Western Native Trout Challenge

The Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI) was founded in 2006 to support the conservation of native trout across the Western United States. In 2019, the WNTI launched Western Native Trout Challenge with several different tiers (Master, Advance and Expert) that award anglers for catching up to 18 varieties of native trout across 12 western states. 92% of proceeds from the program go to supporting habitat /conservation projects with direct benefits for native trout across the west, providing anglers with a fun way to make a difference for these fish.

I had not initially planned on attempting the challenge as I had already caught most of the fish recognize by the challenge prior to 2019. However, after a year of native trout hunting it turned out that I had enough trout to submit for the Expert level, in which an angler needs to catch 6 varieties of native trout across 4 states. Since I had qualified for the program  I decided I might as well go for it. 

See my qualifying fish below:

Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout - California

"Interior Redband Trout" - Oregon

Coastal Cutthroat Trout - Washington

Bull Trout - Idaho

Westslope Cutthroat Trout - Idaho

Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout - New Mexico

Upon submitting photographs of their qualifying fish, anglers receive different rewards depending on the level of the program completed. I completed the "Expert Caster" level, which comes with a certificate and a hat, with the first 100 completers getting a unique "First 100" hat. 

My Expert Caster Certificate and "First 100" hat.

All in all, the Western Native Trout Challenge is a great program, that supports crucial conservation projects across the west. If you are interested in taking part in the challenge, you can sign up here.

Evergreen State Anadromous Challenge Complete!

First off this is an unofficial challenge that I set out to complete a couple of years ago, to catch (on a fly) and photograph the anadromous form of every salmonid in the State of Washington. While this challenge should have been completed back in October, however all of the coastal variety of steelhead that I had caught had been slightly too crafty for me to get a picture. A couple of weeks ago that changed and I finally finished this mini-quest off.

Steelhead - Coastal Rainbow Trout - Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus

Steelhead - Columbia Basin Redband - Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri

Coastal Cutthroat Trout - Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii

Bull Trout - Salvelinus confluentus

Chinook Salmon - Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

Coho Salmon - Oncorhynchus kisutch

Chum Salmon - Oncorhynchus keta

Pink Salmon - Oncorhynchus gorbuscha

Sockeye Salmon - Oncorhynchus nerka

It is possible that sea-run Dolly Varden may also exist in Washington State, but I have not found any evidence yet to show that the anadromous char found in our waters are anything but Bull Trout. Plus the fact that it is challenging to tell the two species apart without a genetic test would make it near impossible to prove that a fish is a Dolly and not a Bull, so I consider the quest complete!

The Evergreen State Salmonid Slam

Washington State has twelve species/ subspecies of native salmonids. Over the last weekend I caught my the twelfth and final species of native salmonid that I hadn't yet encountered in Washington State

Pacific Salmon

All five species of North American Pacific Salmon are native to Washington State.

Chinook Salmon: Puget Sound

Coho Salmon: Puget Sound

Chum Salmon: Puget Sound

Sockeye Salmon: Olympic Peninsula

Pink Salmon: Puget Sound

Rainbow Trout

Two subspecies of Rainbow/ Redband trout are native to the state of Washington.

Coastal Rainbow Trout: Olympic Peninsula

Columbia Basin Redband: Yakima River watershed

Cutthroat Trout

There are two subspecies of these fish native to Washington.

Coastal Cutthroat: Puget Sound

Westslope Cutthroat: Yakima River watershed

Char

A lot of fish in Washington like to come in twos and as such there are two species of Char native to Washington State, although genetic testing is typically needed to tell them apart. Southern Dolly Varden the rarer of the two are only found in the few isolated stream resident populations above barrier falls.

Bull Trout: Olympic Peninsula

Southern Dolly Varden: Olympic Peninsula

Other Salmonids

The only other salmonid native to Washington are the Mountain Whitefish, a close relative of trout, salmon and char.

Mountain Whitefish: Olympic Peninsula

Unfortunately unlike Wyoming and California, Washington does not have an official program to recognize anglers for catching the state's native salmonids. The next step of my quest in Washington would be to complete the Washington "Anadromous Challenge". In other words to catch all of the native salmonids in their anadromous form. To complete this I still need catch some Coastal Steelhead and Columbia Basin Redband Steelhead and sea-run Bull Trout. I will have to save that one for another time though....