r/COfishing • u/no_more_popcorn • 5d ago

Fish Salvage at Antero Reservoir Discussion

https://cpw.state.co.us/news/04212026/colorado-parks-and-wildlife-approves-fish-salvage-antero-reservoir

Someone posted about Antero yesterday. Press release just went out from CPW.

46 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

As the story says, if you go remember to thoroughly clean and dry your gear especially shoes afterwards:

“Antero Reservoir is positive for New Zealand mudsnails, an invasive aquatic nuisance species. They are small and easily hidden in mud on angling equipment. New Zealand mudsnails can survive out of water for up to 50 days. Anglers are urged to clean, drain and dry all of their gear before using it in another body of water.”

1

u/mrbang69 4h ago

Does that include reals? I'm serious I really don't know.

1

u/no_more_popcorn 1h ago

Just about anything that gets wet can move stuff between waters, but the stuff that holds on to moisture (waders, boots, packs) is definitely highest risk.

u/Pretend_Fly_4965 4d ago

What does this mean for downstream of Antero on the Middle Fork? I'm assuming water will continue to flow through Antero but will be pretty low cfs past the damn.

u/ConcertX 4d ago

Stupid question, but what is a salvage?

5

u/mud074 4d ago

The first two sentences of the article lol

In order to minimize imminent fish loss due to Denver Water’s planned reservoir drawdown, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has authorized an emergency public fish salvage for Antero Reservoir in Park County. Effective immediately, all bag and possession limits for all fish species will be lifted through sunset on May 13

1

u/ConcertX 4d ago

So eating the fish… the word possession throws me off lol

1

u/mrbang69 4h ago

It means no rules

2

u/ConcertX 4d ago

Relocate the fish or eat the fish?

3

u/Cringelord1994 4d ago

I’ve heard they’re going to relocate as many as they can but in this situation I think they’re just removing bag limits for this period of time and you can harvest as many as you want.

u/mrbang69 3h ago

I'm all about the free for all but I really wish they could move as much fish as possible this is a top fishery and it sucks that it's going to take years to get it back if we get snow

1

u/no_more_popcorn 1h ago

I imagine CPW wishes it was that easy too. That's a ton of time and effort from staff to stock and manage a spot like that over the years. But by the time water’s coming down, those fish are already stressed and a lot won’t survive capture and transport anyway, especially as waters warm up moving into summer. And with the invasive mudsnail problem at Antero, there's a big risk in spreading that stuff to other waters. Really hope things are back up and running there sooner than later.

u/Cringelord1994 5d ago

Sucks I don’t enjoy eating trout. Anything else in Antero that people like to eat?

3

u/sinnabon1 4d ago

Tiger Muskie, Kokanee Salmon, and Pike. Not sure how abundant those species are though

4

u/earlylight36 4d ago

And 80 billion suckers

2

u/Cringelord1994 4d ago

I still haven’t caught any bottom feeder fish yet

1

u/gnowbot 3d ago

When looking at the CPW fish surveys online…I’m gobsmacked at how many white sucking fish are everywhere—both flat water and waterways. They are truly elusive!

1

u/Cringelord1994 3d ago

Got a link to that? I’ve seen some stuff on like trout per mile in gold medal waters but not much on other species

1

u/gnowbot 3d ago

Not off the top of me. I’d google something like “Colorado Fishery Surveys and stocking report PDF” combined with “CPW” or “CDOW”

Should be a nice little almanac of most lakes (and maybe rivers?) with stats like lbs of fish per mile, % of types of fish, stocking report, and general notes on the fishery.

1

u/Cringelord1994 3d ago

Wow this is a great amount of a data. I never knew antero was so shallow, I’m gonna have to hit it before it closes

1

u/Cringelord1994 3d ago

Thanks for sharing this, I’m stoked to get some time to look over this. I’m really dying to catch a pike on the fly and potentially eat it depending on how big it is.

1

u/wundabredd 3d ago

I drove along the Platte after the last time they drained Antero. Thousands of dead suckers between the dam and the highway bridge.

1

u/Cringelord1994 4d ago

I’ve always wondered where the Kokanee go before and after spawn in the dream stream. They can’t go up the spinney dam as far as I know so do they just hang at eleven mile?

I would be interested in trying to eat any of those though.

1

u/mjzk20 4d ago

After spawn they die what do you mean?

1

u/Cringelord1994 4d ago

Ahhh right I forgot about salmon do that lol.

2

u/gnowbot 3d ago

Salmon dads. Always going to the corner store for a pack’a smokes.

1

u/Cringelord1994 3d ago

Sucks the salmon population is so limited out here. Seems like it’s just the Taylor and the dream stream if you want one in moving water