Here’s your chance to throw a big fish fry for your friends and help Colorado Parks & Wildlife restore a native cutthroat trout population in its ancestral waters.
CPW will remove bag and possession limits July 22 through Aug. 25 in waters within the Great Sand Dunes National Park (Upper Sand Creek Lake, Lower Sand Creek Lake and Sand Creek), high on the west side of the Sangre de Cristo Range. You get to keep all the fish you can catch in waters that contain rainbow, brook and non-native cutthroat trout.
In late August, those waters will be treated to remove all fish. If things go according to plan, Rio Grande cutthroats will be stocked there in the fall of 2020.
“Once the Rio Grande cutthroat trout are re-established, anglers will have the unique opportunity to catch this native fish,” CPW said in a news release. “Cutthroat trout populations have declined over the last 100 years due to water diversions, land-use changes and competition from non-native trout that have been stocked throughout the Rio Grande drainage.”
John Alves, senior aquatic biologist for CPW’s southwest region, said the project will provide an ideal and protected habitat for the Rio Grande cutthroat.
“We appreciate that the National Park Service shares CPW’s goals to re-establish native cutthroats in the waters of the San Luis Valley,” Alves said.
