Colorado Adventure Part 5: Wrapping things up

Monday August 28th: On my last day in Colorado, I had my sights set on catching a Greenback Cutthroat. While I had once believed that I had caught Greenback Cutthroat in Rocky Mountain National Park, genetic evidence indicated that those fish were actually Colorado River Cutthroat and the only remaining population of Greenback Cutthroat was found in a small stream called Bear Creek on Pikes Peak. I had planned to return to Colorado once restoration efforts had established some viable populations and with news of natural reproduction occurring in some of these streams the time had finally come. With the Greenback Cutthroat being the last that I needed to catch it felt fitting to save it for last on this trip as well. So after a good nights sleep, I was up bright and early and reached the trailhead to the creek just as the sun was beginning to rise. I had heard that this hike could get quite busy and the combo of a Monday and arriving before dawn certainly paid off as got a front row parking spot and there were only a couple other rigs in the lot.

On the trail at sunrise

The first part of the hike was a steep slog up the side of the mountain and I was quite appreciative for the cool morning temperature as I trudged up the trail. However, before long the trail leveled off a bit and the country opened up to broad meadows surrounded by towering 13,000 foot peaks. With the valley laid out in front of me, I decided to hike upstream of the first meadow to start out with in hopes that there would be less pressure and more fish higher up.

The high Rockies from the meadows

By the time I reached the creek, the sun had yet to crest over the mountains and it was bitterly cold, but excitement was running high and numb fingers and feet was a price I was more than willing to pay for a new subspecies of Cutthroat. I started working my way upstream looking for good holding water, but I unfortunately spooked the first Greenback that I came across. 

Early morning on the creek

It took me a little while to pin down the type of water that these Greenbacks really like holding in but after a couple missed grabs, I finally a had decent Cutthroat rise to my dry fly in the mid section of a pocket and after a short fight a brought a beautiful Greenback Cutthroat to the net.

Success! A true Greenback Cutthroat!

There is nothing quite like catching a new variety of trout, but catching my final subspecies of Cutthroat was really special. On top of that, these Greenbacks are certainly a unique looking Cutthroat, with a more drab coloration and denser, finer spots than the other Cutthroat of the southern Rockies and it was great to spend a few moments admiring this one prior the watching it dart back into its small stream home. 

With the pressure off and the Greenback Cutthroat checked off the list, I was eager to catch more, as I like to represent some of the diversity found within the subspecies of native trout whenever possible. As such I pressed on upstream and before long, I caught another smaller Greenback Cutthroat. However, as I worked my way upstream and the creek got progressively smaller and the fishing slowed way down with holding water spaced further and further apart. When the cold was starting to get intolerable, the sun finally rose over the mountains providing some much need warmth. Shortly after this I finally found another good pocket and landed another Greenback that again took my dry fly.

Another nice Greenback Cutthroat

After my third Greenback Cutthroat, I covered good stretch of water without seeing anymore fish and as I had seen the most activity right where I had started I opted to take the trail back downstream to try out the stretch I had passed by in the first meadow.

The upper reaches of the stream

Back on the trail

After 10 minutes or so of walking back downstream, I cut back into the creek and got back to work. This decision to head back downstream, really was what made the day, as this stretch of the creek turned out to be incredibly productive and as long as I took care not to spook and of the fish each pocket produced one or two beautiful little Greenback Cutthroat. 

Back on the water

In one pocket I missed a Cutthroat on my dry fly and after watching move around the pocket and placing several more casts in front of it, I finally got it to come back and take my dropper. This was one of the more beautiful Cutthroat of the day and was a heavily spotted bronze colored gem of a Greenback. 

A gorgeous heavily spotted Greenback Cutthroat

While most of the Cutthroat in the stream were gorgeous, about 1/3 of the fish had some sort of deformity as well. These deformities were primarily misshapen jaws, but I also got one fish that had a truncated body. These deformities are an unfortunate consequence of a genetic bottleneck, due to a loss of genetic diversity and the small population size of Bear Creek. With only a single source population of Greenback to go off of, options to address this issue are quite limited. However, there are currently discussions within the Greenback Cutthroat Recovery Team whether or not to consider introducing some genetics from the Greenback Cutthroat's closest relative the Colorado River Cutthroat (green lineage) into the Greenback Cutthroat broodstock to increase their genetic diversity and only time will tell if this is a necessary step to restore this beautiful subspecies.

A Greenback Cutthroat with a deformity, an unfortunately consequence of a genetic bottleneck

After catching a number of beautiful but smallish Greenback Cutthroat, I came to a log jam pool where I could see a couple nice Cutthroat holding in the tail of the pool. I knew that these fish would be extremely spooky, so I kept a low profile behind the log jam and when I landed my cast in the tailout of the pool I watched the larger of the two Cutthroat scoot over and grab my dry fly. I had a couple tricky moments where I thought the fish might get off in the log jam, but in the end I was able to keep it away from the wood and netted my largest Greenback of the day.

My best Greenback Cutthroat of the day

A Greenback Cutthroat in the creek

After releasing my big Greenback, I picked a few more Cutthroat before I found myself right back where I had started the day. At this point I knew that my time was up as it was already late morning and I had an afternoon flight to catch. 

Back where I started

While I was reluctant to pull myself away from the Colorado high country, this stream had treated me extremely well and I certainly had done what I set out to do. The hike out was all down hill making it an absolute cake walk and when I finally reached the trailhead I was amazed to see a nearly full parking lot, despite only seeing a handful of people while I was fishing, it apparently pays to be arrive early. 

Mission accomplished and back on the trail again

Getting off the mountain before noon meant that I had plenty of time before my flight and the remainder of the trip to the airport was absolutely smooth sailing. While this trip certainly had its ups and downs, after catching five varieties of native trout, it was hard to look at it as anything but a resounding success. On top of that I managed to check two feats off this summer, one I finished my quest to catch all of the subspecies of Cutthroat Trout and two I managed to catch all of the native Cutthroat in Colorado over the course of single summer, not too bad if I do say so!