Ice fishing around the Denver area?

[duckhunt]

My son is back for the holidays and is taking some of my old ice fishing gear back with him. He lives in Lakewood outside of Denver and hasn't fished out there yet. Are there any decent lakes close for him to try?

 

[Bigjay73]

When Aurora and Chatfield freeze, they can be decent. Bear lake is near Lakewood, but isnt that great of a lake. He can drive an hour- hour and a half and fish Georgetown, Antero, 11 mile, Taryall and a few others.

 

[duckhunt]

When Aurora and Chatfield freeze, they can be decent. Bear lake is near Lakewood, but isnt that great of a lake. He can drive an hour- hour and a half and fish Georgetown, Antero, 11 mile, Taryall and a few others.

Thanks

 

[Bryerific]

Bigjay is spot on. The metro lakes really require a good period of cold to have solid ice so most turn to the mountains. Lake Evergreen is one of the closer mountain lakes but it’s mostly 8-10 inch stocked rainbows. Antero, 11 Mile, and Taryall have much better quality. When I lived there, I enjoyed heading up to Grandby and Williams Fork to chase lakers but the ski traffic sucked.

St. Vrain state park builds decent ice most winters and provides an opportunity to catch warm water fish through the ice.

And I actually really liked ice fishing bear creek lake since it adds pretty good ice and has good numbers of saugeye.

 

[Bigjay73]

I'll need to give Bear another try this year.