Thanks to Terry Newendorp for sharing this wonderful picture and stream report from the upper Colorado river. I’ve never seen a Rocky Mountain Brook trout quite like this…and it must hold true that new rods are lucky rods…

I was fishing with my nephew at ElkTrout Lodge, near Kremmeling, CO.
Lots of private water on the upper Colorado River and several
tributaries. One day we fished a ranch pond that they had occasional
access to. There were some big, beautiful rainbows in there and a few
nice, medium-size cutties. I was using my brand new 5wt Sage ZXL,
(from Backwater Angler) and sight-casting to these big, cruising fish in
absolutely crystal clear still water. Perfect fly placement was
required, or fish would spook and go hide in weeds. I saw the large
trout, couldn’t tell what kind, and cast a size 18 caddis about 18″ in
front of its nose, and it took it and then ran off into the weeds,
taking all 90′ of flyline with him. It was tricky as heck fighting the
fish and the weeds and hanging on to it on 6X tippet and size 18
barbless hook, but after about 15 minutes, there it was in my net, and
lo and behold, a fantastic 20-21″ brook trout!
Terry