Pursuit of Utah’s Native Cutthroat Trout #2: Bear River Cutthroat

My first and only chance at catching a Bear River cutthroat trout came in the form of a weekend camping trip with a group of my fellow co-ops in early July. Utah has some pretty restrictive rules (in my opinion) when it comes to camping. Staying at a campsite on national forest land requires a reservation and camping permit purchased no later than 5 days prior to camping. This makes spontaneously planned camping trips nearly impossible. The state does, however, allow for ‘dispersed’ camping i.e. no access to campground or facilities within certain areas. This was the path we had to take.
 
So, we packed the car up on the afternoon of July 3rd and headed towards Logan Canyon, located in the northeast corner of the state. The plan was to drive to a campsite and disperse camp outside of the campground boundaries. When we arrived, there was a bridge taped-off for repairs that had connected two regions of the campsite. One side was the actual campsite itself which was relatively well maintained; a pit toilet and a few picnic tables. The other side of the bridge only had some broken cement pillars where two tables once stood and a small fire ring. It was pretty run-down and unattended to, but it was a perfect spot to set up our two tents so we took our chances at being found out.

A stream flowed within earshot of our tents; a small feeder tributary of the Logan River. I hadn’t packed any food for myself and optimistically planned on eating trout. After setting up camp, I got the fly rod out and went to business. I knew prior to the trip that the Logan River is home to Bear River cutthroats, brown and rainbow trout, but was discouraged when I read an old DNR report that this particular tributary was “Brown trout dominant”. So I didn’t get my hopes up for catching this specie of cutthroat here.
 
You can probably imagine the surprise on my face when my first cast of the evening produced a small Bear River cutthroat that devoured my mayfly imitation as it drifted past its logjam domain. I ecstatically photographed and released this one. The next cast produced a second, larger cutthroat which I saved for the campfire. (Disclaimer: I usually would not condone harvesting native fish such as these, but given the circumstances I had to make an exception) I checked the state fishing regulations before coming and one is allowed to harvest 2 cutthroat trout per day from the Logan River system.

I moved from hole to hole, wet wading in my hiking boots and quickly realized that this stream was packed with some very decent sized cutthroats given it’s overall depth and size. I caught 7 trout, released 5 and kept 2 before heading back to camp.
 
I filleted the trout in the same style I was taught by my Wisconsin fly fishing buddy, Cordell and was able to use my new fillet knife and leather sheath given to me as a gift and constructed by none other than the legendary Capt. David Resop.
 
I’ve never cooked a trout over an open campfire before, and it was quite the learning experience. After cleaning the trout, I coated them with salt and pepper and placed a chunk of butter inside the body cavity. Then I took tinfoil and wrapped them burrito style with just the head and eye exposed (Sleeping Bags as I called them) and placed both on the grill grating over the open fire. 

Usually a tell tale way to know you’re trout is safe to eat is when the eye on the underside turns white. Because the heat distribution of the campfire wasn’t exactly uniform, the eye turned white much before the underside was actually done cooking. Long story short, I ended up eating some undercooked trout and experienced mild symptoms of food poisoning for the next week. 

The next morning was the 4th of July and I woke up just as the sun was rising to get some morning fishing in. My hiking boots were still cold and damp from the previous days’ wet wading. I grabbed my 4 weight and headed to a new section upstream. A really nice run bordered a Mormon scout camp site and a number of tents were set up mere feet from the stream. I wasn’t about to pass up this nice stretch! I’m positive more than a few scouts were woken up to the ZZZT-ZZZT-ZZZT of fly line peeling off of my click-and-paw reel. That’s the sound of freedom in the morning. 

The cutthroat weren’t super active this morning, but the ones that did take a fly were nicely sized and colored up beautifully from their recent spawn. I was able to convince two into taking my small Adams, photographed and then released. I made it back to base camp just as the rest of  my group was waking up. We broke camp and ate a nice breakfast in Logan before returning to Ogden for the holiday festivities. 

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