High Desert Angling: Part 2 - A challenging day

 Day 3: Sunday July 3rd 2022: After an extremely long, and overall successful first day of angling, we were a bit more sluggish breaking camp than I would have liked. The reason that I was anxious to get on the road again was that we had a lot of ground to cover in a single day, fishing two streams before ending up in Winnemucca, NV for the night. While originally I had just planned on fishing a single stream Steve had told me about a stream with Tiger Trout. Tiger Trout are a bit of a frankenfish, being a hybrid cross between Brook Trout and Brown Trout and as I had never caught one I was intrigued enough to check the creek out.

Although we were still slightly behind schedule we made good timing getting to the stream and arrived by mid morning. The creek was similar in size to the Bonneville Cutthroat stream from the day before, but flowed through a tunnel of Willow in the midst of the treeless sage brush desert.

While we were rigging up for the day, a local indicated two things that didn’t bode well in my opinion. First was that otters and anglers had been very effective at harvesting fish from the creek, so hold overs would be few and far between. The second was that the creek had just been stocked for the 4th of July weekend. While in theory this meant more fish, the influx of fish was likely to disrupt the existing fish community and the new stockers would be unlikely to be used to natural prey sources. So normal tactics might not be very effective.

The Tiger Trout stream

While the stream looked like it should be quite productive, with lush aquatic vegetation good holes and a few beaver ponds, few of the likely lies showed any sign of fish.  When I did manage to spot some fish they showed very little interest in flies.

Streamside cacti

I figure that sometimes persistence pays off and as I continued working upstream I did manage to get some takes but just couldn’t get a solid hookup with any of the fish. Most of these fish were on either dries stripped under the surface or nymphs jigged in the deep holes. It wasn’t until I found a fishy looking undercut back that I finally got a solid grab on my dropper. It was a small fish and I quickly was able to net my first Tiger Trout.

My first Tiger Trout

I continued fishing upstream and didn’t find any additional trout, but when I met up with Derek he had managed to catch one hard won Rainbow Trout.

Derek's Rainbow Trout

While successful, it had taken far longer for us to find fish at this stream than planned and had eaten into our time hunting for our main target of the day, the Humboldt Cutthroat significantly. It was fun to catch a new type of trout, but I couldn’t help thinking how amazing this Creek could have been if it still held the native Humboldt Cutthroat that once swam its waters. As those native Humboldts were long since gone and it was again time to hit the road and hopefully we would be able to find Humboldts in our next stream.

A lone Pronghorn Antelope on our way to the next stream

After a few more hours on the road, with afternoon wearing on and storm clouds building on the horizon, we arrived at our second stream. I had fished this stream way back in 2006 and managed to catch a few Humboldt on that trip so I hoped trip to it would be just as successful.

I decided to head further upstream on this trip in hopes of more productive water. On my last trip I had noticed the damage the lower stream had endured from poor grazing practices and apparently the upper watershed had experienced the same damage. The stream was incised into a small a 10 foot deep trench and to make matters worse, it appeared that a fire had torn through the upper watershed recently, leaving little in the way of large vegetation.

The upper reaches of the Humboldt Cutthroat stream

We found a spot where we could reach the stream and decided that Derek would go upstream while I went downstream. Upon reaching the of the incised canyon, it was clear that there at least had been an attempt at improving the habitat as there were numerous beaver dam analogues added to the stream. These are stakes driven into the stream bed in the hopes of attracting beavers to use them as anchor for their dams. As the beavers build their dams behind the analogues they act as sediment traps and slowly build up stream channel reversing the process of incising. Unfortunately, the fire in the upper watershed had wiped out all of the larger vegetation that beavers need to feed on and as such the intended purpose of the analogues had gone unfulfilled. While they didn't live up to their full potential, the analogues did act as decent sediment traps and instead of flowing from pool to pool, the creek flowed from one knee deep swath of quicksand after another making wading extremely very difficult. This also meant an almost complete lack of suitable habitat for trout and I only managed to hook one smaller Cutthroat that unfortunately was able to shake loose.

The deeply incised stream channel

With the challenging and less than fruitful conditions on the upper part of the creek, Derek and I decided to head for the lower end of the watershed, where I had fished before. We were hoping that the creek in the lower reaches would be slightly larger and more productive than upstream and with luck we might find a few beaver ponds. As it turned out beaver ponds proved to be our biggest problem on the lower creek, as upon reaching the valley floor we discovered that since 2006 beavers had flooded the entire lower valley.

A beaver pond in the lower watershed

Often beaver ponds are one of the best places to find trout on small streams, but this particular scenario was not one of those cases. The water was extremely murky and there was almost no casting room due to extremely thick vegetation growth. I was able to wade into the muck a ways and saw many fry in the 2" range (a good sign for the viability of the population), but 45 minutes of casting didn't even result in a strike. With the beaver ponds not yield results, I tried to find some flowing water, but my attempts to find a way threw the overgrown brush all proved unsuccessful. I rarely have failed to catch a native trout on a stream that I know to harbor them, but I had to accept that you can't win them all. As such with thickening storm clouds rolling in and the day already growing late, I linked back up with Derek who had just as much success as I did and we hit the road again, headed for Winnemucca, NV and some much needed rest. With one trout a piece and neither of them natives, this had been one of the rougher days of trout fishing I have had in a long while. Fortunately, I had caught Humboldt Cutthroat before and I just had to hope that the Quinn River Cutthroat I was after the next day would be far more eager.

High Desert Angling: Part 1 - A Bumpy Road

 Day 1: Friday July 1st 2022:  This year I wasn't sure whether I would be able to pull of a road trip for native trout. While great, changing jobs also meant entering summer without much in the way of vacation time. However, I when I looked at my schedule I realized I could pull away for a native trout adventure over the long 4th of July weekend and better yet my cousin Derek was also able to join. While I went after the Westslope Cutthroat subspecies last year, this year I decided to focus my attention on the Lahontan subspecies as well as Bonneville Cutthroat. However, with a day less to work with than last year's trip, this trip was packed very densely with little room for error or tough to find trout.

The disadvantage of the 4th weekend as always is that it seems like everyone else is trying to get out of town on adventures as well. Even with taking a half day to leave early, the traffic getting out of the Puget and over the Cascade Mountains was horrible. Luckily leaving early gave me enough of a buffer that I was able to arrive at Derek’s place in the Tri Cities right as he got home from work. This got us back on the road quickly and the traffic on our second leg to Boise was not bad at all and we arrived at our hotel 10pm to rest up before hitting road in the morning.

Off to a slow start

Day 2: Saturday July 2nd 2022: As often happens with the prospect of new native trout on the horizon, I had trouble sleeping. As such I was up at 3:30AM well before my alarm and decided to just go ahead and get ready for the day. This put us on the road again by 4:30AM and on our way to Utah and our first trout of the trip. The first trout we were targeting was the Pilot Peak strain of the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. These Pilot Peak fish are unique as they were the last of the original Pyramid Lake Lahontan Cutthroat Trout known for being the largest Cutthroat Trout in the world. These fish had been stocked in the Pilot Peak range long ago and forgotten about until they were rediscovered and later reintroduced back into Pyramid Lake. With these fish being so special I had always wanted a chance to visit the place where they had been found and see if I could catch and photograph one. 

The first challenge with these Pilot Peak Lahontan Cutthroat was just getting to them. Part one was 40 miles of dirt road, with the last couple miles to the creek being exceptionally rough and pushing my RAV 4 to its limit. Given how rough the road was, I didn't want to push my car past its limit so we decided to walk the last bit into the stream. First we had to find flowing water. 

The start of the long walk into the mountains

Given the recent drought, when we first came to the stream bed it was dry. Not too far upstream the creek started flowing, but it was some time before it looked large enough to possibly hold any fish. However, even at this point there were several challenges to deal with. First the stream was extremely brushy so it would be challenging to do anything but dap a fly on the water. Second every open patch of water had several spider webs over it making stealth near impossible. 

Ready for the start of our native trout adventure

Derek and I worked through a stretch of the stream that I had been told held a decent number of Cutthroat with not so much as a sign of fish. After that, we decided to split up and I went another half mile upstream while Derek worked the stream below. After covering a good stretch of stream with not so much of a sign of fish and the day starting to wear on, I decided to head back downstream and see if Derek had any luck. 

A rare piece of holding water on the stream

As it turned out when I found Derek, he had just managed to catch a beautiful 12” Cutthroat that was holding in a small pool. Apparently he had spotted the the fish and cast to it, only to get his fly getting stuck in a spiderweb and have to fish jump out of the water to try to grab it. While the fish didn't get the fly on that cast, Derek was able break the spider web, land the fly on the water and managed to get the fish to eat and caught it.

Derek's big fish - a Pilot Peak (Pyramid Lake) Strain Lahontan Cutthroat

After Derek caught his fish, I redoubled my efforts but despite covering another 1/2 mile of the creek that only thing that I was able get the attention of was a small snake that spooked and swam across the creek on one of my casts. Given that we had a long drive to our next stream and that there was no sign of any additional fish, it was time to hit the road. 

Looking out over the Bonneville salt flats

Part of our need to get a move on was that we were going to meet up with my friend and fellow native trout enthusiast Steve MacMillan from Nevada, at the next stream and we still had a very long drive down to Bonneville Cutthroat country on the eastern edge of the Bonneville Basin. As with the Pilot Peak stream, we were in for another long stretch of dirt roads to get to our destination. However, we made surprisingly good time and ended up beating Steve by about an hour, although I suspect that the Pacific/ Mountain time zone difference was lost in translation and at play.

Miles and miles of dirt road

Once linking up with Steve, we made for the Mountains, which were a monolith of granite rising several thousand feet out of the salt flats. The country was a mix alpine and desert, with prickly pear, pine, birch, juniper and willows. As is typically of this thirsty country, we found a very small creek threading through a tunnel of vegetation. Luckily the creek was much larger then the Pilot Peak stream and finding good holding water didn't take long. I decided to start out with my trusty Royal PMX and Lighting Bug dropper setup and started working the water. It didn't take long to find a Cutthroat and I was finally on the board with another subspecies of Cutthroat off my list. Steve and Derek also got their fish in short order and we each started working the stream for additional fish.

A small Bonneville Cutthroat Trout

While it didn't take long to find my first fish, the stream was certainly a challenge due to the vegetation and additional fish were hard earned. However, I managed to land two more and lost a number of others over the course of a couple hours before Steve had to head back home.

The valley along the stream

After Steve headed off, Derek and I decided to hike up the road and explore further upstream. Upon hit the water, I lucked into a series of pools that were relatively open and easy to reach. This was where I struck pay dirt. As I approached the first hole I spotted a couple of trout holding just in front of a root wad. A well placed bow and arrow cast resulted in an immediate rise and a quickly landed fish. The next fish took a bit more work and rose to the fly 6 times before I finally managed to hook up and bring it to hand.

A beautiful Bonneville Cutthroat Trout

Continuing upstream each pool held several more Cutthroat, which were more than eager to rise to a dry fly and did so with reckless abandon. The topmost pool looked to be the deepest and most likely to hold a bigger fish. Sure enough as I approach, I spotted a nice Cutthroat and several small ones holding in the pool. A well placed cast got the attention of the big fish first and I managed to hook it. With limited room to run, I was able to bring the beautiful 11” Cutthroat to the net in short order.

A productive stretch of the stream

A beautiful Bonneville Cutthroat to end the day on

After getting my large Bonneville, I managed to catch the two smaller fish as well, before Derek and I decided that it was time of cap off the long day and set up camp. While the trip had gotten off to a bumpy start, between Derek and I we did document both of the fish that we were after and headed to bed with hopes that streams the next day would be as productive as our Bonneville Cutthroat stream had been.

Oregon Coastal Cutthroat

At the beginning of April I decide to make a major career shift and after 11 years with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, I accepted a position as the Science Advisor for the Trout Unlimited's Wild Steelhead Imitative. June, I found myself in Reedsport Oregon for a weeklong work retreat. While we put in long hours during the day, the evenings were reserved for team building time (i.e. fishing time!!). 

Since the retreat was taking place during the off-season for steelhead (too late for winters and too early for summers), we had opted to do our part for the Umpqua River steelhead and instead targeted Striped Bass for a few days. The Striped Bass population on the Umpqua River have experienced a recent boom and are currently considered on of the leading threats to wild steelhead in the basin, especially the summer-run population which was at critically low abundance in 2021.  As such suppressing the non-native striper population is through angling is one of the strategies that ODFW is suggesting to aid the struggling native summer steelhead population.

The Umpqua River estuary

We fished stripers on a variety of top water poppers, flies and swimbaits. The fishing never quite it the "red hot" level, most likely due to the cooler to normal spring. However, we did get into some decent fish and hopefully saved a few steelhead smolts in the process. For more details the our post about Stripers and our retreat on the Wild Steelheaders United blog.

A solid Striped Bass caught on top water

The last day of the retreat, the weather was predicted to be much rougher and my coworkers and I decided to change things up a bit and try some small stream fishing for Coastal Cutthroat. Based on research I had down there was a stream a short distance away holding a robust population of both resident and sea-run fish and as such we decided to head there.

A beautiful day for smalls stream fishing

The stream flow through a beautiful canyon with mature stands of Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock and Red Cedar, with the wild Rhododendron in full bloom. Given the small size of the stream, I decided to go with my trusty 2wt and rigged up with a #12 Royal PMX and a #16 Blowtorch nymph dropper (new fly for me). While my coworkers headed upstream, I started off at a deep hole below some cascades not far downstream of where we parked. It was immediately apparent as soon I a got in the water that this stream was healthy and full of life, with crayfish, newts and small fish inhabiting the shallows. Additionally, the Cutthroat population appeared to be quite healthy as well and my second cast produced a bright 10" sea-run fish with its cutthroat slash just starting to reappear on the nymph. 

A bright sea-run Coastal Cutthroat

I managed to get one or two smaller Cutthroat and caught a small dace (possibly an Umpqua Dace?) before I decided some exploring further downstream. 

A small dace

With this I headed down the road to look for some more good water. While I saw plenty of good water, the problem was getting to it, as the riparian zone was a dense ticket Red Alder, Big Leaf Maple and Salmonberry bushes and occasional briars of invasive blackberries. However, I finally found a deer trail and was able to get back on the water. The first piece of water that I started on was a nice run with a log across riffle at the top end. While the run didn't produce any results, the fast water and pocket just upstream of the log looked like good holding water. Sure enough on my second cast, a big Cutthroat (~15") rose to my dry fly and doubled my 2wt over. Unfortunately with the current speed I didn't get a good hook set and after a little thrashing on the surface my fly popped loose. Several more casts with the dry/ dropper rig didn't entice the fish to return, so I switched to a small streamer. This did get a few vicious strikes from under the log, but nothing hooked up, so I switched back to my dry/ dropper and continued on my way upstream.

Quality Cutthroat holding water

A newt in the stream margins

The next run upstream had a perfect fishy looking riffle that swept along a large boulder. The first few casts didn't get the attention of any trout, but by fully covering the water I got a nice rise and hooked into a solid fish. This fish gave my 2wt a good workout, but this time I had a solid hookset and was able to bring the beautiful 12" native cutthroat hand after a short fight.

My big native Coastal Cutthroat

Upstream of this spot, the stream picked up gradient quickly and the abundance of trout also increased. While, most of the fish were cookie cutter 6-8" juveniles, I was able to dredge up another bright 10" sea-run on my dropper in a deeper pocket right below the hole where I got my first fish of the day. As I had covered all of the water up to the hole that I started out on, I found a path back up to the road and was able to meet up with my coworkers.

Another sea-run Coastal Cutthroat

After each having success working our initial patch of water we decided to head up the road a bit and try another location. However, after spending another 45 minutes here the habitat seemed subpar and we each had only found a couple of small Cutthroat or juvenile Coho. At this point the weather was degrading on us we decided to head back into town.

A juvenile native Coho Salmon

My coworker Alexei working a good run

A beautiful day on the water

This trip was a great kick to summer, with a productive week of work, time to get to know my new coworkers and some great fishing while we were at it. The summer trout season is now in full swing and next week I am off to the Lahontan and Bonneville Basins to hunt for Cutthroat, with a report to follow soon after!

A winter steelhead season in review: Part 2

With the poor returns of steelhead along the Washington coast, the season ended up being shorter than expected with an emergency closures kicking in on many streams at the beginning of March. While it was disappointing to see many of my favorite watersheds close early, it provided extra protection to the fish and also gave me the incentive I needed to check out some new waters that were open still.

My first trip out after the closure was short outing where I really didn't expect to hook anything but wanted to get my daughter Valerie out on the river for a brief introduction to winter steelheading. As there had recently been some good rain, I knew that the river was going to be high but dropping.

A promising little stream. 

As the goal of this trip was to get Valerie out on the river, we spent just as much time looking for exploring as we did casting. As usual, a handful of casts was not enough to attract any steelhead, but it was just enough for a fun morning on the river.

A fun day on the river

After my short trip to the river with my daughter, I set out to find some time to get out and explore the river some more as soon as possible. As it worked I out, I was able to pull away again the next week with my buddy Jonathan for a full day of solid fishing. Conditions we set for a repeat of the last trip, with a recent rain resulting in the river being quite high and dropping, with good clarity and weather.

We decided to start our day off high up in the watershed and then work our way downstream hitting any likely spots as we went. With the river being high still, find slower holding water proved chanllenging and the first half of the day was completely unproductive. However, around lunch time we came to a spot above the river where we could see a pod of at least half a dozen fish. Jonathan and I took turns fishing to them, but not matter our offering the fish showed no sign of interest. As we were never able to get an overly clear view of the fish, it is entirely possible that they were whitefish, which could explain the lack of interest.

A beautiful day to be on the water

With a slow day so far, Jonathan and I decided to try one or two more spot before relocating to another stream. One of these spots proved to be the most promising of the day and featured a deep pool at the top end and a solid run at the bottom. While the top end looked great for indicator fishing, the run looked like a great spot to swing a fly and was a great excuse to dust of my switch rod. Unfortunately, with the extra flow my switch rod just didn't have the backbone to quite get to the most likely pocket in the tailout. However, Jonathan was able to good land a cast in it and sure enough hooked into a nice fish. While it seemed as though he had gotten a good hook set, it must not have been good enough as after a few headshakes and a roll on the surface the fish was able to shake loose.

Prospecting for steelhead

After trying one last spot with no sign of steelhead, we decided to relocate to another nearby stream we both wanted to check out. At this point we only had a few hours of daylight left so we figured that this was going to be more of a scouting operation than anything. What immediately caught our attention with this stream, was the beauty. While high like the other river, it was a perfect steelhead green color and bordered by lush forests with a few old growth trees still remaining. Better yet there appeared to be a good amount of quality holding water as well even at the high flows. 

We tried several nice runs before the sun started to fade, indicating that the next run would be our last. I started out at the top of the run, while Jonathan took the bottom. It turned our the bottom of the run was the place to be. While I was working a nice seam at the head of the run, I noticed Jonathan appeared to be snagged on something until the "snag" started to move and I realized he had a fish on. I hurriedly reeled in and made my way down to Jonathan and after a few minutes of a rather mellow battle he brought the fish in and I was able to tail a beautiful bright hen for him.

Jonathan's bright native steelhead

After Jonathan got his fish, daylight was really not on our side and we decided it would be time to hit the road in about ten minutes if we wanted to avoid walking out in the dark. For the last ten minutes, I took the lower part of the run and had one very fishy take down, but after flogging the water for a few more minutes the weren't any other signs of fish and it was time to get on the road.

A beautiful end to a get day on the water

While the 2022 winter steelhead season was certainly a rough one with fish abundance and closures, I have a hard time complaining to much with my angling experience as it also got me out on some new water, that I may not have checked out otherwise and am excited to explore further next season.

A winter steelhead season in review: Part 1

I have been a bit behind on getting this post out, this is primarily due to life being more chaotic than usual over the last few months. The main driver has been a major career shift as I moved on from my role at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and started a new position as the Steelhead Science Advisor with Trout Unlimited. While winter has long since past, I still wanted to get this two part series of posts out before the summer trout fishing season really sets in.

 The 2021/2022 winter steelhead season in Washington was an odd one. The season started out among the rainiest in reach memory but was followed by an unusually dry spell in the middle of the season. However, this was not the most abnormal part, as the season also saw some of the lowest returns of steelhead on record in the Pacific Northwest. While issues in freshwater certainly played a role in the low returns, such a broad scale decline point to over arching issues, with poor ocean conditions being the primary driver. The lower returns along the Washington coast led to complete closures in some watersheds and early closures in most others. Between the low returns and a shoulder injury from my fall outing for Chum, I was on the water significantly less than previous years. However, with the poor returns I also figured that this year wouldn't be a horrible one to scout out a few streams that I had been planning check out for sometime now.

My first  scouting trip was a near complete failure. The first stream that I checked out was a mix of highly degraded habitat and private property, which made it easy to cross it off my list of waters to revisit. The next stream I had been meaning to scout was not far away but upon arriving at the logging road gate, there were three cars already there. As this stream was not large by any means I did not think that it could handle any additional pressure so I decided to call it a day, but made a note to return and take a look on my next trip to the area.

A couple weeks after my failed scouting operation both my buddy Chris and I were able to line up a mid-week day to get out on one of my favorite rivers. As the trip approached, the both the weather and the flows looked great so we were in business.  We arrived at the river before the sun was up with air temps in the low 20's promising cold fingers and iced guides. Chris had driven and had the honor of the first cast. While steelhead are typically known as the fish of a thousand casts, today it ended up being the fish of a single cast, as half way through his drift he got a solid take and hooked up. Chris's fish fought well and even attracted the attention of another steelhead that rolled while he was fighting it. However, after a few minutes he was able to bring it into the shallows and I successfully tailed it.

Chris' one cast wonder- a beautiful wild hen. Frozen fingers for me...

After warming my now numb fingers for a moment, the next cast was mine and sure enough the fish we saw roll was still there and was just as grabby as Chris' hen and I got a solid hookup on my first cast as well. This fish proved to be quite powerful and after battling it for a couple of minutes in the where I hooked it, it decided to head straight for a log right at the top of the run. Unfortunately, I could get the fish to turn before reached the log and it managed to break me off. It was hard to be two upset though, as with an unprecedented two fish hooked on two casts the day was off to a good start.

A crisp morning on the river

We decided to try moving down river first, but the next couple hours on the river didn't produce anything other than frozen guides and numb fingers. This lack of activity encouraged us to try another part of the river. While hiking upstream to the next piece of water, we briefly stopped at a bluff overlooking the river and could see a steelhead holding near a log jam that was every bit of 20lbs. It looked like there was a good crossing just upstream, so I decided that I would stay up on the bank and sight while Chris tried casting to it. On the first cast, the fish moved and looked at Chris' offering, but after that showed no interest in anything he tossed at it. While it certainly would have be amazing to see Chris get this fish, it was an absolute pleasure to simply spend some time watching and how it reacted to Chris' presentations. However, I couldn't spend all day watching it and with its disinterest in what Chris had to offer, it was time for us to move on again. 

The shadow in the deep

Not far upstream, we came upon some of the best looking water of the day with a series of deep runs along a rock face. At the first of these we spooked a river otter that had been actively fishing so we decided to save fishing there for our downstream journey. The next run didn't produce anything, but in the uppermost run I got a good drift along a rock ledge resulting in a solid hook up. While this fish was much smaller and did not have the power of the one that had broken me off, it was quite acrobatic and put up a solid fight before coming to hand.

My first steelhead of 2022 - a small wild buck

While I was fighting this fish, we spotted another angler working his way downstream and didn't want to cut him off, so we started also started working our way back downstream. By this time the run that the otter had been fishing had been given a nice long rest, so we were hopeful there might be some fish around. Sure enough after just a few casts Chris hooked into one. This fish lacked to spunk of the previous steelhead and after a short battle we were able to land what turned out to be an early kelt.

An early season wild kelt

The rest of the journey downstream was uneventful and the big fish from earlier had moved on, so we decided to drive up to one more spot further upstream. This location had two likely steelhead lies, with Chris taking the upper one and me taking the lower one. I had barely gotten in position to cast, when I heard Chris shouting that he had a fish on. The bucket that Chris had hooked the fish in was rather small and the fish didn't want to move into shallow water so it took a stay deep, brute strength approach. However, with limited room to run it wasn't long before Chris got the fish to budge and I was able to tail it. The fish was a beautiful buck, that unfortunately looked as though it had been poorly handled by a previous angler, as it had noticeable wear on its back and side (likely pulled up on shore). This wear is likely to make this fish more susceptible to fungus and other pathogens during the arduous spawning period and is a reminder handle these fish with as much care as possible. By the time we had landed the fish, another angler had moved in below us and after a few more casts to make sure there were anymore fish holding in front of us, we decided that it was time to start working our way towards home. 

Chris' wild buck steelhead

After wrapping up, Chris and I had a little time left on the day so we decided to scout out the over crowded stream from my previous trip. This time there were no cars and the blue bird day made for a nice walk into the stream. We only spent a couple hours at this stream and didn't hook any fish but the water was absolutely gorgeous and I certainly plan to return next season to explore some more.

The beautiful new stream that I plan on spending some more time on next season

Western Native Trout Challenge

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

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

See my qualifying fish below:

Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout - California

"Interior Redband Trout" - Oregon

Coastal Cutthroat Trout - Washington

Bull Trout - Idaho

Westslope Cutthroat Trout - Idaho

Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout - New Mexico

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

My Expert Caster Certificate and "First 100" hat.

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