Elk Head Disappoints Bass Anglers

Day one partner Chad landed the biggest pike
of his life, a 38 inch.

     A recent outing to Elk Head Reservoir near Craig, CO failed to show the kind of bass rumored to be there, but the Big Pike Bonanza was on the first day.

     The Denver Bassmasters held a club tournament at Elk Head last weekend.  This was the first time the club had traveled to this lake and did so based on reports that fat smallmouth bass were to be found there.  Congrats to DBM member Scott Dennis who won the event flipping soft-plastics and using crankbaits for a two day catch of 14 lb. 6.75 oz.
     Maybe it was the weather fronts that kept rolling through the area, maybe it was the 71-degree water in July, maybe it was the lack of cover to hold fish, or maybe the smallmouth bass population is not as viable as claimed, but this event proved to be a bust for most of the anglers.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice little lake, but during two days of catching countless smallmouth bass I did not catch a single one over 12 ounces!  That’s right, I mean OUNCES; 20-30 little fish caught by me or my partner for the day and not a one over even one pound!!!  One angler who found a three pound fish only had a five pound total with 4 more fish to go with it.  The prevalence of small bass was reported by several other anglers, too.  While a few did manage to catch a decent one, the big bass was 3 lb. 5 oz., and there were a couple more in the 2.5-3 pound range, others decided to forego the search for smallmouth and enjoy the chance to catch the numerous 25-inch plus pike that would explode on topwater baits.  Most of the keeper size bass were largemouth, not smallmouth.  Overall it seems there are several year-classes of fish missing and few of the legal keeper size.  Not that we would keep any anyway!

     So you know why we know how small these fish actually were, the Denver Bassmasters tournament are scale and card tournaments.  We weight every fish on a Berkley scale, immediately release the bass, and write the weight down on a card.  At the end of the day, the best five fish count for that day’s weight.

     My day one partner Chad decided to try fishing deep and tied on a DD-22 crankbait.  After half an hour of casting he finally got the hit he wanted and landed the largest pike of his life and the largest of the event (we had a side pot for biggest pike,) a 38-inch pictured below.  There were several around 36 inches caught and many between 25 and 35 inches.



Another nice pike caught during the bass tournament.
Jeremiah had a blast catching numerous big slimy snakes.

     Elk Head, a 900 surface acre lake at 6,300 feet elevation, has been harboring smallmouth and pike for a lot of years and, despite a drawdown a few years ago for dam work these species have survived in numbers.  Most recently the DOW has been shocking bass and pike to remove them from the Yampa River and placing them in Elk Head.  During this event I caught uncounted numbers of little bass, many of which had a tag in them, which according to the Park Ranger, indicated that they had been removed from the Yampa.

     The Elk Head info on this site suggests that the plan is to have a stocked trout fishery there and that pike are a nuisance.  In my opinion, with all the quality trout water we already have in Colorado that we have a greater need for a quality bass and or pike fishery than another trout one.  Of all the fishermen I witnessed on the lake they were either fishing for bass or pike and I heard no reports of even one trout beingAn caught.  I did catch one nice crappie.

     Same with the Yampa; there are relatively few freestone rivers like the Yampa with a good smallmouth population in the entire US and efforts should be made to capitalize on this, not discourage or try to eliminate it by shocking and removing what should be a precious resource in the name of the almighty trout.

     Trout are a money-making enterprise for the state of Colorado and anglers come from far and wide to fish for trout here, usually with a fly rod, and spend money in our state while doing so.  But most of them are going to go to the Dream Stream, the Frying Pan, other well-known big trout waters or more remote high country locations for the added experience of the beautiful scenery before they are going to go to a place like Elk Head.  I would like to see Elk Head become the quality bass and pike lake that it has the capability of being.