New subspecies of Redband Trout in the Wood River Idaho

 As genetic methods continue to improve new discoveries regarding the diversity of our native trout have been coming to light at a surprising rate often challenging long held beliefs based on more traditional methods. This included the revelation that there are 25 distinct lineages of Cutthroat instead of the 14 that were once believed to exist (see here for more information) and the description of a new subspecies of Redband in the upper McCloud River of California (see here). 

Most recently, genetics work by Matthew Campbell at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has revealed that the Wood River of central Idaho is home to a distinct lineage of Redband Trout that has managed to persist despite decades of hatchery Rainbow Trout introductions. The recent study published by Campbell et al. (here) shows that in that Wood River Redband are far more distinct than once believed and despite being part of the Columbia Basin today, the ancestors of the Wood River Redbands appear to have originated outside of the Columbia Basin. The Wood River Redbands aren't the only unique species in the basin either, which contains a unique species of Sculpin and genetics unique populations of Bridgelip Suckers and Mountain Whitefish as well. These unique populations are most likely explained by long isolation due to a nearly 200 foot high waterfall in the Malad River gorge in the lower part of the basin and possibly due to ancient connections between the Snake River and Klamath or Sacramento basins during the Pliocene.

The Wood River Redband Trout

Matthew Miller (the author of Fishing Through the Apocalypse: An Angler’s Adventures in the 21st Century) wrote an excellent article on the Wood River Redband Trout in Fly Fisherman Magazine, which can be found here: Discovering a “New” Redband Subspecies.

A cutt and mouse game

This was a fishing trip that I really have to dedicate to my dog Buddy (RIP), as without him I would have never thought of trying to fish this spot in such a way. 

Back when I was in my early 20's, I took Buddy fishing with me to a local estuary at high tide and as the water level rose, Buddy started making quite the scene as he diligently attempted to nose dive the mice and voles under the grass. While he never did catch any, after watching a half dozen rodents make their escape across the river, I got to thinking that the Coastal Cutthroat cruising the estuary would probably love to eat one of those mice if given the chance. So the next time I visited the estuary I came equipped with several mouse patterns and sure enough I managed to rise several decent Cutthroat throughout the day, turning me onto a unique little niche fishery I had never known existed.

My old dog buddy a great fishing instructor 

Fast forward over a decade and my buddies Dyllon, TJ and I decided to head out to that same estuary to see if we couldn't mouse up some Cutthroat. We arrived at the estuary with a low tide at around 7:30AM and started working the water. I used to fish this spot multiple times a year, but it had been years since my last trip there and I was immediately struck by all of the habitat changes, with several of my favorite Cutthroat holding spots completely gone and a few new spots having formed over the years. One of these new spots in particular caught my eye with a nice deep channel tight against a grassy bank, which looked like the perfect spot for a Cutthroat to ambush a mouse.

Mouse water

I started off casting my mouse pattern tight against or even bouncing of the far bank then twitching and stripping it back in, while Dyllon did the same just upstream and downstream of me. A few casts in I spotted a log with a drop off behind it under the water and after casting my mouse just downstream of it, sure enough a Cutthroat darted out of hiding and smashed my mouse pattern. This is where things usually go wrong as mouse takes are vicious and rarely hook up. However this time I got a solid hook set and had a dime bright Cutthroat full of spunk on the end of my line. Despite only being around 14" the fish put a serious bend in my 6WT, jumped several times and just caused all around havoc in the hole before I was able to bring it to the net.

A gorgeous mouse eating Cutthroat fresh from the salt

While I expected the fish to put the hole down, it had the opposite effect and a school must have been holding in the spot, because after I released my fish both TJ and Dyllon rose several fish that looked to be much larger but none of them stuck. Unfortunately, the excitement ended just as fast as it had begun and after a few minutes the fish shut down completely and refused to rise again. For the next two hours, we worked our way upstream and while I managed to rise one more Cutthroat, the fishing remained slow so we decided to relocate to another estuary and try our luck there.

When we got to this next estuary, the tide was just starting to flood in and we immediately started seeing some fish activity, with TJ rising a Cutthroat to the mouse and me having a few chases and catching one small Cutthroat on the streamer I was now using. 

A small sea-run from our second spot

However once again, just like that, after a short bit of activity, the tide flooded past us and the Cutthroat disappeared and with that it was time to call it a day. While not the most productive day, catching a native sea-run Cutthroat on a mouse pattern is pretty hard to beat any day.