Colorado's state fish is soon coming to Clear Creek County.
A major effort is underway to grow the state's population of Greenback cutthroat trout.
In order to make way for the Greenback cutthroats, Colorado Parks and Wildlife poisoned the water in Hermon Gulch above Clear Creek to clear out the water of fish.
The Greenback cutthroats are being brought in from waterways in southern Colorado and outside of Colorado Springs. They are listed as “threatened” under the endangered species act.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are hoping the reintroduction of trout from other waterways in Colorado will help remove them from that list.
Mike Bartlett is an avid fisherman who frequents Clear Creek.
Bartlett tells 7NEWS, he’s disappointed some had to be killed off before reintroduction, but is excited to be able to hook onto one of the state’s most sought after fish.
“That’s one of the trout that everybody kind of has on their list because of the rarity, you know. It’s one of the great ones, a beautiful fish but it’s just so tough to find,” said Bartlett. “It’s always great when there’s, when we have the ability to bring something back to its natural environment.”
Sport fishing advocacy groups around Colorado were able to catch and transplant nearly 500 trout from the Hermon Gulch area before the poisoning.
The effort to bring the trout back to that section of river is on track to be complete by the spring.
