Headwaters of the Colorado and Green Rivers still shelter brightly painted Colorado River cutthroat.

The Bear River, wobbling in an indecisive, severely inebriated fashion between Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho, remains a stronghold for beautiful Bonneville cutts.

Back from the brink of extinction, Lahontans inhabiting Nevada’s Pyramid Lake rank among the planet’s largest cutts, creating the odd spectacle of shoreline fly anglers using stepladders as casting platforms. For Yellowstone cutthroat fans, the primary pilgrimage destination is the trout’s expansive, namesake watershed in Wyoming and Montana. We quickly registered, moved, and settled in for a wonderful five-day stay.Ĭutthroat bums roaming the American West know the marquee waters like teenagers touting their favorite bands. She threw her pack on the picnic table, raced back to our site, and rousted me out of my cozy sleeping bag, where I was still recovering from celebratory campfire doses of bourbon: “Dude, get up! You won’t believe the campsite I just scored.” A perfect creekside camp at Kelly Forks, in the Clearwater National Forest The next morning, my ambitious, early-rising wife did a fresh campground reconnaissance and discovered the best streamside site had just been vacated. Forest Service’s Kelly Forks Campground in northwest Idaho-and snapped up one of the few remaining campsites.

After a long drive, Mary and I rolled into our isolated headquarters-the U.S.

Fishing planet white moose lake salmon