Back Country Trout

When I was younger I remember dreaming of hiking far up into the high mountains and coming upon hundreds of misty lakes and rivers teeming with ginormous trout.

Well, now that I've been around in the alpine back country, I've discovered that most high elevation wilderness lakes and streams just have lots of smallish fish. Especially where these lakes have brook trout, high elevation fish very often tend to stunt due to overpopulation, short summer growing seasons, less forage, and relatively low predation. This doesn't make it so it's not worth going however. There is something truly magical about having a lake or even a whole mountain all to yourself. There are also occasionally some reasonably large fish to be found. Some alpine lakes and streams have populations of gammarus shrimp (scuds) that can grow fairly large fish and some go through cycles where a die-off will result in fewer but much larger fish for a few seasons.

Doing research and sometimes just being mobile enough to try lots of places can result in some great fish. Be sure to go prepared at the right time, with the right gear, maps or GPS, and of course the right flies and you'll be glad you made the extra effort to get into the back country.