From the Denver Post: “Spinney Mountain Reservoir will be open to fishing and hand-carried boats on Friday. Gates will be unlocked a half hour before sunrise. The lake was less than 20 percent ice-covered on Monday afternoon, according to Kevin Tobey, manager of Elevenmile/Spinney Mountain State Park, with several large sheets of floating ice. Trailered boats will be permitted April 4, when the inspection program for aquatic nuisance species will be in place.
“It’s going to be an interesting year,” said Jeff Spohn, Colorado Division of Wildlife fisheries biologist for the upper South Platte River drainage, noting that the reservoir was stocked with the Hofer strain of rainbow trout last fall. The Hofer rainbows are resistant to whirling disease and potentially could add a component of natural reproduction. They also might grow a bit larger than the strains of trout stocked in recent years.”