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Golden Trout

8K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  Gunnison_Country 
#1 ·
Has anyone caught a golden lately, in Colorado?
 
#4 ·
Not the same thing... Albino rainbow/Palomino is different that a Golden.

I know they have those Palominos (or used to) at Wellington (near Bailey), but the Goldens typically reside WAY up high.
 
#5 ·
Over the past umpty ump years, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, as it was called then, made two attempts at stocking goldens in high mountain lakes and as scotth says, "up high".

Two of the lakes used for the second attempt are Roxy Ann and Kelly Lake, which is a lake north of the summit of Cameron Pass. Both lakes are not easily accessed. I and a good fishing buddy walked the six miles to Roxy Ann, not with the anticipation of catching goldens so much but for catching cutthroats. A late edition of the now out of print Tim Kelly book will describe Roxy Ann as how you might catch a hold over golden.

I did not catch a golden but I believe I caught a hybrid. Cutthroats and goldens spawn in the spring so I'm guessing there was some hanky panky going on in this lake. The trout I caught had a very yellow underside but looked like a cutthroat on the top side. I have no way of knowing if this was a golden.

If you want to catch a golden from a public lake that's not too far from Denver, here is my suggestion.

About four years ago, either Summit County or the town of Dillon or both, reworked a small lake called Old Dillon Reservoir. They removed all, if any, trout and stocked nothing but goldens. When the lake reopened, a friend and I went to the lake and caught several fingerling goldens and I mean fingerlings. I don't recall regulations for the lake but I'm guessing if there are any left, they must be of a decent size.

Old Dillon Reservoir is located between Dillon and Silverthorne (on the Dillon side of the dam) just north of the dam road. If you access the road from Dillon, keep a sharp eye out for a turn off to the left which goes into a parking lot. If you hit the road going over the reservoir, you've gone too far. Park here and walk uphill on a well defined trail for about 3/8ths of a mile. The uphill part is easy.

You can walk around the lake in about twenty minutes and you can fish anywhere you want. There is no problem with back casting. I don't know about fishing from floatation devices. Before you hit the trail, there is some information about the lake and how is it filled with water, which I believe is in the parking lot. The first time I went to the lake, I did not read the sign so while at the lake, I looked around a bit and became curious as to how the lake is filled.

The lake looks sterile but there is some vegetation and you will find fish rising. We caught them by stripping #16 bead head hare's ears. We couldn't use anything larger because the fish were so small.

Now I can say I have caught a golden trout.
 
#9 ·
COCARP,

That's good news about CPW stocking in the flattops and is certainly news to me. As in tune as I thought I was about Colorado fly fishing, I never heard about these stockings.

It's too late for me to explore the Flattops for goldens because I now live in Arizona and mainly because I have back problems and can't walk long distances.
 
#10 ·
Caught this one in a high public lake last summer. It was stocked in central CO about 5-6 years ago. The lake now contains mostly smaller cutts but this holdover surprised me and my group. I will say that it fought about 5 times better than the cutts we caught. Still swimming btw. Long crappy drive and many miles of hiking. Not worth it if one was targeting Goldens. There are more lakes and Goldens in the Wind River Range of Wyoming.

s

 
#12 · (Edited)
Yeah, it is hard to tell...and I am always open to be wrong. Lots of variation in colors among all species. This lake has only had Goldens and Cutts stocked. Here is the same fish in the net. No slits under the jaws. Looks like a rainbow to me, if I didn't know history. Goldens and Rainbows are not too far apart... It is a fish, for sure. :) Looked at cocarp's site...I caught one there a few years ago, too. Looked washed out like this - and not colored as nice as those. Fish caught in Sept - not colored up for spawn like yours might be a reason, too.

 
#17 · (Edited)



There are 4 lakes in the Gunnison Basin with golden trout. Two of the lakes, Golden Lake and Lower Castle Lake in the West Elk Wilderness, require 10 mile hikes. Another lake near Crested Butte requires only a short hike, and has both big Colorado River cutthroats and a few fairly good-sized goldens. The 4th lake is small and located above Pitkin. It has a couple hundred 7-8 inch golden trout. The hike takes a little bit longer than an hour and the scenery near the lake is pretty spectacular, but there are some private property issues along the route that make it a little difficult to negotiate. I caught the pictured golden trout, along with about 40 more, at this lake above Pitkin last weekend.
 
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