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Posted Greenback Cutthroat Trout Waters
by: Rick Schroeder 6/25/2012
One reason I love to fish for cutthroats are the areas they live in are beautiful. One of my favorite cutthroats to chase is greenbacks. Not that it makes that much difference but with it being a threatened species and the state fish, it’s sort of rewarding to know you have caught one. Everyone knows if you want to catch a greenback RMNP is your best bet, but there are several other drainages in the state that hold these fish. Finding these drainages are not always hard, but I have stumbled on the sign that sometimes crushes my hopes of catching these trout.  So this past weekend I was with the father-in-law and he wanted to catch a greenback. Since we were in Canon City it was a little far to drive to RMNP to accomplish this task. Looking in some books and digging in my research we found a couple good spots that were close enough to Canon that we could do it. Driving up the creek that would hold the greenbacks we stopped at a few holes and caught a few brown trout, so farther up we headed. Until we ran into the sign posted above. Drat the luck! Next we headed up and over the pass and onto the next location to target a lake instead. Parking at the trailhead we start the steep hike to the lake. After the last false summit we finally popped out on the dam side of the lake to see the sign again! The first thought is OH NO, not again! However this time the sign was a little friendlier.  Rigging up with some dry flies we began to attack the lake fishing multiple areas, targeting structure changes and channels, or sight fishing for cruisers. It wasn’t long before we had the patterns that seemed to be working the best for us and we were catching fish pretty regularly. It’s great to be able to catch healthy fish like these and still have areas where these fish can survive protected from the pressure of angling. Hopefully some more of these protected waters will get new signs allowing fisherman to chase this beautiful trout closer to home.     
Blog content © Rick Schroeder Member comments reconfisher, CO 6/25/2012 10:55:45 AM
very nice man! some beautiful fish! Desertsky, CO 6/25/2012 12:23:04 PM
Those are beautifull, indeed! Looks like I may have actually caught a 20" in the Dream Stream last year by the coloration. JKaboom, CO 6/25/2012 5:39:37 PM
Super beautiful fish sounds like the memory of a lifetime :) Troutfool, CO 6/25/2012 7:36:09 PM
Great photos. Today my11 yr old grandson and I hit lillie lake
I rmnp. Only caught 2. They were beauties.
Caught on orange Asher's. BUDDY, CO 6/26/2012 6:44:01 PM
As always.nice article IndieCon, CO 6/28/2012 9:44:38 AM
In the semi-immortal words of Jeff Spiccoli...
"Awesome... totally awesome!"
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