Panhandle Westslopes

Right after my trip down to the Sawtooths, I was right back to Idaho again for the weekend. However, this time up I headed up north to the Panhandle region with my buddy Bob in search of some native Westslope Cutthroat. We didn't make it to the river until late afternoon, but upon arriving we had the place to ourselves and with fish rising things were looking up.

The river

Knowing that the fish were feeding, it was just a matter of figuring out what they would be keying in on. My first guess for a fly was a hopper as they seemed to be jumping around everywhere in along the river. However, upon presenting this pattern to several visible Cutthroat, there was no sign of interest whatsoever, so I decided to switch things up a bit. After a few changes, I finally noticed some Blue Winged Olives coming off and switch to some 6x and a size 18 BWO dry. As Bob seemed to be getting a few fish downstream already, it appeared that he had figured out what they wanted, so I hoped that my choice would do the trick. Luckily it did, and within a couple casts I spotted a riser. While I missed the take, I at least got it to rise to my fly.

BWO time

With the next fish my timing was a bit better and when it rose to the fly I got a good hook set and had a solid fish on. Given the size of this Cutthroat and the 6x tippet, I set the drag loose to protect the tippet and allowed the fish to do it thing. Within a couple minutes this worked out and I eased a beautiful native 16" Coeur'd Alene Westslope Cutthroat into the net.

A beautiful Coeur'd Alene Westslope Cutthroat

Another shot of the Westlope

A severe headache that had been building all day was finally catching up to me and while I hooked a few more Cutthroat before long even the temptation of rising fish wasn't enough to keep me on the water. Plus after catching my largest Westslope Cutthroat to date it would be hard to complain about the fishing. Bob did a bit better overall, landing a total of seven cutthroat on a combination of Caddis larvae and BWO patterns.

The upper river

With a good night sleep I was rearing to go the next day. We had a bit more time to spend on the river and with beautiful summery weather we decided to head a bit further upstream. We found a spot where a small tributary added its flow to the river and with the advantage of some high ground we quickly spotted some fish. Knowing that there were fish in the area we hit the water again and trying the hopper over again I found it to be a bit more successful, especially when fished with a dropper.

Hopper time

The hopper and dropper each produced a couple of nice Cutthroat, with the hopper getting a beautiful 14"er that refused to be photographed. However, as the day progressed the BWO's started hatching again and the fish keyed in on them once again. As such, I rigged with my 1wt with a size 18 CDC Emerger and immediately started getting into more consistent fishing although everything seemed to be in the 6" to 10" range.

Light gear and native trout = lots of fun

For the rest of the day we experienced some of the better match the hatch fishing that the west has to offer, and although none of the fish we caught were overly huge they were all beautiful natives. However, all good things must come to an end and before long the road was calling us for the long drive back home.