AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAA
Gila Trout: A Native Trout Conservation Story By Craig Springer, USFWS
Plip. That’s the sound of a barbless beadhead nymph falling into a glassy glide of Mineral Creek, a headwater stream of the Gila River in southwest New Mexico. There’s a short drift over a stony run, barely time to track your line. Then follows that transmutation of fish flesh to your forearm—the taut tug of a trout on your rod. But it’s not just any trout. This one is yellow like a school bus. Petite black shards fleck its flanks over a hint of a pink stripe and fading oval parr marks. It’s not a rainbow trout—no, this fish is far less common. Rare, even. It’s a Gila trout, a threatened species.
70
The Gila trout was for a time the only trout considered endangered in the United States. But decades of conservation work by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, U.S. Forest Service and other partners pushed the fish toward recovery. The pretty trout stared into the dark abyss of extinction. Gila trout were off limits to anglers for 50 years until it was down-listed. In 2007, select waters in the Gila National Forest were open to anglers and remain so. The crystalline water of Mineral Creek above the storied ghost town of Mogollon, New Mexico, is but only one
