FAIRPLAY, Colo. (KDVR) — It’s spawning season for brown trout across Colorado, meaning Colorado’s lakes and streams will soon be a fisherman’s paradise.
This year’s fish egg quota was 1.1 million, set by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. It took just three days at two hatcheries, Mt. Shavano Hatchery and Poudre Rearing Hatchery, to meet that quota.
Colorado’s hatcheries will raise the fish to fingerling size — about three inches. Then the young fish will be stocked across Colorado in 2022.
CPW employees working with Colorado’s trout. 10/12/2021 
CPW employees working with Colorado’s trout. 10/12/2021
“The cool thing about them [brown trout] in the state of Colorado is they are resistant to whirling disease since they evolved with that in Europe,” said Tyler Swarr, aquatic biologist at CPW. “So, they’ve become kind of the bread and butter of our wild trout fisheries.”
To learn more about CPW’s trout efforts and aquatic research, click here.