The sleeper awakens. That's the whispered word coming from under Antero Reservoir's thinning ice veil.

For the first time in almost five years, the fertile fishing chalice on the South Fork of the South Platte River is a sneeze from full. Trout are swimming again, growing plump on banquets of bugs and scuds.

South Park's weather has turned warm enough to pare a thin, wet margin around Antero's ice cap.

"We're moving toward opening this year," said Neil Sperandeo, recreation manager for Denver Water, which owns the reservoir.

All that's needed for Antero to welcome anglers for the first time since drought led to its draining in fall 2002 is a nod from Division of Wildlife biologist Jeff Spohn.

Spohn said a summer opening is almost a sure bet.

"This is the game plan," he said. "When the ice comes off, I'll gill net and survey it. If I feel comfortable the numbers and growth of fish are on target, we'll put some more fish in.

"Then we'll sit down with Denver Water and Park County and decide on an opening date."

Last April, Spohn spooned in generous numbers of fingerling brown trout, rainbows, splake and brook trout. In the fall, when it looked like Antero would keep rising, he added fingerling cutthroats and "a pretty good shot of 10-inch fish."

"Remember, they grow fast in there," he said.

In fact, trout grow an unfathomable 7-8 inches a year in Antero. So some of last year's transplants will have stretched to 18 inches or longer by the time that fine kettle of fish opens.

All this is possible thanks to improved moisture over the past year, nearly normal snowpacks and some tender nurturing from Denver Water.

"We've been releasing the minimum outflow since fall 2003 trying to get that reservoir full," said Marc Waage, a Denver Water planner. "We're looking forward to filling it and getting back to some good fishing."

Waage said above-normal winter stream flows helped raise Antero's level. Even better, he said, "that tells me the soil moisture is charged up, so we should have an effective snowmelt runoff this year."

Because Antero is shallow and prone to winterkill even when full, Spohn worried when 10-inch snow blanketed Antero's 26-inch ice cap and dissolved oxygen levels sagged in December and January.

When ice and snow block sunlight, submerged vegetation decomposes and consumes oxygen, frequently killing fish. To restore sunlight, Spohn planned to scrape snow off the ice with a snowplow.

"But when we were ready to start plowing, the wind howled up there and blew 40 percent of the snow off," he said. "So Mother Nature did it for us and did it a lot better than we could have done."

There is a tiny chance severe spring weather could kill fish. If that happens, Spohn said, "We might hold off because we want to make Antero's opening a pleasurable experience for people."

But that's just a tiny chance. Give it no thought. Listen to South Park's infamous winds and imagine you're hearing huzzahs from anglers.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com