On Thursday, August 9, I hiked to Ouzel Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. I was interested in finding out how the greenback cutthroat trout population was faring. Les and I helped, many years ago, in taking out the brook trout in the outlet stream in preparation of introducing the greenbacks into the lake.

I hiked around to the inlet area and fished there. The cruising shoreline trout were very spooky and hard to fish with my flyrod, so I set up my spinning rod rigged with a fly and bubble. This allowed me to cast far out into the lake. These fish would hit everything that I presented to them; parachute Adams, grasshopper, ant.

I did not catch a single greenback! All of the fish were brook trout, all about 10”. They were beautiful, healthy fish. So, even though the park has put up signs at the lake saying that this is a greenback lake and is managed as such, there doesn’t seem to be anything but brook trout now.

On the way back to the trailhead, I fished the creek below Calypso Cascades and caught only small brookies.

It was a gorgeous day for a hike, very warm with high cumulus clouds and no rain and a bunch of hungry brook trout. What more could one ask for!

Brook trout in Ouzel Lake

Ouzel Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park