Ilan Reissner prefers time on the water over time in the boardroom.
The local real estate vet is wrapping up his first season at the helm of Denver Charter Fishing, which took its maiden voyage on the Cherry Creek Reservoir in June.
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“Being out here, this is living,” Reissner said during a recent trip on Chatfield Reservoir.
He and his crew of captain Chris Simpson and first mate Victor Sandoval have put corporate workers, families and college football players alike on trout, bass, walleye and carp during their 20 trips in the last several months.
Reissner, who spent a decade at local real estate firm The Situs Group before leaving in 2024, usually greets his customers before they get on the boat, handing them off to his deckhands for what is hopefully a biting bonanza.
Trips start as early as 6 a.m., before the sun is up, or in the evening. That’s when the temperature is coolest and fish are most likely to crave the leeches and minnows Reissner and co. cast in the water. Simpson drives the boat, and Sandoval monitors the rods to see when a fish is on before handing it over to let clients reel it in.
The biggest catch of the year? A 22-inch-long walleye, a green and yellow-hued fish that you have to be careful holding because of its spiky dorsal fin.
“I’ve been fishing this lake since I moved here in the ‘90s,” said Simpson, whom Reissner met through a Craigslist ad asking for part-time help. In the winters, the now-retired construction company founder drives a Zamboni for a minor league hockey team in California.
“So, through a lot of trial and error,” he added through a laugh, “I know the spots.”
Guests on Reissner’s 22-foot, brand-new Bentley Legacy pontoon pay a minimum of $550 for a group of five to fish for two hours. Every extra person is $25 until it hits the boat’s capacity of 11, and every extra hour is $100.
Most spend four hours out on the water, either in Chatfield or Cherry Creek. More recently, he’s been taking customers out to the former. The other artificial lake, where he did most of his fishing in the first half of the summer, has been too low for Reissner’s boat over the last two months.
“Going forward, we’re probably going to do more out of Chatfield next season,” he said. “The water is bigger, the fishing has been better and the views are just incredible. You’re right in the foothills.”
Victor Sandoval, Denver Charter Fishing’s first mate, casting off the front of the pontoon. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
Reissner, a Colorado native who went to Cherry Creek High School, first got the idea to start Denver Charter Fishing years ago when he was managing and buying apartments. He had a team of ten and would take them out on quarterly outings, which usually happened at places like bars or bowling alleys.
Oftentimes, though, they would split off into subgroups and wouldn’t all mingle as much as Reissner hoped. He thought about taking people up to the mountains, but you can’t really fit more than a handful of people in a car at the same time, so the separation problem still existed.
The lifelong fisherman also looked into what charter options existed around Denver, but saw only small bass boats that could fit five.
“I found that I could become an outfitter and get permits for a boat, so I bought the large pontoon,” he said, adding that he’s spent about $60,000 between the boat, rods and fish-finding tech to get started.
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His brother also has a charter fishing business in Alaska, where Reissner remembers catching a three-foot-long king salmon years ago.
Reissner consulted him as he was building out his vision, and his brother was the one who advised him to go for a more low-key, social-forward setup rather than one similar to his operation for the diehards that travel to the top of North America.
But even though they cater to a different audience, Reissner and Denver Charter Fishing are still the biggest game in town.
“I wanted to create a corporate boardroom on water,” he said. “People have had a great time out there getting to know each other and interacting with each other. It’s getting away from the video games, the phones and interacting with the fish and the bait and looking at the birds.”
In the coming years, Reissner’s dream is to add another boat so he can run trips at Chatfield and Cherry Creek without having to pull his pontoon out of the water and shuffle it between the lakes. To do that, he says they’d have to double their trip output next season and beyond to avoid dipping back into his personal pool of cash.
Captain Chris Simpson fixing a hook on the morning of Oct. 2, 2026. (Max Scheinblum/BusinessDen)
Reissner said he’s at about the breakeven point on his initial investment now. With four more trips scheduled through the end of November, when fishing season ends.
“We’re pushing hard to get our name out there and to let people know that this opportunity exists,” Reissner said, saying most of his current expenses are in marketing, along with bait and marina space. “We want you to know that there’s an experienced guide with us who can take care of everything.”
During his time with Situs, Reissner bought, sold and managed hundreds of multi-family units. He still owns several properties, but he left the day-to-day real estate world because he wanted to focus more acutely on a different type of business.
After leaving Situs two years ago, Reissner has been building out Denver Charter Fishing, along with a home healthcare business.
“There’s a lot of different ways you can make money in the world,” Reissner said. “And I want to make it helping people.”
When trips aren’t in session, he’s been enjoying getting out on the water with his family and friends. His wife often goes out with her girlfriends, he said, more so to enjoy wine and charcuterie. But they also catch the occasional fish.
Reissner’s seven-year-old son has also caught the angling bug. When a fish is on the hook, he’s the one grabbing the net and getting ready to scoop it up on the boat.
“He’s going to give (first mate) Victor a run for his money,” Reissner said.
When Reissner was around his son’s age, the now 44-year-old recalled a trip when his grandfather took him off the coast of Southampton, New York. They were on a boat packed with a couple hundred people, fishing for flounder as part of a competition.
Reissner ended up catching the biggest one.
“My grandpa gave me the prize money, and we went out and got sodas after,” he said, adding that it’s one of his most cherished fishing memories. “Maybe that’s why I love seeing kids catch their first fish so often on our boat.”
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