Gila Trout

It's remarkable the Gila trout species is still residing in the southern streams of New Mexico and Arizona. Each year there seems to be a wild fire somewhere in Gila Country, threatening to wipe out a stream's entire population of trout. And, unfortunately, the fires do just that. Kill off a sustaining population of Gila trout, and threatening the very existence of the species.

Steve and I have been fishing in Gila Country for many years, with some great fly fishing adventures. Sadly however, on a couple of trips, we would discover after returning home huge wild fires burning where we were camping and fishing. Both of those fires wiped out all the trout in our streams. I wouldn't say we are bad luck for the Gila trout, but Game & Fish would probably ban us from Gila Country if they knew our history down there. There have been other fires following our fishing trips in that area, but they erupted several weeks later. Those poor Gila trout can't seem to catch a break. No, I don't believe there's a black cloud following Steve and me...it's easy for coincidences to happen when these wild fires light up so often.

For sure, our Gila Trout would be extinct without the expertise of the Game & Fish biologist who work in the Gila recovery projects each year. They lead teams who hike up to remote streams that are in the path of wild fires, to capture native Gila trout, and transport them to a hatchery for purpose of sustaining the pure-strain Gila trout lineage. Amazing!