Greenbacks are the most beautifully coloured cutthroat, in my opinion. Better yet, these cutties have been brought back from near extinction in Colorado and they are thriving again. A few years back, Karen, our dear friend Leon, and I headed to Colorado to catch the three subspecies of cutthroat trout that were native to this area. We were lucky to have met up with Jim Kilpatrick who lived in Loveland in Colorado. Jim went out of his way to point us in the right direction so we could catch Rio Grande, Colorado and Greenback cutthroat trout. As a matter of fact, Jim travelled almost 6 hours to fly fish with us in the Table Top Mountains. His wealth of information helped us make a detailed plan so we could be successful.
Karen and Leon planning with Jim and his buddy!
The Greenback cutthroat trout was thought to be extinct. Several years ago, a small population of pure strain greenbacks was found in a tiny third tier creek. Well, that was the start of an amazing recovery program that has brought these gems back to many waters.
Leon, Karen and I set up camp in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park. We were warned that being super early was the only way to get a parking spot. The hike we were going on was one of the most popular in the park. We were up at 5 am and I cooked up huckleberry pancakes for breakfast. We arrived in the parking lot after a short drive at 6:15 am and the parking lot was already half full. Thank goodness we avoided the bus ride from a central location.
We put on our waders and started the climb up into a spectacular hanging valley. The hike was not far but we did have to take our time because we were wearing our waders. We took the time to look on Google Earth to scout out the area. We knew exactly where we hoped to start fly fishing.
The climb to the lake was moderate and absolutely spectacular. The lake had thousands of visitors every week. Once at the lake, we headed to a small inflow creek to fly fish. After we clammered down to the water, we could see about a dozen greenbacks feeding in the riffles. We knew that at this elevation, well over 10 000 feet, the greenbacks would be eating tiny midges. Out came the size 22 flies that Karen tied up while I was in Manitoba fly fishing. It did not take long for all of us to catch several of these gems. We moved out to fly fish in the lake. It was a sight fishing game too. The greenbacks were cruising along a drop off. They would readily rise to eat a dry fly although they veered off course to inspect our tiny nymphs. Oh we got lots of refusals but we also caught more greenbacks than we probably deserved. We all would have been happy with one each. We caught several dozen.
The steady stream of hikers wanted to know if "we were doing any good!" We had to laugh at their curiosity and cameras that followed us everywhere.
Well, by mid afternoon, we started to wander back to the truck. We took our time. It was a picture perfect day. We caught beautifully coloured greenbacks and now we could call Jim back in Loveland and tell him all about our adventure.When we arrived back att he truck, we had a parking ticket on the windshield. Apparently the truck with the camper on it was 4 inches too long for the parking spot!
That evening, Jim and his wife decided to drive up to Estes Park and visit with us. They brought 'Barbeque!" Was it mouth watering good! We were very thankful for their kindness.
Our long drive home did not feel so bad after such a successful adventure. We logged well over 3500 kms.
We still have 3 subspecies of cutthroat trout to catch. That will have to wait until we can get to Arizona and New Mexico. I hope that happens soon.
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