Ode to the Apex Predator of western Montana!
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I have yet to post much about my travels since joining up on this site. But, I thought I’d share a recent adventure with a good friend of mine. I hope you enjoy.
Christian, a buddy of mine from Denver, came up this past week for several days of fishin’. He was looking to make up for last Fall’s fiasco, when temps. dropped from the 70s, to the 30s, in early Oct. I promised him this trip would be better. And after five days of fishing from sun-to-sun, we figured it was — considerably.
We started on this remote stream, to get our fill of slaying fichies.
Ariell, again waited patiently along the banks.My idea was to fish the stream above a reservoir, hoping to catch the Cutthroat that I assumed would be making their way upstream to spawn. It took a little exploring, but we found some.
The pale color on this Westslope Cuttie, indicates it has been in the reservoir, and a recent arrival to the stream.
We got in to a run of Suckers, also! Christian is letting one go, here — trying not to touch it. He landed easily a half dozen fish out of this run.
This one is all colored up, and getting ready to make new Westslopers! Look at the size of fly it took — a #4 streamer.One more beautiful WSC (Westslope Cutthroat):
The fishing was pretty good most the day, and we got about 20 or so fish each, then the fish seemed to dissapear. We worked our way downstream, closer to the reservoir. We found clusters of fish throughout the stream, all chromed-up and ready to race upstream. I didn’t take any pics. ’cause I was too busy fishing. In one hole, Christian landed 19 different fish! Crazy.
So, after getting our fish on numbers of fish, we thought we’d target bigger fish.
Here’s one!The day on that river went pretty well, again with pods of fish stacked in some areas, and other areas seemingly lifeless. The next day was the big “Hoorah,” as Christian was leaving the next day. I wanted to get him something special. The problem was my intended stream was brown, high and unfishable. I didn’t know what to do.
The morning of the intended float, my good friend and guiding buddy, Tony, called to let me know the river was down and clear! Christian and I packed the car and hit the river.
The river.It took some work, and some flipping of rocks to get the river figured out, but we started to hook-up in the first hole. Christian broke off on something big, and I had a decent Cuttie hit my nymph just as it hit the water! I missed that fish, but soon we found the bugs WSCs and Whitefish were taking.
The day was amazing. The weather was perfect. The river was perfect. We caught fish — most of which I didn’t photograph, as they were just average. But, about halfway down the river, Christian hooked in to something different.
We couldn’t believe the size of this Sucker — literally! It was a great fight and fun catch, but not exactly what we were after.
I tried throwing streamers in a couple holes, on the 3 pc., 8′, 6 wt. I had just gotten fishable. And I hooked a frickin’ Whitie! How does that happen? That streamer is about 5 inches long…But, we kept working hard and enjoying the day. We stopped on another hole, and Christian once again hooked up.
This was a big fish. We knew that even before we saw it. And we couldn’t believe what it was.
Yes, the Apex Predator of western Montana rivers — the rare and mighty Bull trout. This bad-boy measured 27 inches long and 13.5 inches in girth. We guessed around 7 or maybe 8 pounds!
The release.
Back in its lair.We celebrated with high-fives, yelling, cheering and scotch. That made the trip. Christian kept babbling about that fish for the rest of the float. Well, until I hooked up a ways downstream.
I don’t know what this is, but it’s BIG! I fought the fish for many minutes, and I couldn’t get it near the boat. The rod flexed all the way through, and I just couldn’t move the fish any closer to the net. I was afraid the rod was going to shatter.
So, I thought I’d take a break and sip some brew. Eventually, the fish wrapped my line around the anchor rope. I piled in the back and tried to work the line away, while Christian jumped to the sticks (oars), and pulled the anchor. I freed the line, and kept the fish on as we drifted downstream.Christian had never rowed a boat in his life, excepting the few strokes he took on the big flat river we floated the day before. He wasn’t real keen on being on the sticks on this rolly-tumbly river, with my huge fish on. But, he did a fine job of floating us down about 80 yards, where we beached against the bank. The fish shot under the frickin’ raft, and I couldn’t pull it out for a while. It wanted the dark. But, a few minutes later, Christian grabbed the net, I pulled a bit harder, and we landed ‘er!
Another Bully!
This bad-boy measured 25 inches even — I think. My tape only went to 23 inches. But it is the biggest Bull trout I’ve ever caught, and an amazing fight on cane! What a day.Christian and I had an adrenaline rush that lasted ’till we got home. It was everything we hoped for and far more. He didn’t want to go back, but he has a real job, and all that crap to get back to. I dropped him off at the Missoula airport, with images of monster fish rolling through his brain. He’s coming back this Fall.
I’m glad you guys enjoyed the report. Thank you. Zach, Ariell is a Large Munsterlander, a German versatile hunting dog. I used to have Mojo, a Llewellen Setter who passed away this Jan., and who I miss very much. Ariell is a great pup, at almost three years. She has a similar disposition to Setters, great hunting drive, but a bit better coat for cold/wet weather, and a bit more tendency to go after waterfowl–which Mojo wasn’t too fond of. She’s a great fishing companion, also!
The pale color on this Westslope Cuttie, indicates it has been in the reservoir, and a recent arrival to the stream.
Or it indicates that it is a cutt-bow.
(look at the white tips on the pelvic and anal fins)
😉The pale color on this Westslope Cuttie, indicates it has been in the reservoir, and a recent arrival to the stream.
Or it indicates that it is a cutt-bow.
(look at the white tips on the pelvic and anal fins)
😉Hybrid Cutt-Bow for sure.
Kelly.
Kelly and Mark: Very astute eyes, guys! It’s surely a Cuttbow, and it looks like I labeled the file as such, but didn’t realize it when I uploaded to the forum. Oops :-[. I wouldn’t say it is a Cuttbow, b/c of the light coloration, however, b/c most fish are lighter in lakes and get darker as they get upstream during spawning time (if anadromous or adfluvial). What looks to me like Rainbow hybridization in the noted individual, is the irregular spot shape — more “organic” less rounded. Generally Cutthroat spots are very round. Also there is a solid red stripe on the side. Even though Cutties have red stripes, they are usually splotchy, or broken, as seen in the examples below. Also, I wouldn’t use the white tips on fins as a deffinite characteristic for hybridization with Rainbows, either. I’ll detail why in the photos below. Thanks for being observant and pointing out the difference! 😎
Here is a genetically pure Westslope Cutthroat from central WASHINGTON! Yep. Washington. While exploring two seasons ago, I found a study that Dr. Behnke did for the Forest Service, stating that the fish in Cutthroat Lake, in the Cascades of Washington were genetically pure — as are the fish in the outlet stream. That was in the late 70s, but I believe this popn. is still an example of the pure WSCs in Washington. Note the white tips on the fins, and broken red stripe on the side. Very cool!
Here you can see the detail of the white tipped fins, as well as some “organic” spots closer to the tail. They are more round near the head, and less so, similar to a Rainbow, near the tail. There are so many differences in each popn., that it is hard to tell for sure a fish is hybridized without genetic tests. Even then, details get sketchy…
This is a Coastal Cutthroat trout from an isolated popn. on the east slope of the Cascades in south-central Washington. Notice the white tips on the fins! I found this a lot with the Coastal Cutts., and in the Westslope Cutt. popns. in Oregon and Washington. My theory is that the white tips on Cutthroat popns. become less common as the populations get farther from their original genetic ancestors (the Coastal Cutt.).So, we anglers used to seeing WSCs and YSC, in the Rocky Mountains tend to see no white spots. But anglers in Oregon and Washington, will. Yellowstone Park uses the white spots to determine if it’s a hybrid., but because of what I’ve seen in these photos, combined with genetic testing, I will often hold judgement until I get more info. I personally like to see combinations of phenotypic characteristics (i.e. spots and color), before I think it’s a hybrid. But, the mentioned…likely Cuttbow, in my post is most likely a hybrid, b/c of the solid stripe, combined with the “organic”/not-round, spots, in my opinion. Also, the Rock Creek system has had introgression with Rainbow trout. As soon as Rainbows get in a system, the genetic purity of the Cutties goes to hell; many times, even if they look like a pure Cutthroat, they can be very highly mixed with Rainbow genes. So, actually, every Cutthroat pictured is probably a Cuttbow, if looking just at genes… 😕
This is a lot of what I would like to point out in my book — the differences/similarities/variation, in each popn. of Cutthroat trout. The idea of what is a “pure” fish, is often changing, and a very interesting topic. In my mind, finding and catching the pure, native Cutthroat trout in it’s native — unreintroduced or stocked niche, is a highlight of fly fishing. It might be THE highlight of fly-fishing for me — if you throw in a good bottle of scotch and a bamboo fly rod ;). It just facinates the heck out of me!!!!!
Bamboo is only good for staking tomatoes………….and our eyes are pretty good at recognizing cutt-bows. I certainly hope that Mr. Glissmeyer will turn in a few fish this year and get one of those big rewards!
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