New Subspecies of Redband Trout formally described - McCloud River Redband

The Redband Trout of the McCloud River upstream of the falls in populations such as Sheephaven Creek have been recognized as distinct for sometime, but have been classified as Oncorhynchus mykiss stonei with the other Redband Trout of the Sacramento basin. However, a new study on the genetics of these trout has shown that they are distinct enough from other populations of Redbands in the basin to warrant subspecies status under the scientific name Oncorhynchus mykiss calisulat. This subspecies status includes the Sheephaven Creek population, as well as fish in other nearby isolated tributaries such as Edson, Tate and Moosehead creeks among others, which are found to constitute a single genetic unit.

The McCloud River Redband Trout - now recognized as Oncorhynchus mykiss calisulat

Those familiar with McCloud River Redband might be slightly confused as the type specimens for O. mykiss stonei were collected from the McCloud River, however these type specimens were from the population found below the falls. Based on the results of this study, the type specimens from the lower McCloud River are more closely related to the fish found in the Pit River and Goose Lake basin than they are to the fish in the upper McCloud River. Additionally, while the upper McCloud River Redband Trout represent a single ancient lineage of Redband Trout isolated above the falls in the basin, the fish in the Pit River and lower McCloud River appear to have genetics of several lineages, including more than on strain of Redband Trout and Coastal Rainbow Trout.  

Interestingly, the Sacramento Redband Trout found in the the Pit River and North Fork Yuba River appear to be more closely related to Redbands found in the Warner Valley and Surprise Valley than they are to Goose Lake Redband Trout. The study also showed the uniqueness of the Golden Trout of the Kern River and support their recognition as a unique species of trout. As genetic methods continue to evolve more isolated populations of O. mykiss are sampled it is possible the additional subspecies will be formally recognized in the coming years. For example, there is some evidence of a unique population of Redband/ Rainbow Trout in the Upper Skagit drainage that may warrant subspecies status in the future, not to mention unique populations such as those in the White River or Fort Rock basins in Oregon.

A link to the study can be found here.

Campbell, M.A., E. Habibi, G. Aubringer, M. Stephens, J. Rodzen, K.W. Conway, A.J. Finger. 2023. Molecular systematics of redband trout from genome-wide DNA sequencing substantiates the description of a new taxon (Salmonidae: Oncorhynchus mykiss calisulat) from the McCloud River. Zootaxa 5254 (1): 000-029. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5254.1.1

Back on the Road Again: Native Redbands and Cutthroat of Eastern Oregon

With all of the changes that life has thrown my way over the last few years. For the first time in years I headed out on the road (along with my cousin Derek, who has joined me on several other past trips) with some new native trout to target as well as some old ones to revisit. This trip was all revolving around the American Fisheries Society in Reno, Nevada at which I was presenting, but I was able to add a couple of days on each side of the conference to target some native trout.  The main targets of the trip were the White River Redband, John Day Westslope Cutthroat, Willow-Whitehorse Basin Cutthroat, Quinn River Cutthroat, Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout and possibly some McCloud River Redband Trout.

Day 1: Friday September 27th 2019: Derek and I hit the road bright and early, heading south from my home in Olympia, Washington towards the White River watershed in north-central Oregon. The White River flows from the glaciers of Mt. Hood into the of the Deschutes River just downstream of Maupin, OR.  While the Deschutes River holds Columbia Basin Redband Trout, the Redband Trout found above a series of waterfalls on the White River are genetically distinct from the fish in the Deschutes and identify more closely related to Fort Rock Redbands in the Great Basin, with recent studies indicating that they likely warrant a subspecies designation. As the White River is glacially fed, it has very poor visibility so I selected a couple of tributary streams to fish for these trout. Unfortunately, when we arrived the first of these streams had no public access on the lower end and the flows on the second stream were so low that we could not find any holding water and only managed to rise one small fish. Luckily we were able to find a small irrigation impoundment on the second stream that offered some great looking holding water.

The irrigation pond

This spot called for beaver pond tactics, so Derek and I tied on some Zug Bugs and started fishing. Letting the Zug Bugs sink for several seconds and retrieving them with short twitches proved quite effective and in short order I had caught a a few beautiful Redbands including a 10" beauty.

A White River Redband Trout

While we were successful on our first fish of the day, it took much longer than planned and we still had a long drive to the upper John Day River to look for Westslope Cutthroat and it looked like with the shorter days of fall every minute of daylight was going to count.

The middle John Day River from the road

We arrived at the stream with about an hour of daylight to spare and got to fishing with a dry dropper rig right away. We were able to locate a good piece of holding water almost right away, and on one of the first cast I hooked a fish. Could it be that easy? Unfortunately not, it turned out the fish was a small Columbia Basin Redband - likely a juvenile steelhead and the next fish out of the hole also turned out to be a Redband too.

A small Redband from the stream

After the second fish, the hole shut down so we started heading downstream. Unfortunately it seemed that this stream was lacking in good holding water and while we found a couple more small Redbands and a juvenile Chinook, there was no sign of any Cutthroat nor any water that was likely to hold them. After trudging downstream close to a half mile and watching the daylight fade, I finally came across a great looking piece of holding water where a tributary entered the stream. However, while the first spot had produced fish right away, this spot which looked even better showed no sign of life. After a number of a great drifts through every inch of the hole, I crept closer for a better look. Right where I figured a trout should be holding, there was a nice summer run Steelhead, which also saw me and decided it was time to head for cover.

Steelhead holding water

At this point the daylight was fading fast and it was time to head back upstream. While it seemed that I was going to have to admit defeat on the John Day Cutthroat, I figured a couple more casts in the first spot I tried wouldn't hurt. On the second cast I was rewarded with a rise and after solid hookup and after a short fight I brought a nice little John Day Cutthroat to hand!

A John Day Westslope Cutthroat

By the time I let the Cutthroat go, it was clear that there wasn't enough light to continue fishing so we hit the road for Burns, Oregon where we were staying the night.

Day 2: Saturday September 28th 2019: Overnight a cold front had blown in an we woke to a frosty morning in Burns with the possibility or rain and snow in the forecast. Our goal for the day was to fish for Willow-Whitehorse Cutthroat in southeastern Oregon before crossing to border into Nevada and trying for Quinn River Cutthroat. I had fished for and caught Willow-Whitehorse Cutthroat in 2006 (over 13 years ago already - yikes!), but fire had ravaged the area in 2012 and I wanted to return and see how it was looking and if I could find a few trout. By the time we got to the stream it was mid-morning and the temperature had warmed to the mid 40's F although a stiff wind was blowing. Luckily the fire had missed this stretch of stream and looked almost exactly how I remembered, so it was time to look for some trout.

Desert Cutthroat water

Looking for trout didn't take too long, and the first spot that I came to, the outflow a beaver pond produced two nice Willow-Whitehorse Basin Cutthroat.

Willow-Whitehorse Basin Cutthroat

Just like the last time that I had been to this stream a dry dropper rig with a black Copper John appeared to be the ticket. We fished up and down the stream for a couple hours, running into on lethargic rattlesnake and catching a bunch more Cutthroat in the 6-10" range before the weather started to turn on us, with snow clouds visible on the hills just a few miles off and it was time to hit the road again.

The rattlesnake

Another Willow-Whitehorse Cutthroat

While we were doing to just fine on daylight this time, the weather was whole other matter was turning fast. By the time that we hit the Nevada border, it was snowing in earnest and the Quinn River Cutthroat which required some rough roads up into the mountains was going to have to wait for another trip, so we headed on for Winnemucca, NV to grab a hotel for the night.

Snowed out of for the day

Day 3: Sunday September 29th 2019: With a good coat of snow on all of the hills around Winnemucca in the morning there was no way we were going to have any luck fishing for Quinn River Cutthroat so we headed for Reno, NV for the conference.

Day 4: Monday September 30 - Day 7: Thursday: October 3rd 2019: These days were all spent at the conference. Lots of great talks and I even got myself a great new book!

Also picked up a new book at the conference

Day 8: Friday October 4th 2019: We got up in the morning and made the drive out to Eagle Lake, California to try for Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout. We were still a bit early as the trout are known to move into the shallows in mid-October as the water cools. However, I was hoping that recent cold front might have done the trick. This proved to be wishful thinking. We fished for the better part the day, trying everything we could think of, from casting into the tulles to trolling flies deep. We only saw one fish rise and may have had one soft take but other than that lots and lots of fruitless casting.

Eagle Lake, California

Fishing Eagle Lake

The Eagle Lake Rainbow had been the fish I was most keen on getting on this trip, as I have had a number of potential trips planned over the years but had never been able to make it happen. Hopefully I will be able to make another try at the Eagle Lake Rainbow next spring, but regardless it is always hard getting skunked on a trout so far from home. After trying Eagle, we headed north towards home and ended up camping on a McCloud River Redband stream near the slopes of Mount Shasta that I had fished back in 2007. We got camp set up right before dark and temperatures plummeted quickly on us dropping into the 20's F and proving to be one chilly night in a tent.

Day 9: Saturday October 5th 2019: It was quite chilly in the morning, but the sun was out and it warmed up rather quickly. Once it was warm enough to feel our fingers, we got the rods rigged up and went to check out the creek. The last time that I had been to this stream, the fishing had been great, with every likely looking spot holding a trout. However, a lot can change in 12 years, and unfortunately for this stream those changes were not good. Upon checking out the stream, it was clear that cattle had been unleashed on the watershed and had done serious damage.

Cattle caused erosion

We covered more than double the water I had fished last time, but the habitat was absolutely destroyed, with caved in banks and erosion and we saw not a single sign of trout. 

Incised stream channels

Given the habitat, it would have been a miracle if we had found a trout in this stream and as we had a long drive home still we decided that it was best to cut our losses and get on the road again. Along the way we stopped at Crater Lake National Park and had a nice quite drive back to Olympia. 

Crater Lake

All and all, it was a great trip, with us getting 3 of the 6 fish that we had hoped to catch. Hopefully next year I will be able to get out again, as it felt great to get out for another native trout road trip after such a long time.

Redband Trout of the Northern Great Basin

Redband Trout are a primitive form of Rainbow Trout and the Northern Great Basin of Oregon and California is home to a great diversity of these fish. During a trip that I had made during 2006, I had caught one of unique varieties of Redband trout that are found in this area and my goal for this trip was to catch the rest of them. Beyond that, I had decided that over the summer I would try to do the California Heritage Trout Challenge, where you have to catch six different types of trout in their native range within California. With three of the fish that I was targeting located in California, I figured that this would give me a great jump on it as long as everything went as planned. 

Day 1: Sunday June 24th 2007: My dad and I left home in Washington early in the morning with rainy weather that would follow us all of the way into central Oregon. Normally when we head over the the Bend, Oregon area we take US 26 over the Cascades, but with bad traffic getting out of the Portland area we decided to take US 20 instead. This was a good move as there was nobody on the road and the drive up the Santiam River valley made for a nice change.

Nasty weather on the way through western Oregon 

Our first stop for the trip was Hosmer Lake, a high mountain lake located about an hour southwest of Bend, Oregon that is stocked with Atlantic Salmon. The lake was beautiful, but the weather was cold and windy and the fish did not appear to be too interested in feeding. I did a circle around the part of the lake near the boat launch in my float tube, using nymphs, dries and streamers. I even tried some of my standby attractor patterns for resident Coho Salmon in the Puget Sound, but only had a couple of hits. With the fishing being slow and the weather going down hill fast, my dad and I decided that it would be best just to head over to the next spot instead of hanging around for what promised to be a chilly night at Hosmer.

Hosmer Lake with Mount Bachelor in the background

From Hosmer Lake, we headed southeast into the Fort Rock Basin to search for its native trout. We arrived at the banks of the creek that was supposed to have the best population of Redbands right as the sun went down and set up camp for the night, hoping the fish would be hungry in the morning.

Fort Rock at sunset

Day 2: Monday June 25th 2007: When I woke up in the morning the thermometer in my car read 33 °F, so I decided to just scout the creek out until it heated up a bit. I hiked both upstream and downstream about a 1/2 mile and found some decent looking water downstream, but the best spot I had found was the culvert pool were the road crossed the creek. By 8:00AM it had warmed up enough for my liking, so I rigged up my 4wt with a size 12 Royal PMX and size 18 black Copper John dropper. The first spot that I tried was the culvert pool, which seemed to be packed with fish and it only took me a couple of minutes to catch my first Fort Rock Basin Redband.

The Fort Rock Basin Redband

I fished the pool for another 45 minutes or so, and caught a few more trout before the fish seemed to stop feeding. At this point I headed for some of the spots that I noticed earlier in the morning when I scouted the creek, but after spending an hour of bush whacking and fishing I had only gotten one more small fish. The only thing to do was head back to the culvert pool, where I caught a couple more fish and even had two on at the same time for a couple of seconds.

The creek upstream of the road

With the first variety of Redband successfully caught, my dad and I decided to hit the road again for the next spot, which was a small stream draining to Summer Lake in the Chewaucan basin. The research that I had done prior to heading out on the trip showed that this stream had never been stocked with hatchery trout, so it should have the purest remaining population of Chewaucan Redbands. We drove up to Summer Lake rim and the headwaters of the creek, but it was much smaller than I had anticipated at only a foot wide and a few inches deep in most places. I decided that I would spend about an hour exploring the creek, so I headed downstream to search for some type of holding water. There was evidence of beaver activity along the creek, but it all appeared to be at least five or ten years old and all of the ponds had long since was out. After a 1/2 mile of fishing a hiking and still no sign of fish, I pulled the plug on it and headed back to the car.

The fishless creek

Summer Lake from above the rim

While I had failed to catch any Redbands at this creek, I don't like going on these trips without backup plans for unproductive streams. This trip was no exception, so it was on to my second choice Chewaucan Basin stream, which ended up being much more productive than the first one. In fact, I was rewarded with a Chewaucan Basin Redband on my dry fly on the first cast. The fishing at this stream was amazing and every likely spot seemed to hold a fish with some going 12" to 15". The water temperature at this stream was some of the warmest that I have ever seen trout in, a testament to the adaptations of these fish to the extreme climate of the high desert of Oregon.

Me at the Chewaucan basin stream

A Chewaucan Basin Redband

A old abandoned cabin along the Chewaucan basin stream

The next stop was a small stream in the upper Klamath Basin that all of my research had indicated held a good population of Klamath Redbands. It was evident as soon as we arrived at this stream that I was going to be in for some "fun" fishing, as the creek flowed though an absolute tunnel of vegetation. I decided that I would hike upstream to see if I could find any beaver ponds or meadow stretches were the creek might open up a bit, but after hiking a mile upstream I had no such luck. I decided to make the best of the situation and scrambled through the bushes down to the creek. When I the water, there wasn't even enough room to stand up straight let alone make a cast. This was small stream fishing in the extreme and the only way to get my fly to where it needed to be was doing some tap and dap fishing or using a bow and arrow cast. Even with the less than ideal conditions I managed to get a fish to grab my fly, the only problem was that there wasn't enough room to raise the rod tip to set the hook, so I lost it.

The Klamath basin creek; the most difficult stream that I have ever fished...

Frustrated with the cramped conditions, I decided to continue my search for some better water. About another half mile upstream I found a spot with a decent pool, where I would have enough room to set the hook if need be. I rose a fish as soon as my Royal PMX hit the water, but as before didn't get a good hook set. However, after a couple more tries I finally got a solid hook up. As it turned out, it wasn't a Redband like I was expecting, but instead was a stream resident Bull Trout! My research had indicated that Bull Trout were also present in this stream, but with all of my failed attempts to catch this elusive fish in Washington I never expected that I would actually catch any.

My first Bull Trout

On the next cast, if that is the right word, I finally caught a Klamath Basin Redband on my dropper. After this, the fish seemed to be aware of my presence so I moved little ways upstream to another small pool where I got another Bull Trout and Redband. Above that pool, the vegetation formed an impassible barrier, so I made my way back to the trail. Since I had caught the fish that I came for and the sun was beginning to set, I decided to forgo anymore fishing and hiked back down to camp at the trailhead. This was without a doubt the hardest stream that I have ever fished, but with the Bull Trout and Redbands that I caught it was well worth the effort.

A Klamath Headwaters Redband Trout

Day 3: Tuesday June 26th 2007: The fish to target for the day was the McCloud River Redband, which are native to the upper McCloud River drainage in the Mount Shasta area of California. We broke camp in the Klamath Basin early and made our way to the spring fed streams on the southeastern slopes of Mount Shasta that are a refuge for the McCloud River Redband.

Me at the base of Mount Shasta on the way to the McCloud River Redband waters

We arrived at the first stream at around 11:00 AM and on my third or fourth cast, I caught my first Redband. The fishing didn't slow down either and just seemed to improve as I worked my way upstream. It was evident that the population of fish here was healthy and they didn't seem to think twice before grabbing my fly. After covering about a quarter mile of the stream and catching plenty of Redbands, I headed back to the car and handed my fly rod off to my dad who also caught several fish. Once we had caught our fair share of fish, we hit the road again to try to find some more Redbands in another nearby stream.

A McCloud River Redband

A productive run on the McCloud River Redband stream

I had originally planned on fishing two more streams that these Redbands are native to in order to get a better sampling of the diversity found among the different isolated populations. The only problem with this idea was that poor signage, a lack of GPS and maze of forest service and logging roads made the other streams impossible to locate. We ended up wasting the next couple of hours on a wild goose chase looking for a couple of streams that we never found. At this point we were pretty worn out and my dad suggested that we should head over to Reno for the night. This idea sounded great as it would possibly give me a shot at some Lahontan Cutthroat and put me another step closer to completing the Heritage Trout Challenge. However, just getting to Reno in the first place ended up being no small task though, and we ended up wasting two hours waiting for pilot cars at road work projects. As we got closer to Reno we noticed an odd cloud over the area which ended up being smoke from a forest fire in the south Lake Tahoe area and ruled out my plans of going after any Lahontan Cutthroat on this trip. Skipping the fishing ended up making the stay in Reno a bit more relaxing at least, as it gave us a chance to take in the town and get a good nights sleep.

Reno Nevada

Day 4: Wednesday June 27th 2007: We got off to a slow start in order to get a little enjoyment out of the swimming pool at our hotel in Reno. Once on the road we ran into three more road work projects on US 395 on our way to Goose Lake and lost about another hour due to them. When we finally got to Goose Lake, we headed up a forest service road leading to the stream that I wanted to fish. Once again finding the stream proved difficult, but after getting turned around a couple of times we finally made our way to the creek. The creek was beautiful and flowed from meandering meadows into high gradient pocket water sections. Both my dad and I got rigged up to fish here and at the advice of a California fisheries biologist we started out in the pocket water section, which was supposed to hold more fish than the meadow water. My dad hooked a fish almost right away on his dry, but lost it after a few seconds. The next fish that he hooked stayed on the line and he got the first Goose Lake Redband of the trip. It soon became evident that the fish in this stream were experts at throwing flies and if you wanted to land them at all you had to do it quickly. I fished my way downstream further into the pocket water section, and managed to catch five Redbands including one that was decent size for the creek on my nymph. While the pocket water was much more productive, meadow section was a bit more scenic and I couldn't resist trying it out for a bit. While this section was fun fish, true to what the biologist had indicated it was much less productive, as the fish were few and far between and spooked easily.

Me working the pocket water section for some Goose Lake Redbands

A Goose Lake Redband

After checking another variety of trout off my list, we made up a quick dinner then hit the road again headed for the northern side of the Warner Mountains, so I could try to catch some Warner Lakes Redbands. The road to this spot was one of the hairiest that I have ever seen, as it switch backed up the mountainside. Along the way we passed several old gold rush era mines before reaching the tiny stream which meandered through a meadow at about 7,000 feet above sea level. Upon exiting the car I discovered that this spot was completely infested with mosquitoes prompting me to make quick work of catching the Warner Lakes Redband. Luckily the fish agreed with this idea and while not large, there were a good number of them at the road crossing pool. I used the same ever dependable Royal PMX and Copper John setup and caught a handful of fish out of the pool before heading upstream a little further. I lasted about a half hour before blood lose from mosquito bites and the failing daylight forced me to call it a day. We had originally planned on camping here, but between the mosquitoes and rapidly dropping temperatures we changed our mind, and decided to drive through the night to reach the next spot.

The Warner Mountains above the creek at just before sunset

A small Warner Lakes Redband

The drive to the next spot located in the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge was a little interesting as the desert came alive at night and all manner of creatures seemed intent at testing our ability to dodge them. We arrived at the creek at around midnight, set up camp quickly and hit the hay.

The Catlow Valley stream

Day 5: Thursday June 28th 2007: We got up at about 7:00 AM and I immediately went out to check out the creek out with my fly rod. This stream appeared to be about the width of the one above Summer Lake where I couldn't find any trout, but had much better depth as it flowed through a meadow interspersed with a few groves of Aspens here and there. I decide to head downstream to where a small tributary added its flow to the creek and found a decent pool with some fish in it. As soon as the Royal PMX hit the water a fish attacked it, but unfortunately it managed to shake the hook. On the next cast though another fish grabbed my fly and I got a solid hook up and I caught my first Catlow Valley Redband, which was followed by a number of others.

My first Catlow Valley Redband

A deer on the hillside above the creek

The fishing in this creek was ridiculous, and every pool would hold several fish that grabbed my fly as soon as it hit the water. On my way back upstream, I stopped at a small pool where I caught my biggest trout on the creek, a nice deeply colored about 10" buck. As we were heading out of the refuge we saw a good number of Pronghorn Antelope amidst some beautiful scenery. With the Catlow Valley Redband being caught and photographed, we called it a wrap and started the long drive home.

Roadside pronghorn antelope

Overall the trip was a great success; I managed to catch seven new varieties of native trout and one new char. One top of that I got three fish for the California Hertiage Trout Challenge. Fishing licenses and gas were expensive as usual and the roads and roadwork in Northern California less than ideal, but the fishing more than made up for it.