The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.
This one was surprisingly straightforward to identify. The lack of a sclerite at the base of the lateral hump narrows the field quite a bit, and the other options followed fairly obvious characteristics to Clostoeca, which only has one species, Clostoeca disjuncta.
Troutnut on Dec 9, 2006December 9th, 2006, 5:25 am EST
Heck of a fish Mike!
I don't have too many grip-n-grin pictures because I'm usually fishing by myself. If there's anyone else there to verify, I don't seem to catch any big fish!
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
GONZO on Dec 9, 2006December 9th, 2006, 6:51 am EST
A likely story, Jason! :) Actually, I sympathize. I have hundreds of fish photos--nearly all of them bad and on old-fashioned print film. Heck, I only recently converted to shooting slide film, which puts me a decade or so behind the digital revolution!
Gripngrin on Dec 9, 2006December 9th, 2006, 10:30 am EST
David, I'm guessing that Cutt was a Colorado Greenback. I don't believe it was not a Snake River, which are more tan/gold with smaller spots. Heck, we thought it was a Brown till we looked on the computer. After fifteen minutes of tug-o-war he was sooo lethargic,.. we made it a quick photo session. Took the photo with a Nikon 990 digital. Loved that camera. I was an early adopter of digital and used it while I was still guiding. Pictures make for happy customers, bigger tips and more return business.
This was a hell of a day. Mid March on private water where big fish occasionally move through. Actually, we were fishing for Browns gobbling milted green eggs below the Bow's. We both caught 50 between us both, all mostly 18 - 20 inchers, with four or five pigs mixed in.
We fondly remember this as the "Day of the Pigs".
A fellow did catch the new state record Cutt downstream from this stretch last summer. Very controversial because he landed it on a private ranch (aka jurassic park) where they stock big fish, feed them, etc. The fish I caught most likely swam upstream from JP. I don't
think there has been a native river cutthroat that big in Colorado for fifty years.