CPW asks anglers to comment on a catch-and-release rule at Scotland Peak Reservoir

Colorado Parks and Wildlife wants a tiny Grand Mesa pond switched to catch-and-release. An Oct. 1, 2026, release out of Montrose proposes a regulation change at Scotland Peak Reservoir, also called Broke Leg Slough, a pond of less than an acre.

CPW plans to reclaim the pond to remove non-native trout, then restock native Colorado River cutthroat and hold them as a conservation population for egg collection. The pond is now a standard fishery: four trout a day, any legal bait and tackle. The proposal would require artificial flies and lures only and immediate release of every fish. Bait would come off the water to cut hooking mortality on fish that have to go back.

The Parks and Wildlife Commission is set to hear the change at its Nov. 4–5 meeting. CPW says the Grand Mesa already has more than 100 stocked and wild sport fisheries, most of them open to harvest and bait, and that this pond would be a small cut in that opportunity. The department has already talked with local anglers, the U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited chapters, and it is taking more comments. Aquatic biologist Eric Gardunio is the contact named in the release.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: EIN Presswire — CPW accepting feedback on proposed fishing regulation change at Scotland Peak Reservoir (Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Oct. 1, 2026).