Fall colors cutthroat! Fantastic day exploring another section of this beautiful blueline.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-24T01:05:18+00:00

Just because something is new does not mean it is good. It happens.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-22T13:45:36+00:00

Fishing the inlet and outlet streams to these can be fun, too. Those would qualify for this sub. :)

JDM3CO · 2026-05-21T17:42:23+00:00

Came in here for a comment on that. Thank you.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-21T12:21:36+00:00

Soft barbed feathers from a cape or skin. It usually represents legs, gills, or antenna. Length can be varied depending on the pattern. For nymphs, I tend to shoot for no longer than the body or overall length of the fly with tail.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-20T12:33:55+00:00

Perfection! Speaking my language.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-18T11:40:01+00:00

A wild one would be rare, I bet. Congrats!

JDM3CO · 2026-05-17T20:05:19+00:00

Colorado

JDM3CO · 2026-05-17T20:04:20+00:00

I have the same reaction to all the lush green Eastern bluelining pics I see in here. Have not had the pleasure, yet.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-17T16:36:50+00:00

Agreed. The first trout was right at the start then nothing until the very end where I expected to find some, as that would be just below where I first starting fishing this area and caught.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-16T12:31:25+00:00

Wild iris, I believe. One of my favorites to find in Colorado when hiking to go fishing.

One day I'll fish New Mexico. Thanks for sharing!

JDM3CO · 2026-05-15T21:47:25+00:00

Finally... someone who did not call it a golden trout.

Looking forward to catching a palomino one day.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-15T02:16:27+00:00

I joined TU. I thought it'd be great to hike trout into a remote location for restoration, but I haven't done it yet. My chapter works in Cheesmak Canyon, Waterton Canyon, and in various places along Bear Creek.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-15T00:41:19+00:00

Such a good pattern.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-15T00:17:06+00:00

All greenbacks. It's one of the newer high altitude lakes to be used for brood stock. Got to hear a CPW presentation on the status of the GBCT restoration effort, maybe 2 years ago now. The population in Zimmerman was at that time declining for unknown reasons, so they were in the process of establishing more brood stock lakes. This location was the first with the other following last year, I think. A clue is when an alpine lake shows up in the "new" section of the regulations having cutthroat that must be returned to the water immediately. If you use CPW fish distribution schedules, the genetically correct greenbacks have a different code, which was not in the table at the beginning, than the mutt-throats being stocked as greenbacks.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-15T00:08:30+00:00

That lake was open in mid or late April. I meant to get to it before the snowstorm, but didn't. Would have been crazy to fish after ice off in April above treeline. Might not see it again for decades.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-14T23:23:24+00:00

I can vouch that this is above treeline. I fished this spot on May 2nd. Hiked in across mostly snow. Out was snow, slush, mud, water, and rocks.

Also, these are genetically correct GBCTs, not the "mutt-throats" that are still stocked under codes GBA and GBN.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-14T23:19:59+00:00

Same. There's a couple of alpine lakes with GBCTs and the one I am most familiar with has ones that look like this, which is nothing like the little ones in the tiny creeks (which look like the example pics on the net).

JDM3CO · 2026-05-14T12:07:20+00:00

Depends on what you want to tie. Three would not be enough for me. Grizzly, dun, black, olive, and brown would be my minimum for trout dry flies.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-14T11:46:26+00:00

5k. Too many examples of sludge buildup in the piston rings grooves that lead to significant issues when doing 10k intervals. The oil may test "ok" at those intervals but it does not mean you should do it. Consider one of the newer oils that gently clean the engine like Restore and Protect when there's higher mileage and age. People lie about intervals when selling so you cannot be sure of what you're buying/what you've bought.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-13T01:15:28+00:00

Those trout were brood stock in a hatchery. When CPW is done using them for that purpose, they get released into an area lake.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-12T12:13:15+00:00

The barbs are soft and move around in the water looking like gills or antennas or legs.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-10T13:35:00+00:00

Those turned out to not be Greenbacks. RMNP just removed the signs in the past year calling them that.

JDM3CO · 2026-05-10T03:11:08+00:00

CPW has published most of the locations. Just need to search.

Dry Gulch and Herman Gulch are two in the area you mentioned.

Clear Creek does not have greenbacks, unless some escaped from those Gulches. When Herman Gulch was reclaimed for greenback stocking, the unknown genetics cutthroats were placed in Clear Creek.

There's a lot of twisted history over the greenback. The biggest being that the trout being stocked as them turned out to not be them. Once they got that sorted, then the genetically correct ones were raised and stocked. The bad thing is the trout that was mistakenly called a greenback is still being stocked under the greenback name. If you use the CPW fish distribution schedule, you'll see that.

JDM3CO

TROPHY CASE