We just returned from a nice get-away, fishing for Lahontan
cutthroat trout in
Washington
State. Andrew, Amelia,
& I enjoyed the warm weather – it was +28C when we arrived and the weather
stayed above +20C for the trip, save for the last day which was considerably
cooler and the winds blew straight out of hell.
Lahontan cutthroat trout were stocked to a few alkaline
lakes in Washington
State and they have done
well. We had fished this lake a couple of years ago and returned as the
sight-fishing opportunities are good and the fish are very accommodating. Well,
that all and we were getting tired of the endless, cold spring here in Alberta. I know, I know,
we've really suffered since coming home after 3 months in New Zealand.
Lahontan cutthroats tend to cruise quickly along the
shallows and drop off zones of the lake on their feeding cycles of the lake.
They literally cruise at a quick walking pace, feeding like fast paced vacuums
as they go. The constant movement serves them well as they are on constant look
out for food. They seldom come up to feed this time of the year, focusing on
food mid depth along shore. They’ll rise in the water column but a very low %
will take dries. Apparently that can change on summer evenings.
In all honesty, these Lahontan cutthroat are perhaps the
lowest IQ of cutthroat brethren – and that’s saying something! While providing
excellent optics for sight-fishing, being able to walk along the shoreline,
pacing aside the pods or singles that swim past quickly clues you in to the
fact they aren’t terribly spooky. I often found myself walking along side a few
fish, flipping flies to them from a rod length’s distance from me. It’s a great
place for beginners to pick up on leading fish – you can literally smack
indicators on the surface just ahead of them, allowing the flies to sink to
feeding depth. If one of the group takes, great! If not, simply walk to get ahead
of them and lead them again. Chances are that within ½ dozen leads with the
same flies you’ll get a take. They aren’t spooky, aren’t terribly discerning,
and eventually you’ll get one of them to eat. Some days they want dead drift
food, other days they key on moving food. It’s fun, but it can get tedious if
you’re looking for a bit of a challenge. The only real downside to the fishing
experience is the lack of fight. More like wet socks with a tail, lahontans
simply lack any real reaction to being hooked. They tend to roll than run.
The fish themselves are pretty to look at. Bright colours of
crimsons and purple-pearls adorn the males and females. The trout in this lake aren’t
a heavy fish at all. While long, reasonably deep, their bodies are narrow
across the back. Most fish were in the 2 to 3 pound range. A fish that looked
like it should be a 6 pound male was sub-4 pounds, likely 3 1/2. It simply lacked the girth and substance.
The fish I caught a couple of years ago was in the 7 pound class, but few fish
in the lake are honestly of that caliber. That’s still an impressive fish but when they
fight so sluggishly, it’s a little anti-climactic. This fishery is one of sight-fishing
and the take.
The highlight to our trip was the scenery. The lake is set
in an Okanagon valley – rock cliffs with a few rocky and beach shoals highlight
the structure. The surrounding mountains are quite craggy. This time of the
year the wild sunflowers sprinkle yellow throughout the valley. There is a wild
horse herd that frequents the south end of the lake. This year saw a few young
added to the population. We were treated to a show as they came to water one
morning. Quite a beautiful display. As we mentioned in our blog post of 2 years
ago, the experience is dampened by the amount of dumped rubbish and garbage
around the lake. It’s almost impossible to fish the lake without coming across
some form of garbage or dumped machinery. It’s quite disappointing for such a
pretty location.
We spent only 2 1/2 days at the lake this year. It wasn’t
terribly challenging fishing and the windy, cloudy conditions kept us from
getting much in the way of video. And the video has really become a big part of
our fishing – getting footage that represents the experience. But the whole
smacking fish on the head and not have them spook – the lack of a challenge –
got to us. We opted to head out in search of a wee bass lake that we’d been
told to fish. Unfortunately the temperatures dropped like a rock and the winds
howled – we opted to cut our trip and headed home.
Fishing for Lahontans produce result of larger fish. They
are wonderful for sight-fishing. If you’ve never done it before, it really is a
neat experience. If you’ve not had a lot of luck sight-fishing elsewhere, they
offer great opportunity to spot cruisers. If you’ve not had a lot of luck
fishing lakes, Lahontans provide opportunity and you can practice a lot of
tactics. Best of all, you likely won’t spook them as you cast, flip, and strip
to the cruisers. They don’t fight for their size well at all but there’s enough
action that the trip is about spotting and chasing than worrying about the
fight. It’s simply a different experience. Best of all was escaping the
lingering cold that Alberta
has experienced. Of course, as we drove home, heading east of Canmore at 3am, a
localized heavy snow had the highway down to a single lane, the shoulders and
other lanes covered in 5” of wet, slick snow. We literally slalomed through
jack-knifed semis scattered the big hills through Kananakis country. A not so
welcome, welcome home!
