Wild Trout Symposium
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Hey guys –
I just received a copy of the Proceedings of the 9th Wild Trout Symposium yesterday, and I spent last night reading several research articles in it.
One thing that I always thought odd about the Yellowstone cuttroat occurs in Slough Creek….which as many of you know, is a trib of the Lamar River which is a trib of the Yellowstone River.
After fishing Slough for several years now (mostly 1st, 2nd and 3rd Meadows) I noticed most all the fish we caught were in the 15 to 18″ range…..nothing smaller. We began to wonder where the fry were? Always was a mystery until one day……I ventured up the small canyon between 1st and 2nd Meadow. It’s all pocket water averaging no more than 12 inches in depth. We began catching a bunch of sub 10 inch fish. This led me to the conclusion that the cutts are possibly very aggressive like browns and prey on the smaller of their specie. Anyone that has examined the teeth in a Slough Creek cutt may agree. I am left to assume that the smaller fish prefer the shallow riffles as a way to avoid the larger and hungrier adults who lurk in the slow deep pools.
This was the only location on the creek that I encountered juvenile cutts until I began fishing similar riffle water upstream of the Silver Tip Ranch and northeast of the Park boundary.
Interesting stuff.
Drifter,
I had that same exact experience. It was quite a few years ago and I am not sure where I was on the creek (meadow 1, 2 or 3). Should have paid more attention to the little things but it was all about the fish! All I know is we entered the park and went to a pull off area where people were set up camping. We were with about 10 guys. 8 wanted to work up stream and I knew I did not want to follow that crowd so another guy named Joe and I went down stream. They managed to catch a few nice cuts but Joe and I had a BLAST!!! It was exactly what you said shallower pocket water with a ton of lil cutts very eager to eat a red humpy. We actually lost count of how many fish we caught. I still have the remnants of that humpy!! Amazing to read through a post and it bring back such vivid memories.
That trip was a blur, it was in 1994 and I was only 15 but EVERY kid should get 14 days to do nothing but fish some of the finest water in the US!!!
GOOD TIMES!!!
Hey Zach,
Any chance of getting that PDF? I am stuck in Iraq and my only form of fishing is reading about every FF rag out there, tying and the net! I would like to take a look at that if its cool.
Thanks!!
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