Caught my first cutthroat trout!

Caught my first cutthroat trout!

By Troutnut on August 17th, 2015

I was in Portland this week for the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society, and I had time early Monday morning before the sessions started to meet up with a fishing buddy from college (thanks, Willy!) and try for some trout. That area is in the midst of a serious drought, so fish were hard to come by, but we each managed to draw a bit of interest in our flies, and I finally landed one fish.

It was only about 8-9" long, but it was my first cutthroat ever! I've been running a website called "Troutnut" for far too long to have never caught one of North America's major species. Problem solved now. Next up: golden trout? One can hope!

Photos by Troutnut from the Wilson River in Oregon

My first cutthroat trout! A coastal cutthroat in the 8-9" range. From the Wilson River in Oregon.

Cloud of Trico spinners over a riffle From the Wilson River in Oregon.

View 6 larger pictures»

Comments / replies

Catskilljon	August 21st, 2015, 7:27 am
Upstate NY Posts: 160	Nice! That is a good looking piece of water even in its low state. CJ

Martinlf	August 21st, 2015, 10:36 am
Moderator Palmyra PA Posts: 3233	Beautiful photos. And congrats on the cutt. I have yet to catch one. And for me there's grayling. And goldens. And . . .. Pisces multos; vita brevis.
	"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'" --Fred Chappell

RleeP	August 21st, 2015, 11:14 am
NW PA - Pennsylvania's Glacial Pothole Wonderland Posts: 398	Congratulations, Jason! I've caught a grand total of 2 Cutts, both out of a small trib of the SB of the McKenzie in Oregon. Size wise, they were just about identical twins at 13". That's combined length, of course...:) So, you're still up on me....

Jmd123	August 23rd, 2015, 2:43 pm
Oscoda, MI Posts: 2611	Congrats, Jason! Another species to add to your "life list". They are pretty things, aren't they? I caught a few sea-run cutthroat while living on the Oregon coast back in '92-'93, and one more (though not on a fly rod) while on Vancouver Island back in 2001. That is beautiful looking water there too! Oregon is a beautiful state, and I would love to live and explore there again some day... Jonathon
	No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

PaulRoberts	August 25th, 2015, 11:31 am
Colorado Posts: 1776	Nice. I spent some time in the Blue Mountains (catching spotted owls with the USFWS) and got to see many cutts in the small steep timber-strewn streams in the gulch bottoms, as well as blacktail deer. Didn't fish but I still remember them. The memory still quickens my heart a bit.

Oldredbarn	October 9th, 2015, 10:36 am
Novi, MI Posts: 2608	You actually were in the Lower 48! Incredible! I thought you had totally gone native up there and we would never see you again. :) That is a pretty fish! Spence
	"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood

Wbranch	October 9th, 2015, 4:04 pm
York & Starlight PA Posts: 2733	Is that a genetically pure cutthroat or a rainbow/cut hybrid? I never saw a cut with such rainbow trout looking flanks. But then again there must be close to ten sub species of cutthroat found all over from Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Edit - I just Googled "Cutthroat trout" and found out that there are fourteen subspecies of cutthroat identified.
	Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.

Troutnut	October 9th, 2015, 4:28 pm
Administrator Bellevue, WA Posts: 2737	This is a coastal cutthroat trout, which looks like that. I was surprised and unsure at first, too.
	Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D. Troutnut and salmonid ecologist

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