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 3: Blue lining for Green River Cutthroat

Saturday August 26th:  While I had been successful at finding the Hayden Creek Cutthroat in the morning, the first stream not producing any fish had certainly put me behind schedule and I had many more miles to cover on the day (for the previous post see here). 

My next target was set on the Green River Cutthroat (also known as blue lineage Colorado River Cutthroat) in the Yampa watershed of northern Colorado. This fish had been a late addition to the trip as it wasn't particularly close to any of the others I was targeting, but during my research, I stumbled across a relatively large watershed that was supposed to have pure strain fish that still expressed a migratory life history. This really caught my interest as fluvial (river migratory) populations of Green River Cutthroat have become quite rare in Colorado and can produce some exceptionally nice fish. However, digging in further I could find almost nothing else out about the watershed - nothing on the fishing and not even any trail reports on the hike in. Normally this might make me redirect my efforts towards a more well known or better documented population, but my gut told me that this stream was a sleeper and I stuck to it. 

My intention had been to reach the stream by 2:00 PM, but after the morning delays and cutting across half the state I didn’t pull into the trailhead until a little after 4:00 PM. Luckily, the drive had been smooth, the weather was great and the parking lot at the trailhead was completely empty.

The the valley at the trailhead

With my rod still rigged from the morning, it only took me a few moments to get all my gear together and hit the trail. Before starting the hike, I signed in at the trailhead log book, and it was pretty clear why there was so little information on this area, as the last group of hikers had been here over a week prior and less than a dozen people had visited all summer. 

The trail in through the lush Aspen meadows

Compared to other parts of the state that were starting to show signs of a long summer, it was amazing just how green and lush everything was in this remote corner of the Rockies. The trail wove through meadows and groves of Aspens as it slowly gained elevation and progressed up the valley towards the stream I was looking to fish. 

Serviceberries along the trail

With all the greenery, I wasn't too surprised when I noticed ripe serviceberries, thimbleberries and raspberries along the trail, which made for a sweet snack as I caught my breath after a particularly steep muddy stretch of trail. Despite how bountiful the surroundings were, I saw few signs of wildlife, with the exception of a small woodpecker working an old Aspen tree.

A woodpecker working a dead Aspen

With the limited daylight, I wasn't hiking in too far and just over a mile in from the trailhead I spotted a rough side trail the looked like it headed for the river and started following. After just a few yards into the bushes, the trail faded away, but I decided to push on and cut my own course towards the stream. The stretch of water that I was angling for was just a flat just upstream of a small canyon, that had looked particularly good from the satellite imagery but I emerged from the woods I had apparently cut in too early and found myself standing on a cliff fifty feet above the water. Luckily, not far upstream I could see the flat I was heading for after a little more bush whacking I found an incline where I could scramble and slide down to the water.

A meadow stretch on the stream

When I reached the stream, it was still running quite fast, with little holding water, but just a couple of corners upstream it leveled off a bit as it followed through a beautiful meadow reach. I slowly worked my way upstream casting towards the far bank hoping to find a Cutthroat looking for some terrestrials, but didn't find anything until I reached the top of the run. The riffle at the top of the run looked particularly fishy and after a half dozen drifts, my dry shot under as I hooked into a decent trout on my dropper. This trout put a good bend in my 1WT and got in a few nice jumps before it finally tired and I slid the beautiful native Cutthroat into the net.

First fish on the stream, a beautiful Green River Cutthroat

After releasing that first fish, I couldn't find any more willing takers in the riffle, but just upstream in a side channel I rose another fish, but this time instead of a Cutthroat it was small Brook Trout. While I had hoped that this stream would only hold native Green River Cutthroat, given the size of the stream and the extensive stocking history of Brook Trout across Colorado, I wasn't too surprised to find them here as well. While certainly a beautiful fish, Brook Trout are also a fierce competitor of native Cutthroat Trout and cast doubt on the future persistence of Cutthroat across much of their range.

Invasive Brook Trout, beautiful fish, but not what I wanted to see

With light already starting to fade, I pushed on upstream and soon came to an excellent looking pool. I started by prospecting the inside seam, which seemed oddly devoid of life but as I worked my fly into the slower water I rose a fish and after a quick battle I landed another smaller Cutthroat.

Another Green River Cutthroat

Looking upstream towards a particularly productive piece of water

As I was releasing my first fish from the hole, I watched another fish that appeared to be larger rise right next to a log sticking out of the water. I noted this for my next cast and sure enough as my fly drifted by the log a nice trout rose to meet it. This was a decent sized trout and as soon as I set the hook my 1WT doubled over and shortly after a 14" - 15” trout came shooting out of the water. The fish was largely in control of the fight and chose to run downstream into the next stretch of flat water, but after a few minutes it finally started to tire and I was able to slide it into the net. This fish was exactly what I had been looking for, a beautiful brightly colored clearly migratory Green River Cutthroat.

Surely the fish of the day, a brightly colored male fluvial Cutthroat

After releasing the big Cutthroat, the hole went on to produce another half dozen Cutthroat and a couple Brook Trout before things turned off and it was time to push on further upstream.

Another Brookie that ended up being my biggest of the day

As I worked my way upstream, each piece of quality holding water seemed to hold a fish and fortunately the Cutthroat still seemed to be the dominant fish in the stream, out number the brook trout approximately 3 to 1. After covering about a half mile of water the sun was starting to get low in the sky and when I came to a spot with a clearing that would provide easy access to the trail I decided to fish one last run before heading out.

The last spot of the day - note the seam behind the log

This last pool had a nice back eddy behind a log and on my first cast I watched a nice Cutthroat materialize from the depths and slide over to grab my dropper. Once hooked, the fish immediately headed for the log, but fortunately did not hang up and when it came back downstream I was ready with the net. This was another gorgeous Green River Cutthroat, with vibrant yellows and an orange belly, that the low light the pictures just didn’t do justice. 

A great fish to end the day on

While I figured that this fish was likely the sole inhabitant of the pool, I had to verify it with several more casts before finally calling it quits and heading for the clearing. The clearing ended up being a much more challenging route back to the trail than I had expected, as it was extremely steep, muddy below the vegetation and was littered with dense patches of stinging nettles. However, after several minutes of hard scrambling, sliding and with my legs burning from nettles I finally reached the top and was back on the trail again.

On the trail again

The hike out was all downhill making it a breeze and before I knew it I was back at the trailhead again. With my next spot under two hours away, I opted to chase the last bit of daylight hit the road once again to reach my next spot by nightfall.

Evening over the Flattops of northern Colorado

Finger Rock on the drive towards the next stream

As the last light of the day was fading, I finally turned off the highway and made my way towards my next stream - a meandering meadow creek that was reported to hold 151 to 400 Colorado River Cutthroat (green lineage) per mile. The satellite imagery made it look like this this stream was going to be a ton of fun with hoppers, but as it was pitch dark by the time I arrived that would have to wait for the next day to scout it out and instead I focused my attention on setting up a quick camp for the night.

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.

Finishing up the Cutt Slam

About a month ago my sister invited me to join her on a trip to eastern Idaho to visit her husband's family. This area is one of my favorite parts of the to world, so of course I jumped at the opportunity. The trip also prompted me to decided to finish up the Wyoming Cutt Slam, in which anglers have to catch four of Wyoming's native Cutthroat Trout in their native streams. Back in 2006, I had fished in Wyoming and caught three types of it's native Cutthroat, so I just needed one more to finish it up. That last fish was the Green River strain of the Colorado River Cutthroat, which is native to central Wyoming, only a few hours from where we were staying. 

Day 1: Saturday, September 27th 2008: The entire first day of the trip was spent making the 13 hour drive to Driggs, Idaho. Not much exciting happened except for some issues with our hotel reservation, which ended up being at a place that Expedia was offering reservations for but wasn't actually open during the off-season. Once we got things cleared up with Expedia, we ended up at a Best Western which worked out alright. 

Day 2: Sunday, September September 28th 2008: My sister and I took the day to check out the area (including a couple hours for fishing), which is located just on the slightly less famous western side of the Teton Mountains. We grabbed some lunch at in Victor, ID, which happened to have some of the best Potato soup that I have ever had. After this, we ran down to the Teton River where I tried my luck fishing for a little bit.

The Teton River

Essentially the Teton River in the Driggs area is a huge spring creek with a strong population of Yellowstone Cutthroat, a few Brook Trout and some Mountain Whitefish. The only problem is that the river gets a lot of attention from other fisherman. Needless to say the fish were extremely picky and I didn't have much luck. The next place that we went to check out was the Grand Targhee Ski Resort, which is just outside of town. Even though it was way to early to think about snowboarding this place looked like it would be a fun slope, and the fall colors in the Tetons were awesome.

Fall colors at Grand Targhee

From here I went to try a little fishing at a local stream. When I first walked up to the creek I spooked a trout, but this was also the only fish that I saw. Even though the fishing tough, the scenery was great, so I still had a great time.

The creek

Day 3: Monday September 29th 2008: Today I had a full to devote to fishing, so I headed up to a small stream in the Tetons to see if I could find any Yellowstone Cutthroat. I arrived at the trail to the creek little after 9:00 AM and started hiking.

 

The wilderness area boundary

I reached the creek about a 1/4 mile up the trail, and rigged up my rod with a size 12 Royal PMX and Copper John dropper. The creek was a classical medium gradient mountain stream, consisting of riffles, runs and a few pools and pieces of pocket water every once and a while. I started systematically covering the water and working my way upstream, but after a half an hour I still hadn't had any grabs. I finally came to a small pool where a few fish were holding, but when I got closer wasn't to happy to notice that they were all Brook Trout. Outside their native range Brook Trout generally outcompete other trout (especially Cutthroat), so they have been a big problem to the continued existence of many populations of native trout. Even so, I was here so I might as well fish for them, and just upstream of the pool I rose one, but lost it. I continued working my way upstream, without any further grabs until I came to a small piece of pocket water where I saw a fish rise. I made my cast and the fish eagerly ate my dry fly. The fish fought in the typical Brook Trout fashion, going deep and doing a bit of thrashing around but little else.

Even though they aren't native to the west, Brook Trout are an extremely beautiful fish

The creek

After catching my first one, I started noticing a few more Brookies here and there, but they are all extremely spooky so I had to be very careful not to scare them when I approached promising looking water. This often meant that I had to hide behind something or make an extremely long cast to get a response from the fish. The sneaky approach tactic worked great though, and I started hooking up and catching Brook Trout left and right, but still no Cutthroat.

A spawning pair of Brook Trout

About a mile upstream from where I started, the creek began to change in character, having a much steeper gradient and consisting of more pools and pocket water. It was just at the beginning of this high gradient section that I finally hooked a fish that didn't act like the typical Brook Trout. Instead it shot strait out of they water, then followed up with several more jumps and when I brought it to the net it ended up being a beautiful little native Yellow Cutthroat.

My first Yellowstone cutthroat from the stream

After the first one, the amount of Cutthroat drastically increased, although Brook Trout still seemed to outnumber them about 3:1. If I had to chose a favorite type of water to fish for trout it would probably small stream pocket water, so I felt like I was in my element here. Just about every pool that I came held at least one fish, and as I progressed further upstream, the Tetons began to come into view, really adding to the experience. After a while I came to a perfect looking pool with a small water fall at its head that just screamed trout. I hid behind a large boulder and made a short cast upstream, only to watch a "monster" Cutthroat materialize from the depths, and slowly but confidently rise to the surface to inhale my dry fly. The fish turned, and I set the hook and it was fish on. Even though the Cutthroat put up a valiant effort and a good bend in my fly rod, it really didn't have anywhere to go and I brought it to the net after a short fight. Against the basket of my net I figure that the fish was about 14", which was extremely impressive for the surroundings that he was living in.

My big Cutthroat

The pool where the Cutthroat came from

A few pools above where I got the big Cutthroat, I got a slightly smaller but still impressive sized Brook Trout. However, not to far above where I caught this big Brookie, the stream began to level off again and I decided that I had probably fished enough for one day so I made my way to the trail and hiked back out to the car.

The big Brook Trout

Looking upstream toward the Tetons

That evening after fishing, my sister and I joined her husband's cousin on a horseback ride to a small lake in the mountains, which was a lot of fun and a new experience for me. 

Day 4: Tuesday September 30th 2008: I spent the day with my sister going to meet her husband's family. No fishing, but we got some killer Indian Tacos at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation with her relatives for lunch. After visiting the family, we left Idaho behind and headed over to Jackson, WY for the next couple of days. 

Day 5: Wednesday October 1st 2008: This was my day to see if I could finish up the Wyoming Cutt Slam by catching some Green River strain Colorado River Cutthroat. Prior to leaving a native trout buddy Dave B. had pointed me in the right direction for a decent stream, so I got up early to make the long drive over to the Green River drainage. Even though it had been nice every day, the mornings showed signs that fall was in progress, and the temperature was 25 degrees when I left Jackson in the morning. Once in the Green River valley, it became evident that the Pronghorn Antelope were making their annual migration to their overwintering grounds, as every open field had 10-20 antelope in it. About 8:00 AM I turned off on the road to the creek and covered the 30 miles of dirt road to finally reach my destination, a broad valley tucked back in the Wyoming Range.

The creek valley

One couldn't ask for a more perfect little trout stream, and besides a few hunters driving up and down the valley, I had the place to myself. This was a stereotypical little meadow stream, that lazily flowed through the valley doing a series of perfect U turns with a few beaver ponds thrown in here and there. I hit the water using my ever dependable Royal PMX and Copper John dropper set up and caught a fish almost right away.

A Green River Cutthroat

However, after this initial fish the fishing unfortunately slowed down a bit and even though I cast to every likely looking spot, I didn't find anymore fish for the next 1/4 mile upstream. It seemed as though the combination of the cold morning air and the fish moving to more suitable over-wintering water may have been working against me. I finally found some fish at a where riffle came into a deep pool as the creek turned a corner. The first fish I got was a Cutthroat, but the second was something unexpected; a small Mountain Whitefish. While Whitefish don't have the best reputation with fly fisherman and the one that I caught was tiny, I was pretty happy about my catch as it was a first for me.

The little Mountain Whitefish

A beaver pond on the creek

After this, the fishing continued to improve and I caught several more Cutthroat as I worked my way upstream. After covering about a mile of the stream, I put a Wooly Bugger and began working my way back downstream. In one of the pools that I came to I caught a small Brook Trout while stripping the Wooly Bugger in, which was an unwelcomed sight in this beautiful little Cutthroat stream. Since this was the only Brook Trout that I saw, it can only be hoped that they will not establish themselves in this creek. On the next cast I got one of my better Cutthroat from the creek, then made way back to the car wishing that I had more time to spend in the area.

A Green River Cutthroat caught on a Wooly Bugger

I got back to Jackson around 3:00pm and my sister and I wandered around town for a while to check out the shops and sights. Next we ran up to Teton National Park and drove around for a bit doing some wildlife viewing and sight seeing. While there, we saw our first moose, which was exciting even though our view was pretty obstructed by some willows that it was laying behind. After going up to the Tetons, went back to Jackson where we got some Sushi for dinner at a little restaurant called Nekai. The Rocky Mountains and good sushi do not seem like something that would go together, but this place was excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

A few Elk in Teton National Park

Day 6: Thursday October 2nd 2008: Today we would begin working our way back home. My sister had never been to Yellowstone, so we decided to drive though park on the way back. While driving through the Tetons, we saw four more moose, which was really cool. It is kind of crazy though, as I have been to the Yellowstone area seven other times and this was the first trip that I had seen any moose on and I end up seeing five of them...

A Moose from across the Snake River

October is a great time to visit Yellowstone, as the crowds have died down, the animals are out and the trees are in their fall colors. The first stop was at Old Faithful, and our timing couldn't have been better as the geyser went off right as we got to the viewing area.

Old Faithful

From here we went up to a hot spring area along the Firehole River and did a bit of hiking, before heading up to Mammoth and out the north entrance of the park. After leaving the park, the rest of the day was spent crossing Montana, and we ended up making it to Coeur d' Alene Idaho where we stayed for the night. 

The Firehole River in the hot springs area

A Bison in Yellowstone

Day 7: Friday, October 3rd 2008: We spent a little bit of time in Coeur d' Alene, then headed back home to Washington. Overall it was an awesome trip, and felt great to just get away for a while. Beyond that, the fishing was great and I managed to catch three native salmonids including one new one, plus I finished of the Wyoming Cutt Slam.