Nevada Native Fish Slam and More: A Fish Report
I recently got back from a fly fishing trip around some of the states here in the western half of our country, in search of Salmonids in Nevada, in order to complete the NDOW’s Native Fish Slam program and to sample some new waters I’ve had my eye on for a long time. Specifics? Details? Sorry…not gonna find ‘em here, but I do hope you enjoy the pictures and can take the trip vicariously with me.
I started out in Eastern Nevada in search of the Bonneville Cutthroat, a nice specimen of which I caught and picture here:
My impression of Nevada is often the hot, dusty and dry parts in the western reaches I most often encounter. It was nice to see some high peaks, forests with evergreens and aspens and of course: small creeks teeming with trout. It kind of reminded me of the east slope of the Sierra. A memorable eastern Nevada vista:
One of the trout I had to catch for the Slam was one that I have caught before in Montana and Wyoming, but never in Nevada, In fact, I didn’t even know that they were even IN the Silver State. To get to the streams where they are found, I had to drive 40 miles (one way!) on a dusty, washboard road and then ask permission of a ranch hand if I could fish the creek that ran through private property. His English was about as good as my Spanish, but together we were able to communicate and access was granted. The deeper into the canyon I went, the better the fishing was. On my way out I expressed my gratitude to the ranch hand in the form of a bottle of red wine, which he seemed to really appreciate. I doubt he would’ve said no to a cold beer either, but I didn’t have any with me. Here’s a typical Yellowstone cuttie from the stream I fished:
Next was a deep canyon in far northern Nevada, but west from where the Yellowstones were found. This is a place I’ve heard about for years but never made the drive. My loss. The place was great! Very scenic, friendly locals and there was a solid hatch of salmonflies and cicadas going on, so the fish were more than willing to come up to the top for big, bushy dry flies.
Going into the canyon:
The river:
Fish food:
Lots of Columbia Basin Redbands to be caught…as many as you wanted, in fact. Most were bigger than this little guy, but this picture turned out the best:
There is also a population of Bull Trout, a typical one shown here. They do take a bit more effort than the Redbands to catch, though:
The area also has a lot of interesting history and real small town feel. Dirt road all the way through town. A year-round population of 25 folks, one store, one post office, one gas station (with only two pumps) and TWO bars. Priorities, I guess!
There are also dozens of cool looking hoodoos on the way into the town, some being pretty spectacular:
I eventually headed further west on more dusty and washboarded road to get a mountain whitefish, a fish I typically don’t go out of my way to catch, but it is required for the Native Fish Slam. 30-ish miles later, I found this small but inviting river:
The fishing was crazy! I honestly don’t think most people bother to drive all of the way out there to fish, so the rainbows were all over any dry fly that you could chuck out onto the water. Normally I would be more than happy with this situation, but I was there to catch a whitefish. I eventually got into this one:
I previously caught the last fish in the Native Fish Slam program (the Lahontan cutt), so: mission accomplished!
I was in the mood for some cooler temps and greener terrain, so I headed north on a sparsely traveled highway into Idaho. I ended up in the Clearwater region and the day I arrived it was raining and had a high of 47. Quite a contrast to Nevada!
I drove to a tributary stream for one of the major rivers in the area and spent a few days fishing for West Slope cutts, a typical one shown here:
Here’s the “shall remain nameless” stream:
And a local that I shared my campsite with. This deer had NO fear of humans at all.
I also fished some of the larger rivers in the area, having a really interesting experience one evening. It was around 7:30 PM and there was a nice hatch of PMDs (or PEDs), so I tied on a dry pattern and started catching some fish. I worked my way upstream and suddenly: no more takes. I switched to a little yellow stone pattern (since there were a few around) and BAM! Back on ‘em. This was a distance of less than 40 yards away! I left the little yellow stone dry on and tied on a PED for a trailer, but the fish higher in the riffle only hit the stone. I walked downstream again and the fish were all over the PED and ignored the stone. Freakish! I experimented with this phenomenon until it got too dark (and it started to rain again), but I was blown away on how selective the trout could be in such a short distance from one another. Anyone else ever see anything like this?
Eventually I meandered my way through Washington, Oregon (with a few days in Ashland) and back to California and home.
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Originally Posted by Grateful Trout
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