Trout and Water Temperature: When it's time for a break

Colorado is seeing some intense heat and arid conditions, so we wanted to share this graphic we made of when it's time to give trout a break! Water temperatures tell us so much about the conditions of a fishing spot and how the fish will be reacting. Once you reach past 68 degrees F, mortality chances increase, even with proper catch-and-release. A water thermometer is a cheap and easy tool to add to your fishing gear for your next outing.

Looking for a high-rez version to print or share with friends? No problem, we have multiple formats below that you are welcome to download.

• High Resolution PDF (English)

• High Resolution PDF (Español)

• High Resolution JPG (English)

• High Resolution JPG (Español)

• High Resolution JPG (English and Celsius)

• High Resolution JPG (Español and Celsius)

  • Please note that we rounded the conversion of 18.3333°C to 18.3°C

In the News

Read our article in High Country Angler, Drought Threatens Western Colorado Fisheries written by Ken Neubecker, featuring the CTU Trout Water Thermometer here.

Check Colorado’s Fishing Conditions here.

Check CPW’s Voluntary and Mandatory Fishing Closures here.

Rise to the Future Awards - Durango TU Chapter Recognized

During a virtual ceremony on May 26, Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen and Acting Deputy Chief Tina Terrell announced the 14 employees and partners who are recipients of the 2020 Rise to the Future awards. The awards, created more than 30 years ago, recognizes leadership in stewardship of fisheries, soil, water and air resources on national forests and grasslands. In recent years, the Jack Adams and Lloyd Switch Sr. awards were added to distinguish excellence in wildlife program management.

The winners showcase a wide variety of work on and behalf of national forests and grasslands.

“2020 was a very challenging year. First, a pandemic that changed how we get our work done. A historic fire season in the west and a series of devastating storms in the south,” said Chief Christiansen. “I continue to be amazed at the resilience and perseverance of our employees and partners to face the challenges that come our way.”

Among the many recognized, our partners at the Forest Service, as well as the Five Rivers Trout Unlimited Chapter out of Durango, CO were recognized with the Collaborative/Integrated Aquatic Stewardship Award for their work on the Himes Creek Instream Flow Project.

The Himes Creek Instream Flow Project Team on the San Juan National Forest in Colorado collaborated to achieve critical aquatic habitat protection for a trout once thought to be extinct. Working within the confines of Colorado State Law, the team’s integrated efforts secured instream water flow to protect trout habitat on lands managed by the Forest Service, an accomplishment recognized by the Governor of Colorado. These protections would not be in place without the strong collaboration of partnership. The team includes representatives from the following organizations:

Forest Service: Andrea Rogers, Polly Hayes, Bill Janowsky, Kelly Palmer and Kara Chadwick

Colorado Water Conservation Board: Linda Bassi

Trout Unlimited: Buck Skillen

Colorado Parks and Wildlife: James White

Another award went to one of Colorado’s regional office’s for the Friend of the Fish/Watershed Award going to Doug Wise and the Engineering staff at the Rocky Mountain Regional Office, who are cited for their work using the Great American Outdoors Act to establish a project evaluation team, bringing together multiple resource leads to prioritize projects. The engineering staff has been instrumental in facilitating 15 aquatic organism passage projects in the region, working to address deferred maintenance of the region’s infrastructure. The collaboration between fisheries, engineering, and other programs within the agency provided the region with an integrated and productive team leading the way to complete many beneficial and crucial projects. These projects improved recreational fishing access across the region and opened new opportunities to work with external partners, engage local students, and continue to improve fish habitat on the forests.

Congratulations to the Colorado winners, it is much deserved for all the hard work you do in our state!

Rio Grande Cutthroat Restoration on Sand Creek

Written by Kevin Terry

When I first heard about Sand Creek, I was in my first year of my first real job as a fisheries biologist. I was hired to manage the fisheries program for the Jicarilla Apache Nation in northern New Mexico, and the tribe is a signatory to the range-wide conservation agreement for Rio Grande cutthroat trout. I was at my first annual meeting of the group and it was my first introduction to Fred Bunch of the Great Sand Dunes and John Alves, who at that time was the fish biologist in the Rio Grande for Colorado Parks and Wildlife ( CDOW back then). That was 15 years ago. That’s right, the Sand Creek reintroduction project has been in the works for over 15 years!

When I first saw Sand Creek from the top of Music Pass, I knew instantly that it would occupy a space in my heart for the rest of my life. Why, you might ask, but to understand, you need to stand in that very spot too, as there are no words. This was 2014, a full 9 years after I had first learned of the effort to bring back Rio Grande cutthroat to Sand Creek, and the beginning of year 2 with my job at Trout Unlimited as the Rio Grande Basin Project Manager in the San Luis Valley. I was there as part of a team of researchers alongside Andrew Todd and Ben McGee of the USGS, and our task was to characterize the physical and biological attributes of the watershed through the lens of a fisheries reclamation scope. As we stood there, just before our first of many nights spent in the watershed over the next 5 years, I was overwhelmed with our task but incredibly motivated that such a thing might actually be possible, in a place as pristine and intact as Sand Creek. The first few trips were daunting, the watershed huge and intimidating. But we got to work and slowly chipped away at the tasks. We outfitted streams and tributaries with temperature and intermittency loggers, battling through the lush healthy riparian jungle and mosquito swarms that could carry a baby away. We explored tributaries in near vertical climbs to map the perennial sections and determine if fish were present. We used electrofishing and environmental DNA sampling to determine fish species distributions. We captured fish from the lakes and streams and sent in tissue samples for genetics testing. Through the process our team grew, adding Dewane Mosher, the newly hired biologist from Great Sand Dunes National Park and getting staff support from CPW for mapping the lake bathymetry amongst other tasks.

Each year we became more familiar with the lay of the land, finally wrapping our minds around the expansive watershed and gaining confidence in the physical space. The data was adding to our confidence on the biological side of things too. We learned that most of the tributaries were unoccupied by fish, but instead they contributed clean, super cold water, that was even too cold for successful cutthroat reproduction and recruitment. That meant we didn’t have to treat most of the tribs with

rotenone, securing source populations of aquatic invertebrates to recolonize Sand Creek. This information demonstrates the watersheds resiliency in the face of climate change. Ultimately, this became a driving factor for why Sand Creek is so well suited for re-introduction. Even though the tributaries were found to be too cold, the mainstem was just right as goldilocks would say, benefitting from solar thermal gain at the two lakes in the uppermost sections of the watershed at 12,000 feet in elevation. These lakes are very productive, and our genetics work showed that fish could also reproduce successfully in them. Successful reproduction in lakes is very rare throughout the range of the species, and again added positively to the project’s potential. In fact, the information was so promising, that even before the study was fully complete, the Sand Creek project elevated to the top of the list for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the stage was set for a monumental undertaking.

In 2018, our study complete, the details of a treatment plan in the works, the decision was made to attempt to treat the upper portion of Sand Creek in the fall of 2019. Then we got snow, lots and lots of snow, a winter like we hadn’t seen for a long while. This 30-year event was a challenge to say the least, and the lakes didn’t even ice-out until July. A valiant and sincere effort was taken up to try to get it done anyway, but it was just not in the cards in 2019, and the decision was made to postpone.

In 2020 the pressure was on. These projects take so much time and effort (sweat and $$$$$) and we all felt an urgency to get this phase done. CPW, NPS, and TU staff joined up for most of the summer to prepare. We cut trails and flagged routes, identifying springs and seeps. We installed a gauge system and monitored stream flows. Every inch of flowing water was scoured for the presences of fish and importantly the young of year fish emerging from the gravel. Outfitter tents were installed by the Laske family, in preparation of the treatment week. The work was hard, but the team stuck it out. Finally, it was go-time, and 44 people, mostly from Colorado Parks and Wildlife journeyed into Sand Creek during the first week of September 2020. We had a challenging start, with helicopters not able to fly the first day. Plans were modified and there was no giving up. The second day we got after it, treating all of the streams above the waterfall barrier, while the helicopters got running, delivering boats and motors and barrels of Rotenone to the Lakes and base camp. Day three was a repeat of the stream treatment and both of the lakes were treated as well. It was finally done, and all went as planned. An enormous sigh of relief rippled through the troops and we celebrated in exhaustion with a little Colorado whiskey donated by Laws Whiskey. Day 4 was clean-up and de-mobilization, helicopters buzzing around in a flurry and people gathering the gear for the years last trip out.

Personally, this was the single most meaningful and important project that I have been part of in my career. I believe with all of my heart, that Sand Creek will hold this incredible native trout for centuries to come. This is for our children and their children and everyone can experience it, because it belongs to all of us. It is our public land, managed diligently by our National Park Service and the amazing men and women who serve us all in their vital work.

There are too many people to thank for making this a reality. Fred Bunch has been an incredible leader, patiently waiting and guiding a slow-moving ship. Without Fred, this project would never have happened, plain and simple. Dewane Mosher has been an amazing right hand for Fred and the NPS. Dewane and his crew worked tirelessly over the years getting ready for this Project. Nic Medley the NPS fisheries biologist for the region provided incredible support, authoring the fisheries management plan for the park. John Alves, now the senior biologist for CPW, was here in the beginning and he was here in the end too. John and his staff have always kept the door open on this huge project, and when it came down to it, they brought out every tool in the shed and then some. It was incredibly rewarding to share this with John in Sand Creek itself. Mark Seaton and the rest of the San Luis Valley TU chapter team have been incredibly supportive of the project and I am so proud of my chapter for their unwavering support. Raising the money to hire the Laske’s outfitting services was the perfect contribution and a fitting role for good old Valley hospitality. Thanks to Colorado Trout Unlimited and their generous supporters too, for helping the chapter leverage chapter dollars to raise money online. The Laske Family went above and beyond, making things so comfortable, and serving delicious food in a rough place during Co-Vid. There are too many CPW staff to name here, but I need to call out Kevin Rogers for his support over the years. Kevin mapped the lakes, and guided research efforts. My colleagues and friends Andrew Todd and Ben McGee did a fantastic job with the characterization study, which teed it all up. I am incredibly proud of Running Rivers too. This unique non-profit raised over $20,000 for this project! Carrie Tucker, the CPW fish bio in the SE, alongside her crew, did an incredible job co-piloting this project. Lastly, Estevan Vigil, our Rio Grande fish biologist for CPW and his tremendous crew have done an enormous amount of work (and suffered incomprehensible stress loads) to get this project to the finish line. Estevan inherited this huge project and I can’t imagine what was going through his mind the first time we took him into the watershed. Estevan endured with grace under pressure (my high school English teacher would appreciate this Hemingway tribute) dealing with plenty of setbacks and hoops, but he never wavered once. Estevan and his crew should be unbelievably proud. I am so grateful to the entire CPW fish crew. The effort they put forth in the midst of Co-Vid, to bring 40 plus people from around the entire state is simply astonishing. I am so proud of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and thankful to the amazing staff we have in this great state. Because of them, we just might be able to keep our beautiful native fish around after all.

For more information on the Sand Creek Characterization Study, please click here.

You've got backpacks, we've got Greenbacks

On July 28, 2020 over 700 native Greenback Cutthroats were released into the East Fork of Roaring Creek, representing the first population restored in Poudre Canyon tributary since the Greenback species was rediscovered in 2012.

The effort looked a little different this time around due to mandatory social distancing requirements. 43 volunteers and 15 agency staff (CPW & USFS) managed a series of staggered start times, social distancing, groups of less than 10 people each, and a much more strenuous trek to complete the 1st stocking of Greenbacks into new habitat on an important Poudre River tributary was a success. Thanks to all of the volunteers and agency partners, the effort was a huge success!

This project is adjacent to a much larger effort called the Poudre Headwaters Projects (PHP) that is planned to be the largest Greenback Cutthroat recovery project in the history of Colorado. The goal is to restore these native fish back into a part of their historic range on the upper Poudre - including 40 miles of small streams and Long Draw Reservoir. The PHP will create a “metapopulation” of Greenback Cutthroats that will be able to survive future impacts of climate change and catastrophic events.

A big thank you goes out to the volunteers who took time out of their week to help these fish return home!

To learn more about this effort, please check out the Poudre Headwaters Project page.

Videos from Volunteers

On July 28, 2020 Colorado Trout Unlimited organized 6 groups comprised of 8 volunteers and 2 team leaders to transport the Colorado state fish - The Greenbac...

Greenback Cutthroat Trout were stocked in the East Fork of Roaring Creek July 28, 2020. 43 volunteers, 15 agency staff (CPW) and over 700 Greenbacks helped o...

Video taken by volunteer, Bob Fielding. On July 28, 2020 over 700 native Greenback Cutthroats were released into the East Fork of Roaring Creek. The effort w...

Profiles in Conservation

Duranglers Flies and Supplies: Supporting Conservation and the Fly-fishing Community for 36+ years.

In February of 1984, the Five Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited, led by Neill Peterson, John Flick and David Wilson, was certified as Chapter number 451 of Trout Unlimited.  Among the founding members were Flick, Jim Herrig, Byron Hilliard and Tom Knopick.

The chapter was established only a couple of months after the founding of Duranglers Flies and Supplies by Flick and Knopick.  John and Tom both recognized the intrinsic relationship between the business they planned to grow and the need for active conservation of the incredible cold-water fisheries to which they called home.

Pictured: Tom Knopick

This commitment by John and Tom and Duranglers has been carried forward, often with fierce dedication, to our present time and will carry on for the future.  But, let’s go back and remember some of the past conservation efforts that Duranglers has helped advance.

Hermosa Creek, which is currently undergoing reintroduction of native Cutthroat to 23+ miles of East Fork and Mainstem, was an early focus of habitat improvement by Five Rivers TU and John, Tom and Jim Herrig.  Most of this work was done on the reach above Hotel Draw.  In addition, log structures were introduced on the East Fork for habitat development in the area of Hermosa Park.

The headwaters of the East Fork of Lime Creek also benefitted from habitat improvement undertaken by the Chapter.

Pictured: John Flick

One of the Rivers precious to John and Tom is the Dolores River below McPhee Reservoir, locally known as the “Lower D”.  This tail water was created in 1984 when the Dam was completed.  The result was a fabulous cold-water fishery that was stocked with Snake River Cutthroat Trout as well as rainbows and browns.  The combination of (formerly) abundant cold water and great water quality allowed the bug life and fish to thrive.  It was not uncommon to catch trout upward of 20” and 4 – 5 lbs.  Needless to say this was the subject of many guided trips by Duranglers, video programs such as the Fishing The West TV show with Larry Shoenborn Guided by Tom Knopick and relentless attention to the conservation of the resource by the crew at Duranglers.

Then in 1990 the area began to endure a series of drier years.  When McPhee was created an Environmental Assessment was undertaken, one of the first such assessments in the West.  While the EAS called for releases of 70, 58 or 20 cfs, depending on the reservoir level to maintain the quality of the coldwater fishery, the fishing community felt these flows to be inadequate.  This became abundantly clear when in just a few short years of 20 cfs releases most of the fish, particularly the healthy adults, died due to low water and heat stress.  The golden age of the “Lower D” came to an end.

But not without Tom and John, personally leading the push for more water for the fishery.  In subsequent years, they have been at the forefront of efforts to find water for the fishery and have been partners with Colorado Parks and Wildlife in helping to establish greater release of water for the fishery.

In the early 1990’s, Chapter leadership was taken over by Jay Engel and others.  Jay had been a leader in the fly fishing community for years on the West Coast and was a tireless advocate for cold-water conservation, eventually being recognized with the Silver Trout Award.  In the middle 90’s Jay passed away unexpectedly and was soon followed by the Chapter’s Treasurer.  This left the Chapter leaderless and it went dormant for a couple of years.

In Spring 1999 a group from Duranglers led by John, Tom and Nate Bronson gathered a group together in the upstairs of Gazpachos, a local New Mexican restaurant, with the intent of reviving the Five Rivers Chapter.  And, resurrect it they did, with John and Tom helping behind the scenes with fund raising and tolerating the occasional minor disruption from one of their part time employees, who had assumed the reins of the Chapter.

To this day in 2020, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to John and Tom for their support and dedication to conservation of our cold-water fisheries, particularly in southwest Colorado.  This was evident in 2018 when CTU recognized Duranglers Flies and Supplies as Outfitter of the Year at its Rendezvous in Glenwood Springs, just one year after recognizing the Five Rivers Chapter they helped establish and revive as Exemplary Chapter in 2017.

So let us raise a glass of whatever beverage is preferred and toast Duranglers and John and Tom for their past and future support of all of TU’s conservation efforts.  To check in on what is happening fishing wise in Southwest Colorado or to just say hi you can reach them and Duranglers Flies and Supplies at 970-385-4081 or www.duranglers.com.

Tight Lines,

Buck Skillen, Past President, Five Rivers Chapter TU

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Profiles in Conservation is a new blog series sharing the stories of important long-term leaders in Colorado’s fly fishing and conservation community.  If you would like to share a story or nominate a flyfishing leader for this series, please contact us at info@coloradotu.org. 

Volunteers hike native trout up to their new homes this summer

by Dan Omasta, Grassroots Coordinator

Just last week, over 110 volunteers and 50 agency staff contributed to the recovery of the threatened Greenback Cutthroat Trout. The excitement was thick on the morning of July 16, as a line of cars entered the Dry Gulch Trail head and officially kicked off the three-day recovery mission. Many participants were volunteering for the first time - a few were veterans from previous stocking years. Everyone who volunteers for one of these projects joins a very special family - a group of people that have carried a threatened species on their backs and prevented its extinction.

The goal of the two stocking projects in Dry Gulch (July 16) and Herman Gulch (July 17) was to release over 1,500 Greenback fingerlings into the high alpine creeks and to ensure that they were spread out in the habitat as much as possible. According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists, spreading the fish out over the different stream reaches will reduce competition and ensure the highest possible chance of survival. Over the past few years of stocking, CPW has found an average of 40% survival - which is a good rate for fish in the wild. The long term goal is for these fish to reproduce naturally and not have to be stocked again.

“My daughter and I enjoyed the event: lots of positive energy, happy agency reps and volunteers, a beautiful setting and an opportunity to get our hands wet in planting the fingerlings”

— Eric Weissenberger, a volunteer at the Herman Gulch stocking event

“The opening remarks by the reps of the participating organizations … illustrated the complexity and cooperative nature of the effort. I was glad that my daughter was exposed to that information, as 13-year-olds need all the context they can get regarding the private and public working world and the wide variety of ways in which one can contribute and make a living,” Eric explained.

In 2018, volunteers for these same stocking locations won a Volunteer Service Award from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. These are big projects that demand boots on the ground. We could not do this without the hundreds of volunteers and supporters, and we know that our agency partners are very grateful as well.

Plenty of agencies, non-profits and businesses also helped make it happen, and all deserve recognition, including Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Trout Unlimited, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, various TU chapters, Rep Your Water, Upslope Brewing, Basin + Bend, and Western Native Trout Initiative.

Bianca, CTU VISTA Youth Coordinator, participated in the Herman Gulch stocking and snapped some great pictures! She also took the great shots of the beaver dam removal project below.

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ROCK CREEK BEAVER DAM REMOVAL

On July 18, several volunteers worked alongside CPW and USFS staff to temporarily remove beaver dams along Black Canyon Creek. This effort is part of the larger Rock Creek Greenback Reclamation project which aims to provide another 9 miles of interconnected habitat once completed (likely in 2023). By notching the dams, CPW will be able to more effectively remove non-native brook trout from the area - which will also help treat the system for whirling disease.

Thank you to the volunteers, organizations, agencies, donors, and businesses that support the restoration of native trout populations and habitat across Colorado.

Check out all the buzz about this great work:

• https://www.instagram.com/p/B0CGlIMHRvc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

• https://www.instagram.com/p/B0DC6c8FXpw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

• https://www.instagram.com/p/B0EqtIznAm_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

• https://denver.cbslocal.com/video/4126014-hundreds-of-greenback-cutthroat-trout-now-stocked-in-dry-gulch/

• https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/07/16/volunteers-carry-greenback-cutthroat-trout-dry-gulch/

Fishing for Fahrenheit

Guy Turenne and Phil Wright trekking through deep snow to find a buried stream temperature probe on Fall Creek. Photo Credit: Phil Wright, 2019.

It was a beautiful November day in the high country, as Guy Turenne and Phil Wright climbed their way over drifts of fresh snow along Fall Creek – a tiny tributary in the heart of Colorado’s northern mountains. 

This time, it was not fish that they were after, but a small temperature probe the size of a silver dollar, lying in wait at the bottom of the stream channel.  Months earlier, Guy and Phil, along with dozens of other TU volunteers, worked with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to place these loggers in different stream locations throughout the eastern half of the state.

Fish are heavily affected by temperature – especially trout.  Changes in thermal regimes over the course of a few hours to a few months can trigger fish to spawn, eat, grow, and even breathe.  We all saw stories in the hot, dry summer months of 2018, when low flows and extreme ambient air temperatures brought some rivers to over 79°F.  At that point, dissolved oxygen becomes increasingly scarce and fish can die. 

Stream temperatures also impact the normal day-to-day and cyclic activities of our trout.  For example, Rainbow trout will spawn in the spring when water temperature begins to rise and reaches 45-56 degrees F (52°F is ideal).  Conversely, Brown trout will spawn in the fall as water temperatures drop within 44-48°F.  Each species of trout thrives at different conditions.

So, what does any of this have to do with two TU volunteers hiking through two feet of snow in the middle of Winter?

As it turns out – a lot!  Just as water temperature affects the spawning cycle of Rainbows and Browns, thermal regimes play an important role in the development of Cutthroat trout – in this case, Greenbacks and Rio Grandes.  These fish have evolved over thousands of years to eat, grow, and reproduce at specific thermal conditions in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.  As Trout Unlimited and native trout recovery partners continue to engage in projects that reclaim habitat and stock native fingerlings, we must ensure that the temperature regimes will support those fish long term.

But collecting that level of data across thousands of miles of small tributaries and remote drainages can pose a challenge to recovery partners.  Fortunately, TU volunteers came to the rescue.

Chris Carroll, aquatic biologist with the U.S. Forest Service teaches TU volunteers how to attach stream temperature probes during April 2018 training.

With critical funding supplied by the Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI) and the U.S. Forest Service, volunteers from several chapters helped to identify future habitat for the returning Greenback and Rio Grande Cutthroat.  In the Spring of 2018, the project kicked off with a USFS-led volunteer training during the annual CTU Rendezvous in Keystone.  From that point, chapter representatives recruited and trained their own local group of temperature probe deployment experts. Over the course of the summer, TU volunteers exceeded the original 30-site goal by setting and maintaining over 40 HOBO stream temperature loggers in several key drainages that have potential for recovery sites.

View fullsize

Evergreen TU volunteer, Mike Goldblatt, points to a recently-installed stream temperature probe in the Bear Creek drainage.

“We observed that the RMF membership and other members of the community seem to value stream monitoring efforts in general, are strongly supportive of such efforts, and are willing to volunteer,” explained Phil Wright, project coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Flycasters Chapter. 

As the leaves changed and fell from the trees, TU volunteers went back into the field to collect the data – which was then transferred to biologists at USFS and CPW.  From there, recovery partners will be able to show a better picture of which watersheds will make good candidates for future reintroduction. 

Trout Unlimited volunteers continue to help advance native trout recovery throughout Colorado each year – even winning a regional volunteer service award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2018.  Whether its notching beaver dams, backpacking in fingerlings, or tramping through two feet of powder, TU volunteers are committed and engaged in the recovery of our native trout.  The stream temperature study is another chapter of this important saga – and one that will undoubtedly be the preface for the next wave of native cutthroat recovery sites.  Who knows… maybe one of those streams will be in your backyard!

Colorado Trout Unlimited would like to recognize our valuable partners and chapters who have made this project possible:

Western Native Trout Initiative, the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Evergreen TU, West Denver TU, Rocky Mountain Flycasters TU, Alpine Anglers TU, Cutthroat Chapter TU, Pikes Peak TU, San Luis Valley TU, and Boulder Flycasters TU.

If you are interested to learn more about this project or volunteer, please visit Colorado TU’s Native Trout Page.

VIDEO: Reintroduction of Native Greenback Trout in Estes Park, CO

Join Alpine Anglers Trout Unlimited Chapter as they head out to the Big Thompson for a day of fishing. Learn about the important work going on in the area in regards to habitat restoration to help with the reintroduction of native Greenback Cutthroat Trout. Check out the great video below and learn more about what the chapter is doing here.

Learn about fishing the Big Thompson and other waters surrounding Estes Park, Colorado, along with the reintroduction of the Greenback Cutthroat Trout.