There's a pool above the cattleguard where, most summers, a kid catches their first fish. It's the same pool, a different kid, every year.
By Lauren3 min read
Three miles of cold water run through the ranch, and somewhere along it, most summers, a child catches a first fish.
It's usually a brook trout — a brookie, technically a char, brought from the eastern mountains a century ago and thriving now in the cold upper beaver complex. They're eager and they're beautiful: dark vermiculated backs, red spots haloed in blue, white-edged fins. A brookie will hit a dry fly with more enthusiasm than sense, which is exactly what you want when a seven-year-old is learning to lift a rod tip. The browns down in the lower runs are warier, the cutthroat rarer and more native, but the brookie is the welcome committee.
East Beaver Creek is fly-only, single barbless, catch and release — we keep it that way so the wild fish stay wild and the next kid gets the same pool. What swims it, native and otherwise, is laid out in the Colorado trout guide, and how to fish it in the fly-fishing guide.
The fish goes back in the water. The kid does not stop talking about it for the rest of the week. That trade has worked out well for us for a long time.
