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Following Saturday's success chasing my first Westslope Cutthroat, my goal for Sunday was to find some closer to home. Once again ignoring the regional fishing guidebooks and chasing after half a sentence from an old technical report and some promising squiggles on Google Maps, we found another nice stream tumbling down out of the mountains. Again, there were willing trout in every pool.

My Google Maps sleuthing was a bit off, though. I chose my location based on the presence of some longer, slower, larger pools than were visible in most of the creek. Those turned out to be nearly empty, save for a few fingerlings. The best fish were in the more frequent plunge pools formed by the stream's abundant boulders. Interesting lesson learned.

Since moving to Washington in April, I've had a few chances to escape the crowds of the Seattle area and explore east of the Cascades, but one of my longtime goals -- to finally catch my first unambiguous, bonafide, beautiful Westslope Cutthroat -- had eluded me due to high water from spring snowmelt or fishing streams dominated by other trout. This weekend I went fishing and camping with my wife Lena & dog Taiga to check out a couple possible trout fishing spots.

Saturday, we dove into a labyrinth of forest roads, creeping along precipitous cliffs and changing one severely flat tire before arriving at a tiny stream in a high-altitude meadow. Having no previous information on this stream besides an old scientific report documenting the existence of the species, I was delighted to find one of the best small-stream fly fishing experiences I've had. There were fat, colorful Westslope Cutthroat in every likely-looking pool, and a few were pushing 10-11 inches, giants for the size of the water.