Construction of the dams at Carter Lake had wrapped up in 1952, and that gave Berthoud barber Leo Schultz an opportunity to cement his place in Colorado-Big Thompson Project history. 

Schultz had made a bet with Berthoud restaurant owner Bill Helm about who would be the first of them to catch a fish at the new reservoir. When the date was set for the first water to be pumped from Flatiron Reservoir to Carter Lake, Schultz put his plan into motion. 

On Feb. 26, 1954, workers at the Flatiron Pump Plant started sending water 297 feet uphill in a 1.3-mile conduit to Carter Lake, where it emerged from an outlet works. Schultz went to the water with his fishing gear – and a frozen rainbow trout attached to his line – and immediately pulled out “the first fish caught at Carter Lake.” The bet was immortalized in the next day’s Rocky Mountain News. 

Seventy years later, it’s still a great fish story.