Dale Gillette, owner of Moon Phase Charters in Clayton, shows off a 30-inch walleye his kids, Gianna (left) and Charlie (right) hauled in from the St. Lawrence River. “We all gasped,” Gillette said.

The Colorado Water Trust secured a 10-year contract to release water from Stagecoach Reservoir into the Yampa River earlier this month, one of the first such agreements in the state. The Water Trust ...