Threatened native Gila Trout returned to tiny Raspberry Creek

A team of Arizona Game and Fish workers, Trout Unlimited volunteers and others undertook the arduous effort to return the native fish to one of the man creeks where they once wriggled and splashed.

The beautiful golden trout once swam throughout the watershed of the Gila and Verde Rivers. But a century of water diversions, dams, droughts and fire as well as the introduction of non-native Brown and Rainbow trout on most rivers and streams in the state nearly exterminated both the native Gila and Apache trout.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish and the White Mountain Apache Tribe have worked for decades to save -and restore both of the native trout species. The Apache Trout has made a strong recovery and is now stocked in a variety of recreational streams – especially in the White Mountains.

The Gila Trout is now also making progress, with several fish hatcheries having learned to grow the skittish, native trout successfully.

Game and Fish had previously established a small population of Gila Trout in Raspberry Creek. However, the Wallow Fire scorched the watershed of the tiny creek. Subsequent mudflows off the burned slopes wiped out the Gila Trout population there. Erosion, drought and water quality problems rendered the stream unsuitable for the native trout for the next eight years.

Finally in 2018, Game and Fish resolved to try to return Gila Trout to the creek.

Fortunately, the Moro National Fish Hatchery in New Mexico has learned to grow the shy native fish and has supplied fry, eggs and fingerlings for reintroduction efforts in Arizona and New Mexico.

The volunteers gathered at the Raspberry Creek trailhead after a near-record monsoon last year. The fish were put in 20-pound buckets of water attached to a backpack frame. Each volunteer and Game and Fish worker shouldered a roughly 40-pound pack and hiked down the 3.5-mile long trail – dropping about 1,000 feet in elevation.

To see a video of the effort, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udTCQABB-mY.

Game and Fish added Gila Trout to the creek in 2018, 2020 and 2021, but the drought all but dried up the creek – limiting the success of the introduced fish. Last summer’s heavy monsoon kept the creek flowing. This year’s wet winter should produce another boon to the returning native fish.

For now, Raspberry Creek remains closed to angling – in hopes of getting a self-sustaining population established.

Game and Fish is also stocking the East Verde River with Gila Trout – which remains open to angling. The trout in the East Verde aren’t sterilized, which means that despite the fishing pressure the introduced Gilas could establish a self-sustaining population there.

Game and Fish continues to stock seven Gila Trout recovery streams spread across t he Agua Fria, Blue, Gila and Verde river drainages.

Game and Fish also maintains recreational fisheries for the gleaming native trout in the East Verde River, Frye Mesa Reservoir, Watson Lake, Lynx Lake and Goldwater Lake.

Two recovery streams are also now open to catch-and-release angling. That includes Dude Creek and Grapevine Creek – for anglers willing to hike into remote areas for a chance to match wits with a truly wild trout.