Blue-winged Olives
Baetis
Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.
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As far as I can tell, this species has only previously been reported from one site in Oregon along the Columbia gorge. However, the key characteristics are fairly unmistakable in all except for one minor detail:
— 4 small yellow spots on frons visible in photos
— Narrow occipital spinule row curves forward (but doesn’t quite meet on stem of ecdysial suture, as it's supposed to in this species)
— Short spinules on anterior margin of front legs
— Short rposterior row of blunt spinules on abdominal tergae, rather than elongated spinules dorsally
I caught several of these mature nymphs in the fishless, tiny headwaters of a creek high in the Wenatchee Mountains.
— 4 small yellow spots on frons visible in photos
— Narrow occipital spinule row curves forward (but doesn’t quite meet on stem of ecdysial suture, as it's supposed to in this species)
— Short spinules on anterior margin of front legs
— Short rposterior row of blunt spinules on abdominal tergae, rather than elongated spinules dorsally
I caught several of these mature nymphs in the fishless, tiny headwaters of a creek high in the Wenatchee Mountains.
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By Troutnut on August 16th, 2015
I was in Portland this week for the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society, and I had time early Monday morning before the sessions started to meet up with a fishing buddy from college (thanks, Willy!) and try for some trout. That area is in the midst of a serious drought, so fish were hard to come by, but we each managed to draw a bit of interest in our flies, and I finally landed one fish.
It was only about 8-9" long, but it was my first cutthroat ever! I've been running a website called "Troutnut" for far too long to have never caught one of North America's major species. Problem solved now. Next up: golden trout? One can hope!
It was only about 8-9" long, but it was my first cutthroat ever! I've been running a website called "Troutnut" for far too long to have never caught one of North America's major species. Problem solved now. Next up: golden trout? One can hope!
Photos by Troutnut from the Wilson River in Oregon
Comments / replies
Catskilljon on Aug 21, 2015August 21st, 2015, 3:27 am EDT
Nice! That is a good looking piece of water even in its low state. CJ
Martinlf on Aug 21, 2015August 21st, 2015, 6:36 am EDT
Beautiful photos. And congrats on the cutt. I have yet to catch one. And for me there's grayling. And goldens. And . . .. Pisces multos; vita brevis.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
RleeP on Aug 21, 2015August 21st, 2015, 7:14 am EDT
Congratulations, Jason!
I've caught a grand total of 2 Cutts, both out of a small trib of the SB of the McKenzie in Oregon. Size wise, they were just about identical twins at 13".
That's combined length, of course...:)
So, you're still up on me....
I've caught a grand total of 2 Cutts, both out of a small trib of the SB of the McKenzie in Oregon. Size wise, they were just about identical twins at 13".
That's combined length, of course...:)
So, you're still up on me....
Jmd123 on Aug 23, 2015August 23rd, 2015, 10:43 am EDT
Congrats, Jason! Another species to add to your "life list". They are pretty things, aren't they? I caught a few sea-run cutthroat while living on the Oregon coast back in '92-'93, and one more (though not on a fly rod) while on Vancouver Island back in 2001. That is beautiful looking water there too! Oregon is a beautiful state, and I would love to live and explore there again some day...
Jonathon
Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...
PaulRoberts on Aug 25, 2015August 25th, 2015, 7:31 am EDT
Nice. I spent some time in the Blue Mountains (catching spotted owls with the USFWS) and got to see many cutts in the small steep timber-strewn streams in the gulch bottoms, as well as blacktail deer. Didn't fish but I still remember them. The memory still quickens my heart a bit.
Oldredbarn on Oct 9, 2015October 9th, 2015, 6:36 am EDT
You actually were in the Lower 48! Incredible! I thought you had totally gone native up there and we would never see you again. :)
That is a pretty fish!
Spence
That is a pretty fish!
Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Wbranch on Oct 9, 2015October 9th, 2015, 12:04 pm EDT
Is that a genetically pure cutthroat or a rainbow/cut hybrid? I never saw a cut with such rainbow trout looking flanks. But then again there must be close to ten sub species of cutthroat found all over from Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Edit - I just Googled "Cutthroat trout" and found out that there are fourteen subspecies of cutthroat identified.
Edit - I just Googled "Cutthroat trout" and found out that there are fourteen subspecies of cutthroat identified.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Troutnut on Oct 9, 2015October 9th, 2015, 12:28 pm EDT
This is a coastal cutthroat trout, which looks like that. I was surprised and unsure at first, too.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
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