Golden Trout

Golden trout are the state fish of California and native to the Upper Kern River drainage near Mt. Whitney and Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Central California. They were believed extinct by the mid-20th century. The species was originally described by ichthyologist David Starr Jordan in 1892. History buffs will know that Jordan was the first Chancellor of Stanford University. After the golden trout was recovered in California, it was bred in hatcheries and was stocked in lakes within the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah beginning in the 1970s. 

From the 1970s up until 1993, golden trout were stocked in Kelly Lake in State Forest State Park but that population - like most golden trout outside of historic stream spawning habitat - were unable to reproduce at self-sustaining levels. By 2000 the golden trout in Kelly Lake had mostly disappeared. Despite their short tenure in Kelly Lake, the reputation of golden trout being a fun-to-catch and brightly colored fish lives on in the memory of area anglers. While golden trout can be found in other lakes in Colorado, the state record golden trout - weighing in at 3.75 pounds and measuring 22 1/2 inches - was caught in Kelly Lake by Donald O’Leary in 1979.