Barbour Ponds Ice Fishing

On a pleasant friday afternoon, my friend Hamric and I headed to St. Vrain State Park, where the Barbour ponds are located. There are lots of ponds here that hold good fish and good ice for a portion of the year. This was my first time using my own ice fishing gear, including a homemade ice fishing pole, and also using my old auger with new blades.

I pulled my Dad's old hand auger from out of a pile of junk in the shed. My Mom, sister, and myself had probably given it to him as a Christmas gift some years ago. It had been well used until its replacement, the two stroke auger came along. The blades on it were so rusty that they would hardly even scratch the ice. It would have taken hours of effort to bore a hole with those blades that you probably would have had better luck with a pocketknife.

It is tough to recall which ones are old and which ones are new

But for $35 they sell the replacement blades, which can bore a hole like a squirrel on crack going after a peanut butter jar.  While I was buying the blades, I spent a few more dollars on the ice ladle that pulls out all of the chunks remaining from the auger, which is worth it in the long run.

After paying the $7 entrance fee, the attendant informed us that "sandpiper" was fished out, but there were people catching fish on "coot", "mallard", and "bald eagle". The ice was about 4-6", and generally safe.  We drove to mallard and got our gear/beer out on the ice.

Typical Ice Fishing jigs, with quarter for scale.

After being very impressed with the augers first drilling performance, I set up with a small jig with a 1/2 mealworm and splitshot, the typical ice fishing set up. I found the pond to only be around 5' deep. At its deepest we could estimate that it was only around 10' deep.

About 30 seconds after I had dropped my line in, and while I was helping Hamric set up his line, I saw my line run sideways out of the corner of my eye.  When your line moves in the hole, you know that a fish is playing with it down below. I cautiously picked up my rod, and gave it a small tug back. BAM! The fish set, and I pulled it out of the hole. Altogether, I'd had about three feet of line out.

It was a 12" stocked rainbow trout, not more than a minute after having put a lure in the water.

We fished Coot lake and Mallard lake catching lots of fish at each lake. The stocked trout there are hungry. The park ranger who checked our licenses told us that earlier in the year some ice fishers were pulling out 2-300 of these trout per day. Now that would be fun!

Hamric anticipating the next bite.

We caught 8 fish in the few short hours that we were there, and kept seven for a fish fry.

Even thought they were stockers, they still tasted good in trout tacos! The largest we caught was around 15" long.

My next investment into ice fishing will be some cleats. While it isn't too bad slipping around on the ice at first, after just a few hours it becomes annoying. Falling on the ice is painful as I have experienced. Right when you walk away from your pole, which could be after a half hour of sitting with no bites, you look back and the tip of your pole is wiggling. The line is swinging from side to side but you are five feet away. It is impossible to walk, you must dash headlong toward the pole before the fish gets away with your mealworm. But always your feet travel faster than your body without friction against the ice, and you come crashing down on your back knocked windless to lie and watch your line lie still in the water, the fish leaving the hook empty. Long story short, I think i'll make the small investment for some cleats.

All in all, Barbour Ponds in Longmont, CO has some good ice fishing. We were able to take home a nice stringer of fish for dinner and have fun doing it. For the price of $7 and some gas to make the drive from Boulder, it is some decent fishing!