Fly Fishing Insider Newsletter featuring Coastal Cutthroat Trout

Coastal Cutthroat Trout
	Cutthroat are found in four more-or-less distinct areas correlating to the four major cutthroat subspecies. They are: 1) The Coastal Cutthroat, found along the Pacific Coast to about 100 miles inland from the Eel River drainage in California to Prince William Sound in Alaska. 2) The West Slope cutthroat, found in parts of Alberta, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. 3) The Lahontan Cutthroat found in central and north central Nevada. 4) The Yellowstone Cutthroat found in the interior
Rocky Mountains from Montana to New Mexico.

Although there are variations among the subspecies (and among races within the subspecies), cutthroats usually have greenish backs with yellow or silver sides showing many dark gray or black spots, and a slash of red on the lower jaw, which inspired it's name. Where cutthroats cross-breed with rainbows, the rainbow's markings dominate, making hybrids difficult to distinguish from pure rainbows. Cutthroats are generally considered the most easily duped trout, but at times they can be difficult

Resident mountain-stream cutthroat. Photo by Mark Bachmann.

to catch and generally provide enough of a challenge to offer good sport. Although the world-record cutthroat caught in 1925 weighed a whopping 41 pounds, that particular race of fish was determined extinct in 1945. Today, with variations among subspecies and habitat, the average stream cutthroat will be between 9 and 11 inches, and one over 16 is a beauty. In lakes and ponds they vary widely and can grow up to 6 pounds. The real charm, however, of catching a pure, native, cutthroat lies not in its size or in the difficulty of catching it, but in both its beauty and relative rarity.
The Coastal Cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki) is native in Oregon in all watersheds west of the Cascade Mountains. Coastal Cutthroats like Rainbows generally become sea run where they have access to the Pacific Ocean. It is well known that introduced rainbow hatchery trout have interbred and destroyed many interior region Cutthroat populations. However, in most of our Oregon coastal and Willamette Valley streams, Rainbows (steelhead) and Coastal Cutthroat inhabit the same watersheds in apparent harmony. Some cross breading seems to occur, but pure strains of both species have been able to survive for many generations. Both species do inhabit the Sandy River basin near our store in both resident and sea run forms. At present Cutthroats seem to prefer the smaller headwater streams and the resident Rainbows like bigger water. Even though the two species may inhabit similar areas they do exhibit slightly different personalities. Rainbows are less wary about the approach of people but can be very selective feeders. Cutthroats are vary shy and are quick to run and hide if your approach is not stealthy, but they are opportunistic feeders. That has been their undoing. Unless they are scared they tend to grab any bait or fly that is put in front of them. You need a few select patterns when fishing resident Coastal

Links
Cutthroat Trout
Cutthroat Trout-2
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Local Habitat

Cutthroat. A Royal Wulff, Parachute Adams, Elk Hair Caddis, Bees, and Ants for dry flies and gray Hackle Peacock, Hares Ear, Prince Nymph and Shone fly Nymph for wet flies. Lighter weight tackle such as a #1 to #3 rods balance well with the size of fish you will encounter here.

	Rio's Modern Spey Casting, (3)-DVD Set, 4-hours Cast of Characters: Simon Gawesworth, George Cook, Mike McCune, Scott O'Donnell, Dana Sturn, Ed Ward. The most comprehensive film on spey casting ever made. This triple disc DVD from Rio stars the notable team of experts listed above. Not only learn from these masters the classic Single Spey, Double Spey, Switch cast and Roll cast, but also the modern spey casts such as the Snake roll, Circle Spey, Snap-T, Snap-Z, Wambat cast, Underhand cast, Spiral Spey, Spiral Double Spey, Jelly
Roll, Perry Poke and Skagit casting. This film also teaches the viewer the most common faults to recognize and avoid and has superb bio-kinetic footage so you and study the hand, arm and body movement of each cast. There is also great information on casting sinking lines, saltwater spey casting and trout fishing spey casts with single hand rods.
Item	Description	Price	To Top
260695	Rio's Modern Spey Casting, 3-DVD set	$49.95

February In Barra De Navida, Mexico Two of our best friends livin' it up in the tropics. Mike Senatra sent us these pictures. He said the wind blew hard for five days straight which left him and Troy Bachmann to hang around port with little to do. On the sixth day they caught eight big dorados and some really large sierra mackerels. Looks like they made up for lost time.

Troy Bachmann with a bull Dorado that ate a FPF Blue Back	Mike Senatra with a Sierra Mackerel that ate a FPF K.T.'s Squid

Beginning Fly Tying Class Three, two-hour sessions that will teach the beginner the basic skills of fly tying so you can construct your own trout flies. This class comes complete with a Wapsi Fly Tying Kit that contains all of the tools, materials and instruction book you will need to get started. Included are a fly tying vise, scissors, bobbin etc. Kit value is $49.95. The classes are 3pm to 5pm, March 25, April 1 and April 8. There will be plenty of hands-on help in our state-of -the-art class room. Eight students maximum, six spots are taken, two spots are open, sign up now.
Item	Description	Price	To Top
BFT-CLASS	Beginning fly tying class. Three sessions: March 25, April1 and 8, 6-hours total	$75

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