Colorado's Cutthroat Diversity

This past summer I had the privilege to make two trips out to the Colorado Rockies in pursuit native Cutthroat. While my original goal was just to catch the two subspecies of Cutthroat that I had yet to catch, I ended up expanding my second trip to pursue all of the extant Cutthroat lineages in the state and here they are.

Green River Cutthroat - Blue lineage - Yampa drainage

The Green River Cutthroat or Blue lineage of the Colorado River Cutthroat are found in streams draining to the Green River, such as the White River and Yampa River drainages. These Cutthroat were also stocked extensively across much of the state and are found in many streams in the upper Colorado, Gunnison, Dolores and San Juan watersheds.

Colorado River Cutthroat - Green lineage - Upper Colorado River

The Colorado River Cutthroat or Green lineage of the Colorado River Cutthroat. These fish are native to the Upper Colorado, Gunnison and Dolores watersheds. These fish were only recognized as being distinct from the Green River Cutthroat in recent years and currently only occupy about 3% of their native range.

Hayden Creek Cutthroat - Arkansas drainage Colorado River Cutthroat

While the extinct Yellowfin Cutthroat is recognized as the native trout of the Arkansas watershed, historic accounts indicate that ‘Greenback Cutthroat’ were also found in Twin Lakes in the upper Arkansas watershed. While both the Yellowfin and ‘Greenbacks’ vanished from Twin Lakes in the early 1900’s, a single population of fish found in the South Prong of Hayden Creek matched the ‘Greenback’ museum specimens from Twin Lakes. However in a twist of the story, the genetic analysis also revealed that these fish were not Greenbacks but a unique population of Colorado River Cutthroat with genes found nowhere else. While the South Prong Hayden Creek population was lost in a Fire, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has established a handful of populations across the Arkansas basin.

San Juan Cutthroat - San Juan drainage

The San Juan Cutthroat are native to the upper San Juan River basin. Until recently these fish were believed to be Colorado River Cutthroat, but genetic analysis of museum specimens showed that they represent a unique lineage of Cutthroat. At the time of this revelation, it was believed that the San Juan Cutthroat were extinct, but an extensive search of the basin turned up a handful of small isolated populations scattered across the upper watershed.

Greenback Cutthroat - South Platte drainage

The Greenback Cutthroat are native to the South Platte drainage and have a complex story. These fish were believed to be extinct by the 1930’s, but when a few small Cutthroat populations were discovered in the basin a recovery program was launched. For years this program was considered a huge success story, until genetics work showed that the fish used for the program were a mix of Green River and Colorado River Cutthroat and only a single population of a few hundred Greenbacks remained. After resetting the conservation efforts, Greenbacks have been reestablished in a handful of streams across the front range of Colorado.

Rio Grande Cutthroat - Upper Rio Grande drainage

The beautiful Rio Grande Cutthroat are found in the upper Rio Grande watershed of Colorado. These fish are the southernmost Cutthroat lineage and similar to the other Cutthroat of Colorado are now restricted to small headwater streams across their native range.

Colorado Adventure Part 4: Colorado River Cutthroat Contingencies

My original plans for this day had been to fish a high elevation stream that had come highly recommended, but required a rough gravel road with pass at nearly 12,500 to reach. Unfortunately, this plan was upended right before I left when I friend sent me a picture of a snow drift still blocking the pass, that was highly unlikely to melt out before would be trying to access the area. As such, I was forced to look elsewhere to try to find some Colorado River Cutthroat. While most think of the Colorado River Cutthroat as occupying vast parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, there are two distinct lineages of these fish, representing separate subspecies (Green River Cutthroat and Colorado River Cutthroat). The blue lineage which I had caught the previous day (see here), is found in the Green, White and Yampa River drainages of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. While the true Colorado River Cutthroat or green lineage was historically native to the upper Colorado, Gunnison and Dolores watersheds of Colorado and a small part of Utah. In addition to their native range, Green River Cutthroat, primarily from Trappers Lake were stocked extensively throughout the range of the Colorado River Cutthroat and as a result of that and other factors Colorado River Cutthroat currently only occupy around 3% of their native range. I had once believed that I had caught this fish on a previous trip, but genetics revealed that the population I had caught them from were in fact introduced Green River Cutthroat and while the Hayden Creek Cutthroat also checked the box, I really wanted to catch some of these fish west of the continental divide. However, the mix of nonnative Green River populations and relatively low number of true Colorado River Cutthroat populations meant that my options were quite limited, but after a fair bit of digging I landed on a stream in the sage brush country in the northern part of the upper Colorado River watershed that was reported to have a decent population of Cutthroat.

Sunday August 27th: While I had settled into my tent under a cloudless starry sky , in the middle of the night my sleep was interrupted by the crack thunder. This was followed by more, which got progressively closer until the storm was nearly on top of me and it started pouring. With the tent extremely exposed and the thunderstorm growing closer by the moment I decided to relocate and for the second night in a row took refuge in the car while a storm raged on outside.

After yet another less than restful night, I was up early and by 7:00 AM I was heading over to the creek with my rod in hand. Unfortunately, what I found when I reached the creek did not look promising. For one thing the creek was much smaller than I had expected, although certainly large enough to hold fish. Most troubling though, the creek was silted in with little in the way of any potential holding water and on top of that it was extremely off color after the thunderstorm the previous night.

Not very promising...

Despite the less than promising conditions, I decided to give the creek a fair shot before writing it over and start prospecting any of the deep holes I could find. However after covering nearly a mile of stream until I ran into a private property boundary and the only signs of life I had seen were several cows standing in the creek adding to the silt issues.

The source of the problem - cows

While there may have been a viable Cutthroat population further upstream, there was no access through the private property to the forest service lands above and the stretch I was on was a complete bust, This meant it was back to the drawing board. Fortunately, while I was looking up this stream I had noted a few other spots as backup streams and with a full day ahead of me I quickly headed back to the car, broke camp and hit the road once more. I landed on heading west towards the edge of the desert on the Colorado plateau, where there was a group of several streams reported to hold pure populations of Colorado River Cutthroat not too far off I-70.

Cruising through Glenwood Canyon heading west

By 10:30AM I was pulling off the interstate and cruising up the road towards the first of my back up streams, but when I was just 2 miles short of the stream I ran into a major hang up the road was gated with no public accessed due to natural gas extraction in the area. While I may not be able to reach the tributary where a pure population of Colorado River Cutthroat was supposed to resided, I did find access to the mainstem of the creek just downstream of the gate and decided to give it a quick try.

The country at stream #2

The water on the stream looked great, seemed to be cool enough, but after covering a 1/4 mile I hadn't seen the slightest sign of trout and with the day ticking by I decided to cut my losses once again and head for another nearby stream. Based on the research I had done, this stream was reported to hold 151 to 400 pure Colorado River Cutthroat per mile and I had high hopes as I drove up the gravel road and pulled off at one of the stretches of public land to try my luck. Unfortunately, upon reaching the stream, it did not look like great Cutthroat water, with little holding water, warm water and substantial mats of algae. However, in my excursions for desert trout, I have certainly found fish in worse habitat, so I decided to see if I couldn't at least find some deeper pools that might hold a fish or two.

Stream #3

With that I pushed on upstream, but just like the last two creeks even when I did find some decent holding water I didn't see the slightest sign of fish and figured that I needed to push on further upstream, where I might find some cooler water.

On the road again

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done and after driving several miles further up the road, I once again ran into a gate (with plenty of no trespassing signs) that I couldn't see on the satellite imagery, which blocked the path between me and the public lands further upstream. Having driven all the way out here, I wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel and on my drive up to the dead end I had seen a pull off above a canyon stretch of the stream that just might hold some cooler water and the Cutthroat I was looking for. It was a good scramble down into the canyon, but once again luck was not on my side and the creek in the stretch somehow was even more choked with algae. I still quickly covered a bit of water to see what I could find, but things did not improve, the few deeper holes I found again were devoid of fish with the added and the combo of the heat and the sound of thunder in the distance I convinced that it was time to cut my loses.

Stream #3 - second spot, somehow even worse than the first spot

At this point, the afternoon was already progressing and three streams in I was running out of viable backup options. There were one or two other streams in the area, but the thunderstorm was really starting to set in and given the last two streams did not pan out, it seemed like I needed to change strategy if I wanted to salvage the day. 

At least it was beautiful country

With that I got back on the road once again, and this time decided to try a higher elevation stream on the edge of the continental divide. The last three streams that I had tried all had detailed information on how many trout per mile, presence of nonnatives and hybridization. Information that was proved wrong (at least during the summer months) with the absence of any trout. I would be going in relatively blind on this next stream, as it had almost none of that information. In fact all I had to go off of was a map showing highlighted streams for green and blue lineage populations (no stream names) that best I could tell indicated indicated I should find the trout I was looking for in this next location. It is also worth noting that this same map also indicated that the last three streams should have held these trout as well. After just under three more hours on the road, I pulled off the highway headed for my next stream, but once again I was greeted by a sight that had become all too common over the course of the day - another gate! 

This gate was not going to stop me

Luckily this time, I was much closer to the creek and this gate (on public land at least) simply meant that I was going to get a bit more leg work in than what I had expected. At the first sight of water, I made a beeline for the creek and immediately started working the water. While the water was certainly cold enough,quality holding spots seemed to be few and far between and I didn't see any signs of trout until a came to the best looking pool I had seen all day.

Finally some good looking water

Upon reaching this pool I first tried the outfall sure enough I rose and briefly hooked into a trout, but it popped off after just a few seconds. While I couldn't tell whether or not it was a Cutthroat, it was certainly more life than I had seen all day. I tried a few more casts to make sure that the fish wasn't going to come back, then moved on to the main course and placed a cast in the tailout of the pool. While nobody came out to inspect my fly on the cast in the tailout, I extend my next cast to the mid section of the pool and after my fly drifted just a few feet, I watched a fish slowly rise to intercept it. I waited for the fish to turn, set the hook and finally had a solid hook up on a trout. The fight got a bit dicey as the fish neared the tangled mess of wood at the back of the pool, but I managed to keep the trout from hanging up and breathed a sigh of relief as I netted a gorgeous Colorado River Cutthroat!

Mission accomplished! This fish made all the miles on the road well worth it!

This Cutthroat as an absolute flawless gem, with a vibrant orange belly that popped on the pale yellow background but after a few fleeting moments of quite reverence, it was time to turn it loose and watch it slide back into the depths of the pool. As that fish hadn't disturbed the head of the pool, that was where I put my next cast and sure enough another fish rose to take my fly and a few moments later I landed another slightly smaller Colorado River Cutthroat.

My second Colorado River Cutthroat of the day

After that first pool, it was a long walk to the next piece of holding water and only the best water seemed to hold any fish but I started picking up a few Cutthroat here and there as I worked my way upstream. Before long the valley opened up into wide meadows and it was in one of these meadows as I was working my way upstream, that some movement caught my attention and I was surprised to see a porcupine munching on some leaves just above the water line. This little guy didn't seem to be the slightest bit concerned about my presence and after a few moments of observation I left it alone and pushed on upstream.

A streamside Porcupine

Before long I came to another decent pool and after I got a good cast in I watched as a nice Cutthroat dart from hiding and intercepted my dropper. I always find that watching the take, just makes it that much more memorable, and after a few moments I was able to net an exceptionally nice Cutthroat for the stream. 

My fish of the day - a beautiful golden-bronze 12" male Cutthroat

After I released this fish, the restless nights, all of the driving and hiking was starting to catch up with me and I decided at the next meadow I would call it quits. On the way I found one more Cutthroat in another pool and the creek shortly after the creek lost the flow of a tributary and got significantly smaller supporting my decision to call it on this long day.

 

The creek in the meadow stretch

While it had been a rough day, in the end I got to see some beautiful country and found the fish that I was looking for making it hard to complain. After working my way a good mile upstream of where I had started, it was a relief to have an easy trek out on the abandoned road and with nobody else around it was nice to slowly work my way back to the car I admired the beauty of the high Rockies.

The Colorado high country on the hike out

At this point I had now caught 4 out of the five fish that I was after on the trip and decided that I could really use a good nights sleep so I opted to head for Dillon Colorado and grab a hotel for the night. After several days on the road, it felt amazing to grab a hot meal, clean up and then enjoy a post thunderstorm soak in a hot tub with a view of the Rocky Mountains at the sunset.

A great way to end the evening!

With one last day left, my targets were set on the Greenback Cutthroat, the final subspecies of Cutthroat that I needed to catch the next day. As I was flying out the next afternoon, I just had to cross my fingers that the next day was going to go much smoother than this one had.

Colorado Adventure Part 2: Hayden Creek Cutthroat

Saturday August 26th: My second day of hunting for native trout in Colorado dawned to soggy overcast conditions after an extremely restless night of sleep in the car (see here for part one). However, by 6:45AM, the rain finally stopped and after a quick breakfast, it was time to hit the trail once again. My target for the morning, was a curious and unique form of Cutthroat only known to one small stream - the South Prong of Hayden Creek in the Arkansas watershed. What makes these trout so unique is that they are an exact genetic match for the "Greenback" Cutthroat that once occurred alongside the Yellowfin Cutthroat in Twin Lakes, Colorado. Genetics revealed that these "Greenbacks" were in fact Colorado River Cutthroat, but with a genetic signature not found in any populations west of the continental divide.  While it is still unclear how these trout found their way into the Arkansas basin, it is clear that they were abundant in Twin Lakes in the 1880's, but like the Yellowfin Cutthroat were unable to withstand the introductions of nonnative species in the lakes and vanished within a few short decades. These fish held on in one last refuge until 2016, when a fire burned through Hayden Creek and if it were for a last minute rescue operation they would have been lost entirely. With the Yellowfin Cutthroat still believed to be extinct, Cutthroat reintroduction efforts in the Arkansas basin have focused on establishing these Hayden Creek Cutthroat in a number of refuge populations around the watershed. So for me after the revelation that the Colorado River Cutthroat (see here) that I had caught in Rocky Mountain National Park years ago were in fact Green River Cutthroat, these fish would check that box again, while also representing a particularly unique lineage of Cutthroat Trout.

The spot that I had picked to target these rare Cutthroat was among the first transplant populations and while the Cutthroat had apparently failed to establish in the upper reaches of the stream, several friends of mine had succeeded in finding them in the lower reaches, which is were I planned on going. By 7:00 AM, I was on the trail, hiking through a forest of sparsely spaced Pine trees. Compared to the day before, the trail started out at a much easier grade and was at a slightly lower elevation, which helped me make good timing and feel like I wasn’t completely out of shape.

A wet start to the day

While the hike the evening before had been stunning, this one was a much more standard walk in the woods, although the few brief views of the valley through the clouds did add to its charm.

A wet gray start to the day

With the relatively easy hike, within a half hour I could hear the sound of running water and was descending into the creek valley. Upon arriving at the creek, it was immediately clear that this would be some challenging brush whacking and fishing, as the stream was extremely high gradient, with dense riparian vegetation. However, there was a nice looking pool right at the trail crossing that looked like excellent holding water for trout, so it was time to get to it.

A pool on the creek

While the first pool looked great, multiple drifts failed to produced any sign of trout so I started working my way upstream. With the high gradient it was slow going, but there were plenty of plunge pools. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to hold any trout and with the crystal clear water I really should have been able to see the fish if there were any. After covering a dozen or so really great looking spots, the creek was really beginning to appear devoid of trout. I am not one to give up easily, so I decided to go back to the trail and try my luck downstream. Despite finding more great looking holding water, the same scenario repeated itself and I didn’t see as much as the slightest sign of a trout. While this was always a possibility when I was planning the trip it was disappointing. This was definitely going to set my schedule back a bit, but I had a couple backup spots along my route and as such I decided to cut my losses and head for a different stream. I moved as fast as I could on the hike out and despite taking one wrong turn, by 9:00 AM I was back at the trailhead and hitting the road once again.

Other than the stocking history, I had very little to go off of with the next stream and even had to guess which stretch of stream would have the Hayden Creek Cutthroat in it. However, it was the closest along my route so if it didn't pan out it shouldn’t put me too far off my schedule to at least check it out. Based on the research I had done, the benefit of this spot based on the timing of the introduction, was that if it had been successful, by all rights the population should be well established with multiple age classes at this point. 

My drive took me along the Arkansas River which was running high and off color due to the storm the night before, and while it was gorgeous, knowing that the Yellowfin Cutthroat which once inhabited its waters were now lost to time was heavy on my mind as I ascended the valley.

The Arkansas River - once home to the Yellowfin Cutthroat

I made great timing on the drive and by the time I turned off on the road to the creek the cloudy skies of the morning were finally starting to give way to afternoon sunshine. The drive into the mountains, which should have been gorgeous, was marred by the legacy of mining, with derelict structures and equipment left in place and large swathes of land still barren.

The legacy of mining was certainty apparent on the drive in to the stream

About 3/4 of way into the creek I got an unwelcome surprise as there was a set jersey barriers blocking the way. Or at least partially blocking the way as the was a bit of a gap in between two of the barriers looked like it just might be wide enough for a small car to fit through. Having already be shut out on one stream, I wasn’t going to give up easily on this one and decided to see if I could squeeze through. I angled the rental car towards the barriers and after getting out to verify it would fit slowly inched on through and was back on track. A quarter mile up the road there was another set of barriers but luckily there was a large gap in this one and I sailed right on through. Another five minutes of bumpy dirt roads later, and I was standing at nearly 11,500 feet of elevation, amidst the peaks of the Rocky Mountains on a rise a couple hundred feet above the creek and eager to reach the water. I quickly got the ball rolling and grabbed my gear, found an old two track road I had seen on the satellite imagery and started my descent into the valley below.

The meadows on the walk into the second stream

Regardless of whether or not this stream held fish, the surroundings were absolutely stunning, with a crystal clear creek tumbling over rocks as it meandering through a verdant alpine meadow surrounded by peaks that rose to over 14,000 feet and towered above the tree line. While I would have been happy to just sit and immerse myself in my surroundings, I was here for a reason and I quickly directed my attention to the stream.

The second stream of the day was gorgeous!

In the first piece of holding water that I came to, I briefly hooked a fish but only saw a bit of green, yellow and red that I feared might be a Brook Trout before it popped off. Regardless of what it was, it was more life than I had seen in the last stream and in the next pocket upstream a trout grabbed my dry fly. This time I got a solid hook set and luckily when I brought the fish to the net, I found it was a beautiful Hayden Creek Cutthroat! 

Success! A Hayden Creek strain Colorado River Cutthroat

Despite being essentially considered a Colorado River Cutthroat, these Hayden Creek Cutthroat certainly are a unique fish, and were a bright yellow colored with red blotches along the lateral line and moderate sized spot concentrated near the caudal peduncle. The first Cutthroat was soon followed by another and another, and this stream proved to be one where every likely looking spot held a trout. On top of that, there was no shortage of good holding water, with every corner and plunge pool screaming trout. The trout in the stream which averaged 6” to 8” were also abundant and eagerly rose to my Royal PMX, with a few going for the dropper as well.

A beautiful Cutthroat in the photarium

My original plan was for a quick in an out trip, but between the beautiful surroundings, excellent fishing and unique trout, I just couldn’t pull myself away from the creek and before I knew it several hours had slipped by.

One last look at the stream before hitting the road

While I was reluctant to move on, I still had many miles ahead of me a knew it was time to get back on the road again. Although the morning started a bit rough, the second stream had far exceeded my expectations and with another fish under my belt the trip was coming together nicely. Next I was headed for the Flat Tops of northern Colorado with high hopes of finding some native Green River Cutthroat Trout.

A case of mistaken identity

 Since I stated my native trout quest the classification of Cutthroat has seen some rather large changes, which have been primarily driven by an increased understanding of genetics. The first major shake up came with a study published by Metcalf et al. in 2012 and the discovery that what we knew as Greenback Cutthroat were actually Cutthroat from the Colorado River basin. Along with this revelation came another key finding that the Colorado River Cutthroat was actually comprised of three distinct lineages the Colorado River Cutthroat (termed the green lineage as they were originally believed to be Greenback Cutthroat), the Green River Cutthroat (Blue lineage) and the San Juan Cutthroat.

A Green River (Blue lineage) Cutthroat 

For me the initial impact of this discovery was that the Greenback Cutthroat I had caught, were not actually Greenbacks meaning I had yet to catch that subspecies and would have to wait to do so until they had recovered sufficiently. However, this also raised the question of what those “Greenbacks” I had caught actually were, Green River or Colorado River Cutthroat. It turned out that this question did not have a simple answer, as the primary broodstock used to recover the former “Greenback Cutthroat” was drawn from two streams Como Creek and Hunter Creek to raise the genetic diversity. And raise the genetic diversity it did, as Como Creek held Colorado River Cutthroat (Green lineage) while Hunter held Green River Cutthroat. The records I have found do suggest that Como Creek and thus Colorado River Cutthroat were the dominant lineage, but these former recovery populations of “Greenbacks” appear to be Green x Colorado River hybrids.

A Greenback Cutthroat? Nope a Colorado River Cutthroat with some Green River influence 

 

One of the other findings of the Metcalf et al. study was that due to past stocking many of the Cutthroat populations in the upper Colorado River that should Colorado River Cutthroat were actually Green River Cutthroat. For a long time I wondered about what the “Colorado River Cutthroat” I had caught in Rocky Mountain National Park in 2006 were, until recently when I found a map showing the genetics of the known populations. As it turned out the “Colorado River Cutthroat” I had caught were actually Green River Cutthroat, likely Trappers Lake strain from the extensive stocking that occurred over the last century. 

--UPDATE-- As if it wasn't challenging enough to ID Green vs Blue lineage, the most recent inventory of Cutthroat in Rocky Mountain National Park shows that indeed the fish I caught ARE green lineage or actual Colorado River Cutthroat. 

Green lineage Colorado River Cutthroat

For now I have updated my website with to account these mistaken fish, but in just over a week I will be heading to Colorado to hopefully find both the true Greenback Cutthroat. With any luck this trip will be successful and and in two weeks time I will have once again caught all of the extant subspecies of Cutthroat Trout.

Colorado Quicky

Last week I had a quick couple day trip to Colorado, while this trip definitely wasn't fishing centered I made sure to sneak up into the Rockies for at least one quick outing. Being one of the rarer and more beautiful salmonids, I set my sights on going after some Greenback Cutthroat and ran up to Rocky Mountain National Park for half a day. As this trip was a bit spurt of the moment, I decided to return to a stream that I had fished back in 2006.

The Rockies

Being the end of summer, the leaves were just beginning to change in the higher altitudes and there was plenty of wildlife out and about.

A Rocky Mountain Elk

The hike into the stream was short and beautiful with glimpses of the surrounding peaks through groves of aspen, spruce and fir.

The trail in

Even being the late season, the flows were still higher then expected showing signs of the heavy snow pack that the west had this year. These conditions also seemed to treat the Cutthroat well, as it didn't take long to spot some.

The stream

However, spotting fish and catching them were two different things as a whole summer of fishing pressure seemed to put these Cutthroat on their guard. None of the fish were willing to rise recklessly to a dry fly like Cutthroat are known for, but instead would track with it and inspect it for anything wrong. Luckily I had a couple patterns in my arsenal that they seemed to like and once I figured out that a little more stealth then usual was going to be required I started to get a few fish.

A dry fly eating Colorado Greenback

Given that I was on tight schedule, it wasn't long after I had figured the fish out and really started getting into them that I had to start thinking of the trail back out. However, one more beautiful Greenback that fell for my old standby Tellico nymph dropper made leaving a bit easier.

Last Greenback of the day

Cutthroat of the Rocky Mountains

My goal for this trip was to catch all of the subspecies of Cutthroat Trout native to the Rocky Mountains excluding the Westslope Cutthroat, which I had caught a number of in the Cascade Mountains two weeks prior to leaving. While Cutthroat are native to a vast area of the western United States, their populations have been greatly reduced due to a variety of issues. As such, pure and healthy populations can be quite difficult to come by today. I started planning this trip during September of 2005, and relied on a variety of different resources to come up with a list of streams to fish that would hold healthy populations of Cutthroat without any hybrid influences. 

Day 1: Monday July 31st 2006: My dad and I made the 12+ hour drive to Yellowstone, with nothing overly exciting occurring along the way. When we got to the park, we found out the the campground where we were planning on staying was already full, so we diverted to Indian Creek campground, which luckily had a few spots left. 

Day 2: Tuesday August 1st 2006: We woke up bright and early to a chilly Yellowstone morning. After a quick breakfast, we drove over to the Lamar Valley and Soda Butte Creek to try our luck fishing for some Yellowstone Cutthroat. We arrived at the creek to find it extremely crowded and had to hunt to find a stretch that we would have to ourselves, or so we thought. We ended up being constantly high holed or low holed, which really limited the amount of water we could cover. Even so while we were there, we rose more than our fair share for Cutthroat, including one that my dad hooked and was close to 20". Even with the few larger fish around, I still only managed to catch a couple of small Cutthroat prompting us to consider a less crowded option.

A pronghorn antelope on the way out to the Lamar Valley

With Soda Butte Creek being one of the more popular streams in the park, I decided to try a relatively unknown small stream that was supposed to hold a good population of Yellowstone Cutthroat. Arriving at the stream, I found it to be completely vacant of anglers and full of small but hungry trout, with some up to 12". I rigged up my rod with a Royal PMX and Lightning Bug dropper and started catching fish in every likely looking spot. Eventually, I came to a nice plunge pool where I watched my dry fly get pulled under as a Cutthroat grabbed my nymph. After a quick fight I landed a beautiful 12" Yellowstone Cutthroat, my best fish for the creek. Soon after landing the Cutthroat, the weather began to deteriorate and I made my way back down the creek as the rain set in.

 

The Creek

A stream resident Yellowstone Cutthroat caught on a Lightning Bug nymph in a deep hole

Once back at the car, we made our way to one of my favorite streams in the northwestern corner of the  park. The weather was better in this part of the park, but it looked like it wouldn't last long. Although this stream doesn't have much in the way of native trout, it always spoils me as every likely spot seems to hold a fish, and I caught numerous Brown Trout, Rainbows and Cuttbows before I was finally chased out by a thunderstorm. After again being bested by bad weather, we headed back to the campground to get some dinner and settle in for the evening. After a good dinner I was feeling recharged, decided to head out fishing again to see if I could find any Brook Trout in the upper Gardner River. It didn't take long before I found a nice section of the river that was full of rising Brook Trout that eagerly took my dry fly. Well above this I found some decent pools that were packed with Brook Trout, which couldn't resist the Zug Bug that is my go to fly in this type of water.

A pool on the upper Gardner River

A Brook Trout caught on a Zug Bug

After catching my fill of Brook Trout, I headed back to camp as the sun started to drift toward the horizon. The day had been a great success, not only had I caught the Yellowstone Cutthroat that I came to the park for, but I had also caught a number of Brook, Brown and Rainbow Trout making it the first time that I had caught all four species in a single day. 

Day 3: Wednesday August 2nd 2006: I am used to cold nights in Yellowstone, but this one had been especially chilly and we woke in the morning to find everything coated with a thick layer of frost. The plan for the day was to leave the Yellowstone National Park behind and head south to the Tetons to try to find some Snake River Fine Spotted Cutthroat.

Me with Jackson Lake and the Tetons in the background

The spot that I had chosen to fish had treated my dad and I very well on a trip in 2005, so I was looking forward to going back again. However after fishing all of the spots where we had done well on our previous trip all I had to show for the effort was one small Brook Trout and a few missed strikes.

A lake at the foot of the Tetons

With a less than successful first outing for Fine Spotted Cutthroat, we headed down the valley into Jackson to get lunch and possibly a hotel room so that I could try to get some Cutthroat later in the evening or the next morning. Unfortunately, we did not anticipate just how busy Jackson would be since our previous trips had not been during the peak travel season. With the town completely overrun with tourists and all of the hotel nearby were booked, as such staying here was out of the question. Even though it was busy, we did manage to get lunch at Bubba's BBQ than continued down the road toward the native range of the Bear River Cutthroat, my next target. We ended up deciding to stay in Afton Wyoming, which was the closest town to the Bear River Cutthroat stream and was also close to several decent Snake River Fine Spotted Cutthroat streams. 

That evening I headed out to try my luck Fine Spotted Cutthroat again, this time targeting small tributary of the Salt River. The creek was only about fifteen feet across in its widest spots, but was extremely fast moving and as a result had little holding water. Due to its small size, I decided to just wet wade, which was a big mistake as the water was frigid and the evening was cooling down fast. I covered close to a 1/4 mile of stream before I finally found a bit of decent holding water and spotted a rising trout. My first couple casts landed a little short, but finally I got a good cast into his feeding lane and hooked up. Snake River Fine Spotted Cutthroat are notorious for being hard fighting fish, and with the fast water this hefty trout fit that mold perfectly, but still came to the net before long. For a stream this size, this was a great fish running nearly 15".

A Snake River Fine Spotted Cutthroat

Not to far upstream from this first cutthroat, I found a nice little pool and after placing a cast tight to a rock ledge I hooked up with another even larger cutthroat. This fish was 18" or better, but as I went to bring it to the net my small nymph popped out and the giant drifted back into the shadows. The rest of fish seemed to share this talent for tossing flies, and as the sun began to set headed back to the hotel with high hopes of getting into some Bear River strain of the Bonneville Cutthroat in the morning. 

Day 4: Thursday August 3rd 2006: We continued on our route and drove over a mountain pass from the Snake River drainage into the Bonneville basin. The first stop for the day was a small stream that my research had indicated held a fair amount of Bear River strain Bonneville Cutthroat. Arriving at the stream I located a good looking stretch that had a large concentration of beaver ponds. The water in the creek was relatively murky, so I rigged up with a flashy Thin Mint Wooly Bugger with a Zug Bug as a trailer about 16" behind it. Once I was rigged up, I headed over to the largest of the beaver ponds and started fishing from the top of the dam. As I was stripping my fly in I could see golden flashes from the Cutthroat and after a few missed hits, I finally hooked up and brought and nice 16" Cutthroat to the net. After my luck in the big pond dried up, I tried some of the other ponds and caught several other smaller Bear River Cutthroat before getting back on the road again.

 

My big Bear River Cutthroat

Another smaller Bear River strain Bonneville Cutthroat

Me at the Bear River Cutthroat stream

We continued down the road with hopes of making it to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado by dark. The countryside quickly transitioned from forested mountains to sage brush desert. This desert portion of Wyoming had some very interesting and unique rock formations and had an incredibly high population of pronghorn antelope and a large concentration of natural gas wells. After several hours of driving through this terrain, the scenery became rather repetitive it didn't revert back to mountains until we were well into Colorado.

The Wyoming desert

Just outside Steamboat Springs Colorado we ran into a large thunderhead, which seemed to follow us all of the way to Rocky Mountain National Park, but finally tapered off and disappeared in time for us to set up our tent at Timber Creek campground in the park. 

Day 5: Friday August 4th 2006: We awoke early in the morning to see Elk walking through the campground. My targets for the day were set on catching some Greenback Cutthroat (note from the future - based on genetics work, we known know the the fish used for "Greenback" Cutthroat recovery in RMNP were actually misidentified Colorado River Cutthroat), so we set out for a hike in stream on the eastside of the park. The drive to the stream was through some of the most beautiful country that I have ever seen, as the road wound its way along the tops of the 12,000 foot peaks and over the continental divide.

The Colorado high country

A herd of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park

We arrived at the trailhead for the Greenback stream and the parking lot was so crowded that we could barely find a spot. We hiked up the trail about a mile before we came to the creek and started fishing. After covering a few yards of good looking stream and only managing to rise one Cutthroat, I figured that most people would also start fishing as soon as they arrived at the creek, so I decided to head further upstream. I hiked up the trail another mile or so and this made all of the difference in the world.

The Greenback Cutthroat stream

When I got down to the creek I could see several Cutthroat holding in a nice deep slot, so I cast my Royal PMX and Copper John dropper out, but couldn't get any reaction from the fish. Given the lack of interest, I figured that they must be keying in on something, and after a little pocking around I noticed an unusually high number of Yellow Jackets on the banks and a few dead ones in the stream. The closest imitation that I had was a yellow bodied Tellico Nymph, so I switched out my dropper and gave it another try. The results were immediate, as a nice sized Greenback grabbed my nymph on the first cast. There are some fish that when you catch them you have a hard time turning them loose again simply because they are so beautiful, and every one of these Cutthroat feel into this category. Drop dead gorgeous. 

A beautiful "Greenback" Cutthroat.
Note: In 2012 it was discovered that this population was actually made up of Colorado River Cutthroat that had been mistaken for Greenbacks.

After the first Cutthroat, fishing stayed consistently good as I worked my way upstream and each likely looking pocket produced a decent fish. After covering about a half mile of water I ran into trail crossing and reluctantly pulled myself away from fishing and headed back down the trail to the car. I still had one more fish to pursue and the next stop was back at the campground for a quick lunch, than it was off to another stream for some Colorado River Cutthroat.

Rough weather coming in over the high country on the way back to the campground

When I arrived at the Colorado River Cutthroat stream, I found it to be much smaller than what I had been led to believe from the research I had done prior to leaving on the trip. However everything that I had read indicated that it held a pure population of Colorado River Cutthroat, so I headed upstream to see if I could find any. Not to far upstream the gradient of the creek increased and there started to be a bit of decent holding water. Before long I spotted a decent trout in a small run and the fish grabbed my dry on the first cast. However, when I got it to the net it ended up being a Brook Trout instead of a Cutthroat. It seems that these fish have a special talent for turning up where they aren't supposed to be...

Small stream fishing in the extreme: the Colorado River Cutthroat stream

Luckily the Brook Trout was not the norm and in the next pool upstream I caught my first Colorado River Cutthroat on the Royal PMX. Just above this point, I ran into a fish barrier, above which the only fish present were beautifully colored Colorado River Cutthroat. As I continued upstream, the gradient steadily increased and the creek flowed down the mountainside from one stairstep pool to another.

A small, but beautiful Colorado River Cutthroat

Above the barrier, most the pools and pockets held fish, and I spent the next couple hours catching fish in most of the likely spots using dries and nymphs. In such small conditions it was fun watching the reaction of the fish to different flies. I one pocket I tossed a stimulator in only to watch it be refused at the last minute by a Cutthroat. For the next cast I switched back to a Royal PMX and watched as the fish rose to it without any hint of hesitation. In one of the larger pools upstream I caught my biggest trout on the creek at right around 10". While beautiful, this fish had an odd little hole in one of its gill plates, no doubt a testament to the harsh conditions that these fish live in. Having successfully caught some Colorado River Cutthroat I went back down to the campground to get some dinner, then my dad and I headed out to the Colorado River for some more fishing and to see if we couldn't find some more Cutthroat that had washed down from the creek. The mosquitoes on the river were terrible, and after only catching a few small Brook Trout we decided to call it quits.

The upper Colorado River

Day 6: Saturday August 5th 2006: We broke camp bright and early  and headed out of Rocky Mountain National Park bound for New Mexico to so I could try my luck for some Rio Grande Cutthroat. The park was beautiful in the crisp morning air, and there was plenty of wildlife around as well.

Looking down the Colorado River valley

A herd of elk in the alpine tundra

Looking down the east slope of the Rocky Mountains

After leaving the park we followed I-25 across the Frontrange prairies to just south of Colorado Springs where we headed back up into the Rockies. After that, we continued through southern Colorado where the terrain consisted of small groupings of mountains interspaced with desert. The desert extended into northern New Mexico and was a bit reminiscent of the scab lands of eastern Washington. Once into New Mexico, we almost immediately turned up into the mountains heading to the stream that I had chosen to fish for Rio Grande Cutthroat. As we gained elevation, the country rapidly changed from desert to high mountain forests with meadows and a picturesque stream flowing through the middle. Despite seeming to be in the middle of nowhere, it quickly became apparent that I was not going to have the place to myself, as there were fishermen in every pull off along the road. We continued upstream until we managed to find a section of the stream that was vacant of other anglers, and I got to work trying to catch some Cutthroat.

An abandoned adobe house in the valley leading up to the stream

The Rio Grande Cutthroat stream with an afternoon thunderstorm in the distance

Catching Cutthroat in this stream proved to be more challenging than expected as these fish were some extremely quick risers that often spit the hook before I had even realized that they had taken the fly. After a while I caught my first cutthroat, which was followed by several others as I got used to their lightning fast strikes.

A Rio Grande Cutthroat

Me working a productive stretch of water

 

I continued fishing until we were driven from the stream by a thunderstorm, at which point we got back on the road and ended up finding a place to camp outside of Durango, Colorado.

 

Day 7: Sunday August 6th 2006: The combination a symphony of insects and thunderstorms made for a rough night of sleep, and when we finally got up it was back on the road for an uneventful day of driving. We drove through Colorado and Utah and along the way decided that we had time to try to go after one more type of fish - the Humboldt Cutthroat. With that our destination was clear and ended the day in the small casino town of Wendover, Nevada. While in Wendover, I finalized my plans for the next day's fishing and we took full advantage of the pool and buffet at the hotel where we stayed the night.

Breaking camp in Colorado for a long day on the road

Looking out toward Wendover, Nevada and the Bonneville salt flats

Day 8: Monday August 7th 2006: We got up in the morning and headed along I-80 through the desert, turning north at Elko to search for some Humboldt Cutthroat. We than followed the North Fork of the Humboldt River up to a forest service road leading to a small tributary that was said to hold healthy population of these Cutthroat. However, not to far up the road we ran into a group of ranchers that were driving to cattle up the road and had to wait for them to pass. While we waited, I rigged up my fly rod with the Royal PMX and Copper John step up that had already proved itself so effective on the rest of the trip.

The Humboldt National Forest

Once the cattle had passed I headed down to the creek and on my second cast hooked a Cutthroat, which unfortunately shook loose before I could get it in. A little further upstream I found a small hole and rose a 14" Cutthroat, but it too shook loose. Above this pool, the stream split into a number of side channels and was impossible to fish due to lack of water and a barrier of riparian vegetation. Blocked from continuing upstream I turned around and headed back the way I came. Just below where I had started out, I found an nice little channel with a Cutthroat sitting in the middle actively feeding on insects floating by. I made cast which landed well above the fish and slightly to his right and watched as he slowly cruised over to intercept my fly. There wasn't going to be any mistakes this time, and I landed my first Humboldt Cutthroat. Not far below where I caught this fish the stream once again flowed into an impenetrable wall of vegetation, so I decided to head back out the way I came to look for another way downstream.

A Humboldt Cutthroat

Once back where I had started, I found a little game trail leading downstream to an open section of the creek. This part of the stream had been absolutely ravaged by cattle, which had caved in the banks causing the creek to cut itself a small canyon. However, I found a nice pool that had been created by a bank cave in at the upstream end of the canyon and started fishing. The water in the pool was extremely off color, so I changed my tactics and switched to a heavy beadhead Zug Bug which I fished like a jig. The method proved to be very effective and within short order I had caught a couple more Cutthroat.

Erosion caused cattle on the Humboldt Cutthroat stream 

After a few Humboldts out of the hole, I decided to head back to the car so that we could me it home by the end of the day. The rest of the day was spent driving and we didn't get home until 10:30 PM after an extremely successful trip. All in all, I caught 10 types of trout on the trip, including five subspecies of Cutthroat that I hadn't caught before, making it an extremely rewarding once in a lifetime opportunity.