Colorado Brook Trout

[Tim Smith]

Learning the ropes for Colorado trout fishing this summer and finding out that brook trout are a good combination for fishing with kids.

These are an introduced species in the west so there's no stress involved for sensitive native stocks. They're willing, they tend to be in scenic high altitude locations, and they tend to be in small accessible water. Best of all, she loved it.

Yesterday near Gothic I carried the daughter to the sites (7 years old). Just slung her on my back and waded from gravel bar to gravel bar. The fish tended to be small (biggest at 10 inches) but the bites were non-stop. The bugs were thick where the brush was high, but by keeping in the open we were able to minimze that. Spinners and float and fly only so far. We'll be out again today. Maybe we'll try the fly gear but I'm not sure I feel comfortable with a 7 year old whipping a sharp object around her head.