Denver +/- 3 hours ice fishing?

My son has moved to Denver. He wants us to come out to visit and do some ice fishing since he misses doing it here in Iowa but he does not have the gear to do it out there. Do any of you folks know of any decent ice fishing within about 3 hours drive from Denver? Species wouldn't matter that much, we fish for bluegills, crappies, perch, pike, and walleyes around here and have all the gear for that. Any general info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Clayton

I saw a handful of people ice fishing a reservoir near Georgetown last month.

I don't know how far it is from you, but the perch fishing on Blue Mesa is a blast. We went down by the Lake City bridge. Be careful, ice conditions change fast.

A few of my favorite places to hit the hard water

Chatfield res (state park) is right outside of denver and can be great to no bite. But it's close and I have caught a handful pretty walleye/trout through the ice.

Just north, outside of longmont are the barber ponds (state park), I've had some outstanding ice fishing there. Crappie, blue gill, trout. I think they stock the crap out of those ponds.

Lake Granby/ Shadow Mtn Res (Grandby area) are alot of fun. can be really slow (for me), but once you find a place with the bite going on you can have some real fun. Like those 2 for Lake Trout

Twin Lake Res is outside of Leadville and I've had some decent luck for Lake Trout

11 mile res (east if Colorado Springs) you can get into just about anything there, all trout plus northerns.

Around Rifle (3 hour drive from Denver) you have Harvey Gap and Rifle Gap, both are great ice fishing

Lot and lots of places other than those. Ice fishing is really under rated in Colorado. But I came form Wisconsin.

Best part of ice fishing Colorado, no need for a shelter 99% of the time. Bring sunscreen.

My condolences to your son for having had to move to denver.

Chatfield has Rainbow trout, yellow perch, walleye, crappie, bluegill as is within the metro area. There are a ton of lakes you can ice fish in CO.

Muskeez said:

My son has moved to Denver. He wants us to come out to visit and do some ice fishing since he misses doing it here in Iowa but he does not have the gear to do it out there. Do any of you folks know of any decent ice fishing within about 3 hours drive from Denver? Species wouldn't matter that much, we fish for bluegills, crappies, perch, pike, and walleyes around here and have all the gear for that. Any general info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Clayton

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If either of you are on Facebook, check out the Hard Water Warriors page. Lots of Colorado information there.

Oak said:

If either of you are on Facebook, check out the Hard Water Warriors page. Lots of Colorado information there.

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A bunch of beer drinking hooligans. In other words, it's a great group hahaha. Just dont ask for ice conditions lol

Wheatland 3 Res & Hawk Springs Res are both good when the ice allows for fishing. Hawk Springs is a very good crappie fishery but the ice is very hard to trust. Crystal and Granite are fun lakes to flat out catch fish. All lakes mentioned are within that 3 hr range but all in Wyoming.

I know some good places about 6 hours from Denver.