Westslope Cutthroat of the South Cascades

After my trip up to the Methow drainage after Westslope Cutthroat in the North Cascades in Washington, I wanted hunt down some Westslope Cutthroat in the Southern Cascades of Washington this summer as well. In particular, I was hoping to find some fluvial Westslopes. One thing I strive to do on my website is represent as much of the diversity as possible in each variety of trout, such as the different life history forms. The fluvial life history forms are also known as riverine migrants and are known for making concerted migrations throughout larger river systems as well as typically reaching much larger sizes than stream resident forms. The difference in the two life history trajectories also typically results in slightly different phenotypic traits, which is why I was hoping to document the fluvial life history.

After a bit of research, I landed on a moderate sized stream that I had fished way back in 2006, but at that point the stream was dominated by small Columbia Basin Redband Trout, with Westslopes only being a rarity. Since that point, catch and release regulations have been adopted in parts of the watershed and supposedly the Cutthroat population had responded very well to the new regulations. When I mentioned my plans to my neighbor Dyllon, he was interested in joining me, so set a date on the calendar and made plans for the trip.

The day of the trip we were on the road by 5:30 AM and made good time getting over to the east side of the Cascades. As we drove up the road once we hit the stream, we were both shocked with the number of anglers out already. I had specifically chosen a stretch as it appeared to have a good concentration of pools based on satellite imagery hoping that it might hold a few large Cutthroat and luckily it was still free of anglers. . While the morning was extremely chilly, we opted to wet wade as the clear skies promised that it would be quite hot by the afternoon. Dyllon opted for a streamer setup, while I brought, my 2WT with a dry/dropper and my 6wt with a double nymph rig. Once we were rigged up, it was time to get on the water.

Dyllon took to the river first and had a few good grabs in the first hole, but it wasn't until we got to the next riffle upstream that we landed any fish. I opted for the nymph rig and after a couple casts got a good take and after a quick battle landed a beautiful fluvial Westslope Cutthroat on my October Caddis nymph.

A beautiful orange-bellied Westslope Cutthroat Trout

After I got my Westslope, Dyllon got a nice Redband on his streamer and I picked up a couple small trout on my dry at the head of the riffle before we moved further upstream. The next stretch of the stream was a mix of riffle and pocket water habitat and turned out to be the most productive of the day. With the abundance of pocket water I grabbed my 2WT and started working up the run. The fishing was fast and furious with a fish on almost every casts and two Cutthroat (one on the dry and one on the dropper) on one of the casts. The recovery of the Westslope Cutthroat population was on full display in the section of river, as about 75% of the fish we encountered were Cutthroat. Despite the predominance of Cutthroat, it still was a mystery what would grab on each cast, and I was surprised by a couple of Chinook Salmon parr on dries in addition to the Redbands and Cutthroat.

A healthy wild Chinook Salmon parr

Dyllon managed to get a few decent fish up to 12" and continued upstream on ahead of me. Just as Dyllon was vanishing from sight I landed a nice cast along a boulder on the far bank and saw a big flash as a nice trout grabbed my dropper. I got a solid hookset and 2WT was completely doubled over by the powerful fish. The trout stayed deep and made a number of runs before I was finally able to net a beautiful 17" fluvial Westslope Cutthroat.

A beautiful fluvial Westslope Cutthroat Trout

The big Cutthroat managed to thoroughly put down the run, prompting me to continue moving upstream. The water for the next 1/4 mile was predominately pocket or shallow riffle water and most likely looking spots seem to produce a fish on my dry/ dropper rig.

The stream

I linked up with Dyllon at a series of deep pools, where it was time to switch back to my nymph set up. The most productive of these pools was quite deep and required a long drift to get to where the fish were holding. This resulted in a low take to hook up ratio, but by being persistent I was rewarded with some nice Cutthroat and a beautiful Columbia Basin Redband.

A beautiful native Columbia Basin Redband Trout

After the deep nymphing hole, we found one more productive run before we started to run into the afternoon innertube and swimmer hatch and decided to relocate. We headed downstream to where a few major tributaries came together to try our luck in some larger water. Right off the bat we found a nice run and I dredged up a beautiful 11" Westslope on my October Caddis nymph, which was definitely a good sign. After that first Cutthroat, the fishing slowed down considerably. 

The second river

We finally found some more good water about a 1/4 mile upstream, where both Dyllon and I managed to get into some more fish. For me it was another Columbia Basin Redband and a few smaller Cutthroat on my nymph rig, but Dyllon got the real surprise when he hooked into a nice fish on the streamer. I saw him hook into it from downstream and was able to reach him just in time to net a beautiful Bull Trout for him. Bull Trout are quite rare in this watershed making this a very special catch. We took extra care handling this beautiful fish and it was a joy to watch it glide back into the depths after being released.

Dyllon's surprise Bull Trout

We covered a bit more water, but didn't find much more in the way of fish and with temperatures reaching their peak for the day we both decided to call it a day. After encountering 4 native species and finding an amazing Westslope Cutthroat fishery I am already looking forward to my next trip to the east slope of the Cascade Mountains.

Rapid Fire Westslope Cutthroat Trip: Part 2

 Day 3: Saturday July 3rd 2021:  With three subspecies of Cutthroat down, we were up early and on the road again headed into the Salmon River country of Idaho. While we certainly could have tried the big water of the Salmon River, instead we were heading for a small stream that had come highly recommended from a friend of mine. According to him, he had caught Salmon River Westslopes, Columbia Basin Redbands and Interior Bull Trout all in this stream. It took us a few hours to reach the stream and I decided that we would start upstream of the road crossing. Almost as soon we stepped out of the car, we were mobbed by swarm of deer flies. These things were persistent too and even DEET, which I rarely resort too didn’t do the trick. Despite the onslaught of flies, we geared up and headed to the water. The stream here was high gradient pocket water and extremely brushy, but it only took a few casts to rise a little cutthroat and like that the Salmon River Westslope was checked off the list. A few minutes later Derek got one too. After trudging a a couple hundred yards through the steep brushy terrain, I found a nice deeper pocket. My first few casts through the typical strike zones didn’t produce, but when I let the fly drift a bit further back a nice fish rose. After a quick battle, I brought this fish in and found that I had a Bull Trout and not a Cutthroat in the net. 

A Salmon River Westslope Cutthroat

A beautiful dry fly caught Bull Trout

The brushy stream

Despite finding a few fish on the way upstream, the going was extremely tough so we made the call to relocate downstream about a mile to a more open meadow stretch that we had passed. I did pop into a few pockets we had walked by on the way upstream and managed to get three more Cutthroat before getting back to the car and relocating.

Just as before, once we got back out of the car, the flies we at us again. The first bit of the stream was lined with dense willows not particularly productive, but we did pick up a couple more cutthroat in the deeper pockets. However, before long the stream braided and the meadow opened up and the holding water greatly improved. 

Some more promising water

As I headed upstream, I caught a couple more small Bull Trout and rose a couple others. The last hole that I came too ended up being the best. First cast in I got a decent Cutthroat in a pocket in the tailout. Next cast I got a Columbia Basin Redband a little upstream of the Cutthroat. On my next cast I landed my fly next to some woody debris and got a nice fish to rise my fly. When the fish jumped a couple times I could see it was a nice about 14” Bull Trout. Just before I netted this fish another slightly smaller Bull Trout shot out of nowhere and attacked the one I was fighting, but I was able to put mine out of the way and land it a couple seconds later. Not sure if I have ever managed the feat of landing three different native species on three casts before!

Cast #1 - Salmon River Westslope Cutthroat

Cast # 2- Columbia Basin Redband

Cast # 3 - Interior Bull Trout

After releasing this fish, I made a few more casts in the head of the pool and low and behold out came the other Bull Trout and grabbed my dry fly as well. After a short battle with a few good jumps I was able to bring the about 13” Bull Trout to the net.

After that fish, we were done with the biting flies had to be on the road again headed for the Ruby River Valley in Montana. If it hadn’t been for the biting flies, this stream would have been one of my favorites of the trip, as catching three species of native trout on three casts is just not something that one usually finds when small stream fishing.

Our next target was the Missouri River Westslope Cutthroat, has been the most heavily impacted Westslope subspecies and was the one I was the most worried about finding. In addition we were also hoping to find some fluvial Arctic Grayling in the Ruby River, one of the last place to hold them in the lower 48 states. Unfortunately, this next stretch of trip is where we started to hit some hiccups. The first was that the road to the Westslope Cutthroat stream I had planned on fishing was gated off and there was no way to get into it. I did have another stream planned for Missouri River Westslope for the next day so this wasn’t the end of the world. With that, we decided to head to the campground we planned on staying at and fish the Ruby River in that area. This campground left a lot to be desired, first we got one of the last spots and there really was no good spot for a tent and the picnic tables were pretty busted up. The bigger issue to me was that the rest of the campground was full of RVs and car top campers, with every one of them seeming to find it necessary to run their loud generators nonstop. We decided that we would hold off setting up camp and see what the river had to offer.

Storm clouds moving through

Our first try at fishing only lasted 20 minutes until a thunderstorm pushed us off the river. After waiting it out in the car for another 45 minutes, the weather finally cleared enough for us to get on the river. As Grayling have smaller mouths than trout, I brought both a dry fly and nymphing rod with me. The dry fly was the first to get any action and I landed a little Westslope with some slight hybrid traits. The next few fish were also cutbows. Finally I found a deeper hole and hooked into something with the right body shape of a Grayling on the nymph rig, but when I landed it turned out to be a Whitefish.

Cutbows galore

A Ruby River Whitefish

While I had been fishing here, Derek had gone upstream and found a pod of rising fish, but was having trouble hooking up. When he did finally hook up, we found out why as it was another Whitefish. I also picked up a Whitefish here, before we continued upstream. The character of the river changed above here, opening up into a classic meadow stream with lots of cutbanks, that would have fit in well in Yellowstone. However, the fishing didn’t change and it was pretty much 6-8” cutbows and a handful of Whitefish, but no Grayling. As such after covering a mile or so of the river we headed back to the car.

The fishing may not have been what we hoped, but the scenery was amazing! 

Sunset over the valley

At this point, the sky was threatening to bust loose with another thunderstorm again and with our subpar campsite and loud neighbors we decided to go ahead and head for our next spot. As we were already getting close to dusk, we knew this was going to be a night drive followed by sleeping in the car, but so be it. When we arrived at the next stream at 10pm, the thunderstorm had followed us and as such it looked like sleeping in the car it was.

Day 4: Sunday July 4th 2021: After a rough night of sleep in the car, we woke up at day break and drove up to a meadow stretch of the stream. The stream was pretty small here and when we arrived, there was a herd of cattle grazing along the banks, for whatever reason when we walked out to check out the creek these cows decided they wanted to follow us and back to the car. As we still needed to rig up, it was quite cold out still and we didn’t really want to to rig up surrounded by cows we waited a few minutes in the car for them to clear out. Before moving on, for what ever reason one got in a head butting contest with my back bumper, but before long it was time to get fishing. 

Our cattle friends

It didn’t take long to find fish, but unfortunately every single one of them was a Brook Trout. After covering a good length of the creek, I decided it was time to scoot over to our second backup creek. This next creek was located one watershed over and with luck we would be able to find ourselves a few Cutthroat there.

A beautiful stream, but no Cutthroat...

Brook Trout - the bane of small stream Cutthroat

When we arrived at this creek, the deer flies that had plagued us in Idaho were back in force and definitely made the experience less enjoyable. Where we started the creek was extremely brushy but had decent holding water and within a few casts I had hooked into a trout. However, just like the last stream, it was a Brook Trout. At this point I was starting to get worried about getting the Missouri River Westslope on this trip, especially when the next few fish were also brookies. However, when I came around a bend and spotted what looked to be a trout and not a char sitting in a tailout, I was given a bit of hope. One the next cast, the fish rose to my fly and when I slide the fish into the net, I was a beautiful Westslope Cutthroat! In the next hole upstream, I was also pleased to find another slightly larger Missouri River Westslope.

The elusive Missouri River Westslope Cutthroat

Unfortunately, this trend did not continue, the ratio of Brook Trout to Cutthroat was probably 10 to 1, making it challenging to catch many more cutties. Despite this the stream was certainly beautiful and the fishing was certainly good, even if we were catching the wrong fish. However, as we still needed to make it to our next spot in Idaho in time to fish and set up camp before dark we had to hit the road again. Hopefully, the next spot would treat us better on the Cutthroat front than the last few had.

A beautiful stream, just too many brookies

For our next spot, we were aiming to find some North Fork Clearwater River Westslope Cutthroat. These were the last new subspecies that were we after, and as the rivers in Idaho had treated us well so far, I had high hopes for this one as well. After several our hours of driving through wide open Big Sky county of Montana, we found ourselves once again winding up a dusty road over the Bitteroots and into Idaho. As we pulled into the campground, our timing couldn’t have been better as several campers were from the 4th of July crowd were just pulling out and had left the best campsite vacant. This time we opted to set up camp first and fish afterwards. However, after I had gotten my first couple tasks done I couldn’t help but sneak a cast or two while standing on the bank in the campsite. These casts were rewarded immediately with a couple smallish Cutthroat and like that, mission accomplished with all five new subspecies caught. Feeling satisfied, I finished setting up and told Derek he should try the same spot. While I found a couple smallish Cutthroat, Derek managed to landed a beautiful 14” right the standing in camp.

The river at our campsite

With a little taste of the river and camp a set up, Derek and I were ready to really explore the river. I had spotted a nice hole just downstream on the other side of the river and opted to head there, while Derek went upstream.

On my way across the river, I picked up a few more small Cutthroat and one Redband in the the pocket water before reaching the hole I was heading to. This spot looked just as good up close as it did from the other side of the river, with a nice seam right down the middle. The first few casts didn’t get any attention, but once I got to the prime water, I got a good drift and rose and hooked into a nice fish. This fish had some size and really made me work for it on my 2WT with several good runs before it finally slid into the net.

A beautiful NF Clearwater Westslope Cutthroat

A couple cast after getting this fish I rose another nice sized Cutthroat, but after briefly hooking up, it popped loose. After this fish, the hole completely shut off, so I headed upstream to catch up with Derek. Derek had managed to find a few Cutthroat on his way upstream and together we moved upstream to a nice hole along a cliff face. Derek started off by a big boulder in the middle of the hole, while I started at the top. On my first cast, a big fish rose on took my Royal PMX and I was again hooked into a nice Cutthroat, however after fighting it for a minute, I felt a pop and the fish was gone and so was my fly. This had been a big fish so I was definitely bummed. At this point, a solid hatch of Green Drakes, PMDs and caddis was starting to get going and Derek opted for a Green Drake pattern and a couple casts later he got himself a nice Cutthroat that was perhaps 15". It was my turn next and a Green Drake also was the ticket for me and produced another nice Cutthroat, this time at about 16". 

Derek's Cutthroat

Unfortunately, at this point what had been a perfect evening of fishing took a bit of a sour turn and while neither of us were quite sure how it happened, my 4wt Sage SLT rod which Derek had been using completely shattered on its second section. While this wasn't the end of the word as we had a couple other rods with us, this rod has been on a lot of adventures and I am really crossing my fingers that Sage is able to replace the broken sections as I love this rod. After the rod, broke, I grabbed it from Derek and took it up to the rock my 5wt nymph rod was hanging out on to swap them out. While I was re-rigging the 5wt for dry fly fishing a bug landed on my leg and when I looked down I noted that it was a gray crane fly. Beyond that, when I looked at the base of the rock, there were hundreds of crane flies buzzing around. As luck would have it, prior to the trip and Dyllon had told me that the previous year they had run into a crane fly hatch in Montana but had no flies to match them. Due to this him and I had tied up several prior to leaving on our respective trips and it looked like it was time for me to see if this was going to pay off or not. 

After passing the 5wt off to Derek, I swapped out my fly for a crane fly and tried the top of the hole while Derek tried the middle again. After a few casts Derek rose and lost a fish and we swapped locations. Just a couple casts later, a big Cutthroat jumped out of the water and took my fly down from the top. This fish elicited a rare "HOLY CRAP" from me due more to the ferocity of the take and the thickness of the fish than anything. This fish appeared to know what it was doing and really made me work for it, but after several minutes of fighting it finally tired and I was able to net it. Interestingly when I looked at the fish in the net, there was the fly that I had broken off several fish ago! I seemed I had gotten him afterall.

Me with a solid Cutthroat

At this point it was getting close to dinner time and after the next few casts failed to get anyone's attention, Derek and I opted to head back to camp and grab dinner. However, once back a camp I decided that I needed to take one more shot at the fish I had lost in the hole on the other side of the river. I was glad that I did so as just a couple casts in, a Green Drake rose a nice Cutthroat and I landed my last NF Clearwater Westslope Cutthroat of the day, a 15" beauty. With that last fish, we settled in to camp, had a nice taco dinner for our last night and bundled up for what proved to be one chilly night.

Day 5: Monday July 5th 2021: After a much colder night than the rest of the trip, I was eager to get up and start moving a get a nice cup of hot breakfast tea while I was at it. Today was going be a long day of driving, but I was hoping to round out the Westslope Cutthroat with on last stop for some Neoboreal Westslope Cutthroat. After crossing back in to Montana, we found a likely looking spot on the stream on the other of the pass and tried our luck. Derek took a run just upstream of where we parked, while I opted for a bush whack to the next pool up. Fishing in this pool proved to be fast and furious and within a half hour I had caught around 8 Cutthroat and headed back downstream. Derek had also had decent luck while I was upstream and had gotten a few Cutthroat as well as one Brook Trout. After only an hour stop, we had our final species of the trip checked off it was time to call the trip a wrap. 

Our final stream of the trip

A small stream Neoboreal Westslope Cutthroat

Overall the drive back was pretty smooth, we hit some 4th of July weekend traffic on the eastside of Spokane and another slow down on the westside of Spokane due to a forest fire raging a couple miles south of I-90, but made it back to Yakima by 3pm. After dropping Derek off, I was forced to the US 12 home instead of I-90, which seemed to be gridlocked due to the 4th crowd, but this way was more scenic and relaxing anyways and I made it home shortly after 7pm. This was an absolutely amazing trip and one that I will not soon forget! There are several streams that I am definitely hoping to revisit down the road when I have a bit more time as the fishing was hard to beat. The final tally was 11 varieties of salmonids; 7 subspecies of Westslope Cutthroat, Interior Bull Trout, Columbia Basin Redband, Mountain Whitefish and Brook Trout. Not to bad for a 5 day road trip!

High Desert Steel

Over the last few decades the decline of anadromous fish throughout the Columbia River drainage has been a major cause for concern. Some stocks are doing better than others, but no doubt all have experienced declines. While the 1990's saw many of these stocks at their breaking point, today some have started to recover and in some instances even stabilize. Over the past weekend Blake and I made our way east of the Cascade Mountains to visit one such high desert fishery.

We made our way out of town on Thursday, but got a later start than we were hoping for, although we still managed to make it to the river with an hour to spare before dark. So naturally we strung up the rods and hit the water right away. We decided that with time running short we would just swing flies, so I put on an October Caddis pattern and started fishing. After about 20 minutes of casting and swinging flies my peaceful evening was interrupted by a strong tug on the end of my line nearly ripping my rod out of my hand. I instinctively set on the resistance and was fast into a strong fish. The fish gave me a bit of a dogged fight, doing a bit of the thrashing on the surface, but mostly holding to deeper water and doing its best to test the drag on my reel. However, this strategy didn't payoff for this fish and within a few minutes I was sliding her up into the shallows.

My first Redband Steelhead and my first landed steelhead on the swing

October Caddis.... Yummy...

For the rest of the evening we didn't have as much as another bump, but with a steelhead under my belt already things were off to a good start and any pressure there was to catch a fish was long gone.

The next morning we were on the water just as the sun was breaking over the horizon and figured that with conditions right for swinging flies we would start with that. However, after a couple of hours of swinging with only a few subtle taps, we decided to switch gears and go with some dead drifted nymphs. Blake went with his switch rod while I went with my 9'6" 6wt and a double stonefly set up.

It didn't take to long for Blake to break the morning skunk, with a little Chinook Salmon the decided a small stone fly was looking mighty tasty.

Blake's Chinook

My turn was next, but this time it was a Steelhead on the end of my line. One thing with indicator nymph fishing is that you never quite know what you are going to hook into and I just remember that my first thought upon seeing this 10+lb bruiser jump was "oh great what am I going to do with this!" The fish was more than happy to give me a run for my money too, spending as much time tail walking as in the water and heading straight into my backing. However, he also led me straight into Blake's line quicker than he could get it out of the water and using that as ammo broke both of us off. However, it was a heck of a ride while it lasted....

After re-rigging I went back up to where I had hooked into the fish, a subtle little seam several feet off of a boulder and within a few casts I had another take and got a solid hook set and it was game on again! When this fish shot out of the water I could have sworn it was the first one's twin and once again I was in for a battle. 10 minutes later and several hundred feet down the bank I finally got the better of the Steelhead, which ended up being a beautiful double red banded 30" 10lb hatchery buck.

A good fish to start the day with!

After this fish, Blake decided to head upstream and within a few minutes it was his turn with another smaller jack Chinook Salmon, finally a steelhead found its way to his fly. With the advantage of the switch rod, his battle was much quicker and within a few minutes he brought a beautiful wild buck that was just a hair smaller than my hatchery fish to shore.

Blake's wild fish

After Blake got his fish we had a good long lull in the fishing, but with fish pushing upstream a productive run isn't going to stay vacant for long. Before long my seam proved its worth again when another steelhead decided my stonefly nymph passed inspection and came rocketing out of the water. This fish was a bit smaller than the first few and my six weight was a bit more evenly matched so after a quick battle I bought a beautiful little wild Redband Steelhead into the shallows.

My first true wild native Columbia Basin Redband Steelhead

Shortly after this Blake had a good take but missed it, which was followed by good fishless hour leading us to decide it was time for a lunch break and to look at some new water. After a great lunch at a local bakery, we decided that we should see what the water upstream had to offer and headed up to a spot that had treated Blake well on a previous trip.

The river

It didn't take long for us to find a fish at this spot and within about 20 minutes Blake, who was twitching a flesh fly across a run good a good grab and a couple minutes later brought a beautiful Bull Trout to shore. I don't know what it is about  Bull Trout; their rarity, aggressive nature, unique appearance or all of the above, but they have to one of my favorite salmonids and it was an a treat to see Blake catch one of these beautiful char.

Blake's Bull Trout

With a Bull Trout in the neighborhood, we had high hopes for this stretch of river, but after covering nearly a mile of river without as much as a bump, it was once again time to move on. With the knowledge that the lower part of the river had been producing in the morning, we headed back downstream where we met up with a Mike, a customer from the fly shop that would be doing some lake fishing with us on Saturday. Mike was completely new to steelheading, so we started him out with swinging and showed him the ropes before breaking hitting the water. Blake and Mike took the run where I had gotten the fish on Thursday, while I went upstream where Blake got his wild buck in the morning. 

For the next 45 minutes things were crazy for me as this spot was apparently thick with fish, but after five good hook ups I still hadn't landed a single one. I was also preoccupied with trying to get Blake and Mike's attention so we could try to get him into a fish since they were definitely in here, but I also didn't want to give the spot up since there was some anglers upstream eyeballing it very closely. After the fifth failed hookup they finally noticed and Mike made his way to the spot. I started to work my way back to shore to meet him, dragging my line behind me when fish number 6 decided to grab. This fish set the hook on itself and I traded Mike spots as I chased the fish downstream. A few minutes later I brought the gorgeous 30" wild hen into the shallows and tailed it.

My flawless bright wild hen Steelhead

As the day wound down, I got myself one more beautiful wild fish, but unfortunately Mike would have to wait to tangle with his first Steelhead...

Saturday was to be an epic day of lake fishing and a story for another day (post coming soon!), however Sunday we were back on the river once again.

This time we had a bit more company as three of our customers from the shop, Mike, Devin and Ryan joined us on the water for their first Steelhead experiences. After a bit of a crash course on steelheading tactics, everyone hit the water and I got things going with another wild steelhead right of the bat on a small stonefly nymph. Ryan ended up having the hot stick for the day and hooked into 6, but as can happen with Steelhead, all of them ended up getting the better of him... 

After my first fish I had three others within feet of shore when they popped off, before I finally had one that decided to stick with me. However, this fish had a bit of a different fighting style than a typical Steelhead and when I got it into the shallows it turned out to be a Chinook. I was easily as excited to catch the hen Chinook as I was a Steelhead and to make things better just as I slid it into the shallows I saw Mike land his first steelhead on the fly 100 yards downstream of me.

My Chinook Salmon in her somber spawning tones

An underwater shot of the Chinook

With things slowing down not to long after my Chinook experience and a long drive home, we decided that it would best to get on the road after an amazing few days on the river.