After 3 Years...

It's been a long time since I've packed for a four day fishing trip. Always when packing, I tell my wife, "if we forgot something, we can just buy it after we're there." Well, that old fallback won't work where my buddies and I went to camp and fish last week. Nope, there's not a corner store in the neighborhood...just trees, mountains, meandering streams, bears, lions, and lots of cute little chipmunks trying to steal groceries. Oh, and there is the coveted Rio Grande Cutthroat trout...the primary purpose of the trip! Game and Fish has had this stream closed for three years to eradicate all species in an effort to make it a Rio Grande Cutthroat only stream. It was suppose to be a one year project...well, that's the government for you.

This valley has been one of my favorite places to camp and fish. Not anymore. After we set up camp, the fly rods got rigged up and we were off to the stream. In the back of our minds we were wondering what we will discover in this stream after all these years? How big are the trout? Are there only Rio Grande Cutthroats (RGT) swimming around in this beautiful stream? Well, it wasn't long before we found the answers....there were actually very few trout. Game & Fish in partnership with Trout Unlimited stocked the stream last November 3rd and again on the 1st of this month. What we discovered is that the two organizations over publicized and under produced. There needs to be more stockings and a few more years before this stream returns to its glory days. Yes, we were disappointed.

Rich caught a couple of trout and Steve and I came up with zero. The trout could only be found in handful of places where they dumped them in the stream, up close to the road. These native fish have yet to move to other areas of the streams, leaving miles of stream with no evidence of RGT. And, since TU publicized those few stocking locations, guess where you would find all the fisherman? It will be some time before I give this area another opportunity for a fishing adventure. I won't be back until there is wild trout and they're self-populating...

Click on photo for larger view