sylvan, aluminum V-Hull.  Hog Master has one similar to it.

Thanks for the site.  That is a heck of a procedure that guy put in.  I'm afraid I'm not that mechanically inclined and would probably have so many holes in the boat it may sink the first time in.  I'm also worried about weight as I want to be able to wrestle this in and out of the water by myself.  I may just need to get a trolling motor on the back and get the heck on the water before winter gets here!  Afterall, I will have all winter to work on it.

I'll be out there early tomorrow (wading) trying to round up the bass once again.  I'm going through withdrawals and it's only been two days.

Tx