Pursuit of Utah’s Native Cutthroat Trout #4: Colorado River Cutthroat Trout

Cutthroat trout are the high functioning alcoholics of the salmonid clan; sometimes feasting with reckless abandonment and other times as trained as an entomology doctoral candidate. This trip is about a stream with a resident population of sauced-up cutties.

“Welcome to Wyoming”, the Google Maps app pings. I see a cartoon of a cowgirl and a bison pop up on my phone, mounted to the windshield of the car. It’s a breezy and overcast Saturday morning in July. I’m driving to pursue the Colorado River cutthroat trout, and because of the impassable Uinta mountain range, this route includes traversing a section of Wyoming before returning to the north slope of the mountain range on Utah soil.

I got the lead for this stream from James DeMoux’s 600 page bible on Utah fly fishing. It described the stream as having “native Colorado cutthroats up to 13 inches” and offering “classic conditions with a cobble and gravel bottom.” The next line about a big meadow near the wilderness area boundary being especially nice sealed the deal.

I arrived via a series of bumpy forestry roads. While this stream was very close in proximity to the trailhead of my Uinta backpacking trip, it did not require 31 miles of hiking to reach. On the contrary, it intersected a forestry road near the aforementioned meadow and this is where I rigged up and began fishing.

Immediately I noticed the water was shallow and rocky and I became suspicious that it even held trout at all as I paced downstream a ways, hoping to spook up signs of life. No luck. I tied on a small Adams and waded the shoreline to a fallen tree upstream. My suspicions vanished as the first cast resulted in a vicious surface strike. Unsuspecting such a fast strike, my reflexes overcompensated from the adrenaline and I yanked the fly from its mouth. A deep breath and a roll cast later and the trout was on! Soon my first Colorado cutthroat was in hand. I made sure to document this one well as I wasn’t sure if it would be the only one I’d see that day. I continued my way upstream, and with every pool and bend, the cutthroat revealed themselves. Occasionally, I would catch 5 or more from the same hole before wading on.

The terrain and surrounding wildlife of this stream was stunning. The shoreline was composed mostly of a wildflower meadow interspersed with clusters of tall pines. The flowers were in full summer bloom of bright blues, yellows, whites and reds.

The trout of this stream also possessed a unique and vivid coloration. I struggle when searching for ways to describe the beauty of the native cutthroat. The brookies have their bright spots, green bodies and crimson underbellies. The browns and rainbows with their own distinct and trademarked look. But the native cutthroat has such a varied and textured artist’s palette. Reds ranging from light pink spotting to the blood red mark that gives them their namesake. Little black beads of varying diameters line the length of their body. Brown to orange hues provide the perfect neutral canvas to stage this work of art.

Because of the high altitude, severe weather can form in a matter of minutes. I watched as the sky went from blue and overcast to dark grey. Cracks of thunder grew increasingly louder and I figured it would be best to pack it in at this point. In all, 21 Colorado cutthroat trout were caught on the trip. I hiked the meadow back to the car and took the old logging road out to Wyoming, before turning west towards Utah.