09-02-2008, 04:35 PM
A good friend who is a member of the Mt. Massive Lakes trout club near Leadville invited me up for the weekend. For reasons beyond her control she didn't get to fish much, but I put my three days to good use.
The club has 20-some small very fertile lakes and a resident biologist and fishery staff. They raise and stock thousands of catchable rainbows every year, but also maintain a number of the lakes with fish that are either natural reproduction, or stocked as fingerlings and allowed to grow. So you can pick your fishing - easy ego-stroker rainbows, or more difficult browns, brooks, and other exotic species.
I spent several hours on Saturday fishing for rainbows, catching a bunch on typical patterns like 16 and 18 BWOs and parachute Adams dries, and RS2, hare's ear and zebra midges. Saturday evening we went to one of the lakes not fished as much and managed a few browns from 16 to 18 inches on various streamers and nymphs.
Sunday I decided to focus on tiger trout and went to one of the lakes known to have a good population of sizeable fish. I managed a few good fish early in the day and again in the evening, the biggest being roughly 20" and 3 lbs or so. Flies of choice were black and olive wooly buggers. Both times I was alone and in my float tube so I did not get a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, this fish was caught in the evening under cloud cover, so the flash washed out some of the color, but you get the idea. They are gorgeous fish and have a bad-ass attitude! Maybe if Colorado has another kokanee egg surplus we could trade Utah for some tiger trout! If you ever get the chance to fish Mt. Massive Lakes, don't pass it up!
![[Image: BFTTigerTrout001.jpg]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/static/editor/%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/DonInDenver/BFTTigerTrout001.jpg)
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![[Image: BFTTigerTrout002.jpg]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/static/editor/%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/DonInDenver/BFTTigerTrout002.jpg)
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The club has 20-some small very fertile lakes and a resident biologist and fishery staff. They raise and stock thousands of catchable rainbows every year, but also maintain a number of the lakes with fish that are either natural reproduction, or stocked as fingerlings and allowed to grow. So you can pick your fishing - easy ego-stroker rainbows, or more difficult browns, brooks, and other exotic species.
I spent several hours on Saturday fishing for rainbows, catching a bunch on typical patterns like 16 and 18 BWOs and parachute Adams dries, and RS2, hare's ear and zebra midges. Saturday evening we went to one of the lakes not fished as much and managed a few browns from 16 to 18 inches on various streamers and nymphs.
Sunday I decided to focus on tiger trout and went to one of the lakes known to have a good population of sizeable fish. I managed a few good fish early in the day and again in the evening, the biggest being roughly 20" and 3 lbs or so. Flies of choice were black and olive wooly buggers. Both times I was alone and in my float tube so I did not get a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, this fish was caught in the evening under cloud cover, so the flash washed out some of the color, but you get the idea. They are gorgeous fish and have a bad-ass attitude! Maybe if Colorado has another kokanee egg surplus we could trade Utah for some tiger trout! If you ever get the chance to fish Mt. Massive Lakes, don't pass it up!
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