State Game Department puts more than 5,000 Rio Grande cutthroat trout in northern N.M. watershed

State game officials say more than 5,000 native Rio Grande cutthroat trout, New Mexico's state fish, have been stocked in Comanche Creek and its tributaries in northern New Mexico.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said in a news release that it stocked the cutthroats in the river on Thursday as part of an ongoing effort to restore pure-strain native trout to more than 150 miles of streams and 25 small lakes in the Rio Costilla watershed.
The Comanche Creek portion of the project included about 20 miles of small streams in the Valle Vidal Unit of the Carson National Forest, according to the news release.
The department said the project included construction of barriers to prevent non-native fish from traveling upstream, and removal of all non-native fish above the barriers.
The fish stocked throughout the watershed Thursday included 600 12-inchers and 4,500 4-inchers.
According to the news release, fishing season on Comanche Creek and the rest of the Valle Vidal is July 1 through Dec. 1. Regulations for Comanche Creek are catch-and-release only, with tackle restricted to artificial flies and lures with single, barbless hooks.