My son and I always look forward to September 1st, as this is when dove season opens in Colorado. Duck and geese migrate instinctively due to a change in the weather, marking the migration from summer into the fall and winter months, and signaling the beginning of various types of hunting.

The last few years we have hunted along the South Platte River in areas such as Brower State Wildlife Area (near Greeley Colorado) and Jean K. Tool State Wildlife Area (near Brush Colorado).  This year I thought we would take a different approach and hunt in south-eastern Colorado. The reason for this is that in recent years, we tend to get that first cold spell anywhere from a week to a few days before the 1st of September causing the dove to start their migration south, and leaving the hunting conditions a little sparse. That being said, I thought we would try our luck hunting dove along the Arkansas River near Rocky Ford Colorado.

While I have never hunted this area, and typically stay within my comfort zone – I thought a change of scenery and hopefully warmer weather might make for a good experience and an enjoyable productive dove hunt. Now the question was – which state wildlife areas do we want to visit/try?

Earlier this year when I was adding the Colorado State Wildlife Areas into this website, I remember that there were certain state wildlife areas that are limited to youth/mentor hunting only. I decided to do some research to see if any properties in and around Rocky Ford offered this.

I searched all the Colorado State Wildlife Areas for the word “youth”, and low and behold there was one – Melon Valley State Wildlife Area. Now I know this may seem like a “plug” to my website, but I thought that I would share the steps I took to find this SWA:
  1.    Go to http://www.thesportsglobe.com/PublicLands/PublicLandSearch.aspx
  2.    Toward the top of the page I searched for the word “youth” in the section “Find Public Lands by Name or Keywords”.

We went to Melon Valley SWA for the opening weekend (September 4th) and to our surprise, there was only one other mentor/youth couple on the entire property. While the property is just over 120 acres, it took us off guard as in the years past, opening weekend in all the other places we have hunted dove has typically been busy with a high number of hunters.

The morning hunt was more productive for us than any year prior, as we had bagged 11 Mourning Dove by 9:30 in the morning. Thinking back, I cannot remember ever bagging that many dove in an entire weekend in prior years, and some years (due to the cold weather) we may not have been that successful for the entire season.

We stayed the entire day in the heat of the sun, and while mid-day was not that active, the afternoon had completely thrown us off guard. Somewhere around 3:45 in the afternoon things went from slow, to extremely busy. During a period of an hour or so, we must have gone through almost two boxes of shells each. The dove seemed to have been coming in from every direction. We bagged our limit somewhere around 5 o’clock and started packing our belongings, but the doves were still flying strong when we left the property at 6pm.

Needless to say – this was by far our best dove hunt ever! We have never limited out on dove before, and were completely amazed at the experience. Even though the drive from Denver is about 3 hours to Melon Valley SWA, we decided to try our luck a couple of weeks later with almost the same results – 26 birds on Saturday, September 18th.

We both enjoy hunting, fishing, wildlife and being in the outdoors. Regardless if we “bag” anything or not, we enjoy what Colorado has to offer. This year has really been something to remember for years to come!

I would like to give a “hats off” to the Colorado Division of Wildlife for what I believe is a great wildlife, habitat, and management system. Setting aside certain properties for youth is important for getting our next generation of hunters and anglers interested in the sport, and for keeping them in the sport. For more information about The Colorado Division of Wildlife and Youth Information, please visit http://wildlife.state.co.us/Hunting/HunterOutreach/YouthHuntingBirds/YouthRegs.htm.

Regards,

Tom.

It's spring time in the Rockies, and I figured that my son and I would go do some fishing in the Blue River (Blue River Unit) (see on map) just north of Silverthorne, Colorado.

It was the perfect day to go fishing – temperatures were going to be in the mid-60’s, and it was early enough in the year where the trout were really getting hungry from being dormant all winter long. Even at that altitude the mayflies and bugs weren’t out yet which meant that fishing ought to be pretty good.

The one thing I have learned from fishing the rivers and streams in the mountains is; when you fish in early to mid-spring and there is still ice shelves on the banks – fishing is usually pretty good. I have come to a conclusion that when the habitat is just right, the fish are just waiting for that little minnow to come by for them to snatch up and eat. That being said, something told me while walking down to the river that it should be a productive day of fishing.

(Here is a picture of the ice shelves along the side of the river – in case you were curious...)

Well – it wasn’t too long into the day that my son (Brandon) landed this beautiful brown trout. The pattern and colors of the fish were just blaring. The red dots along the length of the fish were so vibrant that it looked like the fish had little ‘bulls-eyes’ all over the sides.

Not 20 minutes or so later (and losing a couple Rapala’s) – I landed this absolutely amazing rainbow trout. When I hooked the fish it was probably only 12 feet away. At first I thought that maybe I had a snag on a branch that was submerged under the water, as there was no thumping or bobbing on the line. Of course I was thinking “well, there goes another lure”. Then after reeling it in some more I started to see the silver-flash of the body, but even at that point I didn’t realize it was going to be as big as it was, because I was reeling the fish up through a pretty strong current in the river. Once the fish reached the top of the water, I was in shock. Once I saw the size of this trout I was scrambling to get the fishing net that was hooked to the back of my fishing vest. I must have looked like I was losing my mind to any onlookers – trying to keep my balance on the slippery rocks in the water while pulling my fishing pole over my right shoulder trying to get this fish in a net that seems to be too small to hold this beautiful rainbow trout.

Once I got home, we measured the fish at 25 ¼ inches, and could only guess that the fish weighed somewhere between 7 and 8 pounds. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that such an amazing fish could be caught only an hour or so from Denver.

In case you are wondering – the Rapala that we were using was the Original Floating Rainbow Trout Rapala.

Enjoy your fishing, and I hope that your fishing trips are as productive as mine have been already this year!

Regards,

Tom.

After 4 months of vigorous work and research – I finally finished adding all the 278 Colorado State Wildlife Areas into The Sports Globe web site. Each SWA entry includes an interactive Google Map that allows you to see where in Colorado the property is located, as well as showing the boundaries of the property.

Included with each property are also the following pieces of information which can be useful to anyone who would use the property for activities like hiking, biking, fishing, hunting and camping to mention a few:

• Directions to the property
• Sunrise and sunset times for a specific property (determined by latitude and longitude coordinates)
• Moon phase information (moon illumination, etc.)
• Best times to hunt and/or fish that specific property
• Weather information for towns or cities near the property
• Amenities that the property offers (camping, fishing, hunting, boating, etc.)

 It is also worth mentioning that a Habitat Stamp is required from the Colorado Division of Wildlife to access most of these properties, which is included in the price of hunting or fishing licenses in Colorado.

If you are interested in accessing these State Wildlife Areas and do not hunt or fish, then the price of a Habitat Stamp is $5.00 per year.

What’s next on the radar – I believe Colorado State Parks, then maybe another state (or two)…

I hope this information is as useful to you, as it has been to me in the past several months.

Regards,

Tom.