Cutthroat Slam is an adventure in fishing, and life

The Colorado River cutthroat is one of the four subspecies of cutthroat anglers need to catch to achieve the Utah Cutthroat Slam.

By Mark Hutchings

The last cutthroat was the easiest – and the second smallest -- of the four qualifying fish. 

“I’m done; that was fast,” I shouted to Bruiser, my youngest son, as I netted the pretty little Bear River cutthroat.  At 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, July 2, 2016, I was one of the first 15 anglers to complete the Utah Cutthroat Slam by hooking, landing, photographing and releasing the 8-inch trout about 18 miles up Logan Canyon. 

The fish took a hare’s ear nymph in some pocket water, and it happened less than 10 minutes from the time I waded into the river.

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A Bear River cutthroat for the Utah Cutthroat Slam.

For me, landing the Bear River cutthroat marked the culmination of a month-long, 1,000-mile, five-outing quest to catch at least one of all four subspecies of Utah cutthroat trout in their native ranges. 

These subspecies include the Bear River, Bonneville, Colorado River, and the Yellowstone cutthroat.  The four subspecies descend from the original cutthroat trout of the Intermountain West, but they each have defining characteristics as a result of having evolved over time in separate major river drainages in Utah.

All other species of trout found in Utah, including rainbows, browns, brooks, goldens, lake trout and a two hybrids -- tiger trout and splake -- are Utah residents as a result of intentional introductions beginning as early as the 1880’s.

This “easy” catch of the Bear River cutthroat was definitely in contrast to the first 8 hours of the day.  At 5 a.m. I picked up Bruiser, who had been “given a day off” by his wife and children to fish with his dad.  We were both excited as we ate breakfast in the car and discussed our strategy for the day.  Our plan was to drive to the Raft River Mountains in northwest Utah, catch some Yellowstone cutthroats and then drive over to Logan Canyon and try for some Bear River cutthroats before returning home that evening. 

About 3 hours and 200 miles after leaving, we parked our Subaru on a ridge overlooking Sawmill Fork, a tiny creek in the northern foothills of the Raft River Mountain Range in the extreme northwest corner of Utah. Small streams in the Raft River Mountains represent the only native habitat for Yellowstone cutthroats in Utah.

After stretching our arms and legs and rigging up our fly rods, we made the short 100-yard walk downhill through grass and sagebrush, watching carefully for rattlesnakes, since we had seen and photographed a four-footer on a dirt road as we drove in. 

Sawmill Fork was just barely a trickle of clear mountain water a few feet wide with an average depth of less than a foot. Paul Thompson, Utah DWR Aquatics Manager for the Northern Region, had assured us that there was indeed a population of Yellowstone cutthroats in this creek and in a few other small streams in the area. 

 “There’s no way any respectable fish would live in such a place,” Bruiser said as we took turns trying to convince a trout to eat our artificial bugs. 

In fact, after two hours of crawling, ducking and “dapping”, we finally admitted temporary defeat. Our optimism about landing a Yellowstone cutthroat in Sawmill Fork was fading quickly, and we decided to follow directions given to us by Paul Thompson to the Left Fork of Johnson Creek. 

We were glad we had our AWD Subaru because of rocky places that would have been difficult or impossible in a sedan with lower ground clearance.  When we finally parked by the stream, it was close enough to lunchtime that we decided to take a break and eat before starting our upstream hike.

There seemed to be a little more water in this Left Fork of Johnson Creek and a little less vegetation than there had been on Sawmill Fork.  In fact, by the time we started fishing again a mile-and-a-half and about 700 feet in elevation upstream from our parked car, we were in a forest of scattered quaking aspen and some conifers in addition to the various bushes and smaller trees that hugged the bank of the stream in many places.  We figured we actually had a chance to finally get our fish!  After crossing a small fence, Bruiser and I split up to fish, planning to leapfrog each other every 50 or 100 yards as we encountered little pools of water below small cascades.

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Fishing for Yellowstone cutthroat trout in their native Utah range.

Within a few minutes I heard an excited yell from upstream. “Got him.”  As he was working his way upstream, looking for likely water, Bruiser had spotted an 8” trout feeding in a small pool and was able to sneak up, stretch his fly rod over a bush and dance his caddis fly on the water right where he had seen the trout.  This triggered an immediate strike.  Landing the fish was swift; pictures were taken and Bruiser was soon by my side giving me a well-deserved fist bump and then providing coaching instructions on how to catch my Yellowstone cutthroat. 

Within a few minutes we located another likely pool, maybe 3 feet in diameter.  I stepped across the creek a few yards downstream, crept upstream on the opposite bank from Bruiser’s observation point, reached my fly rod carefully over the bush right next to the targeted pool and let out about 5 feet of 4X tippet with a caddis imitation dangling on the surface of the crystal clear water.  Because the bush was blocking my view of the little pool, I couldn’t see the exact placement of the fly, but Bruiser assured me from the other side of the stream that the placement “looked about right”.  I let the bug sit for a moment on the surface, and as I raised the rod to try to place the fly again, I felt a subtle take and lifted a beautiful 5-inch-long Yellowstone cutthroat from its hiding place.  Guiding the fish into some shallow water, we quickly took some pictures, released the fish unharmed, and after some more exultant shouts and high fives we started our half-hour hike back downhill to the car.

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A Yellowstone cutthroat trout for the Utah Cutthroat Slam.

We had accomplished our first goal of the day: Catch, photograph, and release a Yellowstone cutthroat trout in its native range.  It was 2 p.m. when we were finally on the road again.  Two-and-a-half hours and 130 miles later we arrived at the Logan River, where I managed to catch and release the Bear River cutthroat mentioned above.

My quest for the Utah Cutthroat Slam began about five weeks previous to our Raft River Mountain Range adventure.  While I was surfing the DWR web site for current Utah fishing information I came across a teaser for the recently-created Utah Cutthroat Slam, a cooperative effort between Trout Unlimited and the Utah Division of Wildlife.  For a $20 donation to the cutthroat recovery program -- $19 of which goes directly to habitat restoration for native Utah cutthroat trout – anglers are issued a “license-like” document that triggers the “quest” for the four different cutthroat trout found in Utah.  Cutthroats caught before the angler purchases the $20 license do not count toward the slam.  And each cutthroat must be caught in designated areas as described in the Cutthroat Slam rules.  There is no restriction on how the fish must be caught -- artificial flies, lures or bait are all acceptable methods for purposes of the slam -- except that anglers must abide by the state rules for particular water they are fishing.

At 6 a.m. on the morning of May 30^th we were on our way to the White River near Soldier Summit up Spanish Fork Canyon with high hopes of starting our adventure by catching some Colorado River cutthroats.

This water eventually flows into the Green River which meets the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park.  According to Mike Slater, DWR Regional Sportfish Project Leader, cutthroat trout caught in either the White River or Fish Creek are considered Colorado River cutthroats for purposes of the Slam.

After a morning of angling, using a number of artificial bugs, ranging from San Juan worms to hare's ears to pheasant tails to zebra midges to Copper Johns to dry flies to woolly buggers, all flies that had proven successful on previous outings for cutthroats, we didn’t hook one single trout.  In fact, the only fish landed was a 3-inch mountain whitefish by Bruiser.

The morning fishing was a bit disappointing but the country was gorgeous, the day was beautiful, we fished hard while we were on the river, and I enjoyed the company of my youngest son.  After some discussion during the drive home, we decided that some snow-melt runoff was still occurring, causing the section of river where we fished to be a bit off-color, which created some difficult angling conditions.  The “skunking”, we decided had nothing to do with the lack of skill on our part.  At least that’s our story.

After failing to catch a cutthroat – or any other fish for that matter -- on my maiden voyage, I decided to enlist the help of Dustin Olson, one of my former students and an avid fly fisherman.  Dustin and I have fly fished together from time to time for more than 15 years.  Following a brief explanation of the Utah Cutthroat Slam, Dustin signed up.  Then one evening after work, about two weeks following my initial unsuccessful trip to the White River, we met up near Dustin’s office and headed up Spanish Fork Canyon.  Our destination:  Fish Creek.  We had both had experience on this particular stretch of river and had consistently landed cutthroats as well as brown trout. 

Our goal for the evening was to each land a Colorado River cutthroat and really kick off our Cutthroat Slam.   And what a beautiful evening it turned out to be -- overcast, some light rain, about 55 or 60 degrees, little or no wind.  In the next few hours we managed to land a handful of fish.  Dustin brought at least four cutthroats to the net, but all I managed to hook were brown trout, although I’m always pleased when I catch trout of any kind with my fly rod.  The last mile or two of our hike back to the truck was after dark, but a headlamp I always carry with me provided plenty of illumination.  The drive to and from Fish Creek, the hike in and out, and the visiting and catching up on our professional lives were worth the whole trip, even though I was still shut out on the Cutthroat Slam; plus, it was 11:30 p.m. when I finally got home! 

So far, the Cutthroat Slam wasn’t going the way I had planned.  I was supposed to have had at least a Colorado River cutthroat by now; but still not a single cutthroat to show for my efforts.  I tired again with another good friend, Tim Halladay, along with another former student, Nicolai Dogadailo, who is originally from Ukraine.

We were on our way back to Fish Creek to try to catch some Colorado River cutthroats.  This time we left early in the morning and after parking, rigging up and hiking upstream for a few miles, we began to fish.  After about 30 minutes of nymphing in some really pretty runs, I finally had a strike and hooked a fish.  When I saw that the fish was a cutthroat I fought it carefully and eased it into my net.

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A Colorado River cutthroat for the Utah Cutthroat Slam.

We continued to fish until early afternoon, and I managed to land and photograph several more cutthroats, the largest of which was about 13” in length (insert picture 3196).  The bugs of choice were prince nymphs and some sowbugs I had tied up the night before.  I also hooked and lost several other fish, including a big tiger trout that broke me off after a short fight.

Back at the truck we ate our lunch and then headed back down Spanish Fork Canyon toward home.  On the way down we decided to check out Soldier Creek and maybe try for a Bonneville cutthroat.  I had been told by a DWR fisheries biologist that any cutthroat trout we caught in this particular drainage would be considered a Bonneville cutthroat.  If I could catch a cutthroat here, that would complete half of my Cutthroat Slam, leaving only a Yellowstone cutthroat and a Bear River cutthroat to be landed.

We took the turnoff where Soldier Creek flowed under the highway and drove slowly along, looking for signs of fish in the little stream that paralleled the dirt road.  Almost immediately, Tim spotted a trout lazily feeding in the stream under a tree, so we stopped; I grabbed my fly rod, sneaked up to the stream and tried to place an Adams dry fly just above the fish, but the current, coupled with the trees and vegetation through which I had to thread my fly made the cast just too tricky for me. 

So after a few frustrating minutes of casting and unhooking my fly from branches of trees, I finally walked downstream and discovered a nice pool above a beaver dam. I was able to drop my fly with a nice 30’ cast, missing trees behind and to the side of me, to a spot on the beaver pond right next to an overhanging limb where I could see a fish feeding.  It took about three or four casts to get the bug to the feeding fish, but I was rewarded when a 12" Bonneville cutthroat swam over a few feet and ate the fly.  The fight was short; I landed the fish, took pictures and released the unharmed fish back into the beaver pond.

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A long hike, a hot day, challenging conditions were happily exchanged for the Colorado River cutthroat and the Bonneville cutthroat that filled the first two trout on my way to the Slam.  Besides that, the conversation and camaraderie among friends was once again just as important, and probably more so, than the actual fishing success.

The Utah Cutthroat Slam has been a wonderful experience for me. Learning about the different trout, their home range, and experiencing time together with friends and family makes the Utah Cutthroat Slam Challenge one that I recommend to all those who love the outdoors.

Mark Hutchings is a professor of Construction Management at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He has been fly fishing for many years.