After moving down to Olympia Washington in the South Puget Sound several years ago I was excited to learn a new area for sea-run Cutthroat but I have been confronted with several challenges as I have been exploring the area and have had very limited success in my saltwater fishing. Yes I have caught fish but things have just been much less consistent than I would like.  In moving down to Olympia, I quickly recognized just how different the deep south Sound is than my previous home waters around Gig Harbor and on the Kitsap Peninsula. Deep South Sound tends to be much more estuarine than t ..read more

One of the aspects I love the most about living in western Washington is the amount of unique year round fishing options available. While we may not have that great quality dry fly fishing that the Rockies, the sheer diversity of native salmonids, presence of anadromous fish and the unique fisheries help to make up for it. Growing up near Puget Sound, I spent countless hours of my teens and twenties fishing the saltwater for sea-run Coastal Cutthroat, but after spending several years guiding I had largely moved on from this fishery in favor of moving waters over the past few years. However, a ..read more

This past summer I had the privilege to make two trips out to the Colorado Rockies in pursuit native Cutthroat. While my original goal was just to catch the two subspecies of Cutthroat that I had yet to catch, I ended up expanding my second trip to pursue all of the extant Cutthroat lineages in the state and here they are. Green River Cutthroat - Blue lineage - Yampa drainage The Green River Cutthroat or Blue lineage of the Colorado River Cutthroat are found in streams draining to the Green River, such as the White River and Yampa River drainages. These Cutthroat were also stocked ext ..read more

After over a month in which I was unable to get out on the water, I finally found a day where both my and Dyllon's schedules lined up along with a gap in Washington's persistently rainy weather align and made a go of it. Being in the transition between the fall trout and winter steelhead season, we decided to try out a small coastal stream that we figured should offer a good opportunity for Coastal Cutthroat, Coho Salmon and even the potential for some early steelhead. The drive out to the coast, was smooth but as we approached the stream, we watched as the temperature dropped from a reasonabl ..read more

After the amazing fishing of the previous day, we decided to shake things up a bit a try out another stream to see if we couldn't capture magic in a bottle once again. This stream had been on my hit list for years as it hosts a run of Sockeye Salmon and spawning Sockeye typically attract hungry trout and char. On top of that the area is noted for its amazing scenery, so even if the fishing didn’t live up to expectations, the scenery was bound to make it worthwhile. As such, by first light we found ourselves at the trailhead rigged up and ready to go. A misty morning in the mountains ..read more

This time of the year, it is amazing the difference that a few days makes on the river. After getting out a little over a week ago to try my luck for trout behind spawning salmon, I was able to find a half day to get back on the water once again. During my last outing, spawning had been intense, with a mix of Chinook, Pink and Chum Salmon, but just a few days later much of the spawning appeared to have dropped off. Chinook had completely died off and the Pinks that were left looked to be nearing the end of the line as well, but now the Coho had started streaming into the river in earnest.  ..read more

After my trip to Colorado, I returned home excited for the salmon spawning season and the trout that follow them in search of eggs. While the best fishing is typically in September, getting out just just wasn’t in the cards for me as shortly after my daughter started school, both her and I came down with a nasty flu. It wasn’t until the last weekend of the month that my energy had returned enough that I finally was feeling like myself and was able to get out on the river with Dyllon. Dawn on the river We lucked out on the day, as recently rains had kicked the flows up a bit drawing f ..read more

The American Fisheries Society recently published their 8th Edition of the Common and Scientific Names of Fisheries from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which contains a major change to the classification of Cutthroat Trout. This instead of a single species, this change elevates the four major lineages of Cutthroat Trout first identified by Robert Behnke to four full species. These species are: Coastal Cutthroat Cutthroat Trout - Oncorhynchus clarkii Westslope Cutthroat Trout - Oncorhynchus lewisi Lahontan Cutthroat Trout - Oncorhynchus henshawi&n ..read more

Monday August 28th: On my last day in Colorado, I had my sights set on catching a Greenback Cutthroat. While I had once believed that I had caught Greenback Cutthroat in Rocky Mountain National Park, genetic evidence indicated that those fish were actually Colorado River Cutthroat and the only remaining population of Greenback Cutthroat was found in a small stream called Bear Creek on Pikes Peak. I had planned to return to Colorado once restoration efforts had established some viable populations and with news of natural reproduction occurring in some of these streams the time had finally come ..read more

After my first couple trips looking for native trout in western Washington I had half a day free and decided to head up to one of my favorite rivers to see what I could find. My goal for the day was to see if I couldn't find some larger migratory Coastal Rainbow Trout or anadromous Coastal Cutthroat entering freshwater anticipating the upcoming feast of salmon eggs. As such I came equipped with three rods, one for streamers, a nymph rig and a dry rig with a mouse pattern tied on to try in the log jams. A beautiful day on the water When I arrived at the river, it was running low and cl ..read more