Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials are proposing a change in regulations for one of the area’s most popular trout fishing streams.
CPW is proposing to increase the number of brown trout allowed to be harvested in a day from two to four in an effort to control an over-abundance of the fish, which is out-competing the more sought-after rainbow trout.
The Fryingpan River is one of Colorado’s most iconic fly-fishing streams, attracting anglers from all over the country. Fourteen miles of the river from Ruedi Dam to its confluence with the Roaring Fork River is managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife as a Gold Medal trout fishery, meaning the stream produces at least 60 pounds of fish per acre and at least 12 quality trout that are 14 inches or bigger per acre.
But in recent years, anglers say they have seen a decrease in larger rainbow trout and an increase in smaller brown trout.
“I hear a lot of stories about what the river used to be like and how amazing it was,” said Jared Zissu, an angler who runs a media company focused on fly fishing. “I love going up there and it’s still an amazing place, but it’s 99% really small little brown trout.”
Colorado Parks & Wildlife data backs up what Zissu and others have noticed. Kendall Bakich, an aquatic biologist with CPW, presented her agency’s findings to about 12 members of the public, many of whom were fly-fishing guides, at the Carbondale Library Wednesday.
CPW took samples at three popular fishing holes on the river: below Ruedi dam, a site known as the Toilet Bowl; a spot downstream called Old Faithful; and Big Hat, near where Taylor Creek flows into the Fryingpan. They found that 97% of the fish in the Fryingpan are brown trout; 2% are rainbow trout and 1% are sculpin. And the average size of a brown trout is just 11 inches, dipping below the 14 inches required for the Gold Medal standard. Seventy percent of anglers who responded to a CPW survey in fall 2023 said that their fishing experience could be improved if the fish were bigger.
The Fryingpan is far exceeding the 60-pound biomass requirement at 672 lbs of fish per acre. But that’s not necessarily a good thing when small brown trout, whose growth is stunted because they are competing with each other for limited food, make up the vast majority.
“Is there too much of a good thing? Biologically, we’ve demonstrated yes,” Bakich said. “We could start, especially in a population as dense as this, seeing disease become a problem.”
In the 1970s and ‘80s, mostly rainbow trout inhabited the waters of the Fryingpan. But a parasite that causes whirling disease, which brown trout have a natural resistance to, decimated the number of rainbows.
“(Brown trout) are a great competitor so they will out-compete rainbows, especially stressed out rainbows that are suffering from a disease,” Bakich said.
CPW stocks rainbow fingerlings in the Fryingpan and its goal is to return the river to a wild-producing rainbow trout fishery.
Most anglers catch and release
Current rules on the Fryingpan say that anglers are allowed to harvest two brown trout under 14 inches per day and must throw back all other trout.
In an attempt to keep the brown trout population in check, CPW officials are proposing to increase the number of fish anglers can harvest from two to four, the number currently allowed in statewide regulations. The 14-inch limit may also be dropped, allowing anglers to keep bigger fish.
But the effectiveness of that approach may be limited because according to the CPW survey, only 15% of anglers take their fish home while 85% practice catch and release. The reasons for this vary, with about 45% believing catch and release is better for the ecosystem. About 30% said they don’t like to process the fish or don’t like the taste.
“A generation ago, they might remember harvesting and that being just part of feeding families and providing for yourself, and that got kind of lost a while ago,” Bakich said.
CPW can also remove some of the small brown trout manually, but the general public doesn’t like to see fish being killed even if it improves the ecosystem as well as the fishing experience. It can also be costly.
“Right now, we are going to go for the low-hanging fruit and start there,” Bakich said. “Maybe we’ll be surprised. Maybe suddenly fish frys are the new thing in Aspen.”
Carbondale resident and fly-fishing guide Lani Kitching, who has been fishing the Fryingpan since 1978, said increasing the harvest limit from two to four would be helpful. She said she has participated in fish counts with CPW in the past and that there were so many brown trout she couldn’t begin to count them all. Catch and release has become the default mode in recent years as there has been an increased focus on environmental issues in the region.
“It’s the ethos we’ve created, right? So it’s on us,” Kitching said. “Now we have to convince the public that there’s a consequence to that long-term.”
CPW Area 8 Wildlife Manager Matt Yamashita talked about what makes the Fryingpan special at Wednesday’s meeting.
“It has this aura about it,” he said. “A lot of people come here for that once-in-a-lifetime experience. But for the folks that knew it back in the ‘80s or ‘90s, it’s not that fishery anymore. You’re not going to go there and find the 10-lb rainbow. But it likely still has the potential to become, maybe not the exact same, but close to what it used to be.”
The change to harvest limits would have to be approved by the CPW commission, and if approved it could be implemented starting next fishing season, April 1, 2025. Members of the public can provide feedback at https://bit.ly/3UuoEtP.
This story ran in the May 10 edition of The Aspen Times.