Visiting an old friend

The theme song for my trip could be this:


Climbing up the creek seemed just a little harder than I recall, and threading small hook eyes has become a small challenge. That’s new.

The woods were busy. Crawling with people. It’s always a relief in that case to see your pullout open.

I like how this place has a variety of fish. Some that look like coastal cutts and some that look westslopey. Right off the bat I got one of the coastals.

It was here

Got it on this

A little further up, I found one of the redbellies I was looking for.

Here

The best pool on this stretch yielded nothing. I had a golden stone with caddis dropper rigged in the box, so tied it on and flopped it in there. First drift, boom, the would be fish of the day, on and off. Ended up getting one on the dropper, then cut that off and put the old peacock stimmy on, which produced a few more fish. 1/pool.

 

[Uptonogood]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

 

[Scslat]

My favorite kind of fishing. Thanks for the great report.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Fun stuff!

 

[SilverFly]

Dunno what it is about high gradient cricks, overgrown with old trees and buried in dead ones, but damn, you fish some gorgeous spots.

 

[Smalma]

Nice!
Your post illustrates that much of the Cascades are bless of 100s of miles of such fishing opportunities for wild (both native and exotic) trout that take our flies readily and where a 10 incher maybe the trophy of the day.

I agree that over the decades our Cascade creeks have gotten much longer and steeper, the mountains must be still growing. That change seems to have accelerated over the last 4 decades or so.

Thanks
Curt

 

[JACKspASS]

That red belly cutt is interesting. I have caught fish similar to that in small tributary streams and caught the standard coastal variety in adjoining streams. Is the red belly a different strain?(westslope) or same strain?

Awesome pics!

 

[Matt B]

That red belly cutt is interesting. I have caught fish similar to that in small tributary streams and caught the standard coastal variety in adjoining streams. Is the red belly a different strain?(westslope) or same strain?

Awesome pics!

Thanks, the scenery takes the pictures for you up there. I think there are a lot of “mutts” in this creek, but some like that one red bellied one appear to be mostly westslope, and some appear mostly coastal. The pool bosses here are almost always westslopes.

 

[Stonedfish]

Thanks, the scenery takes the pictures for you up there. I think there are a lot of “mutts” in this creek, but some like that one red bellied one appear to be mostly westslope, and some appear mostly coastal. The pool bosses here are almost always westslopes.

I always thought of westslopes being east of the cascades. Are they naturally occurring on the west side of the Cascades or like many other fish, introduced by bucket bios?

Great report by the way.
SF

 

[Matt B]

I always thought of westslopes being east of the cascades. Are they naturally occurring on the west side of the Cascades or like many other fish, introduced by bucket bios?

Great report by the way.
SF

Old Washington stocking reports show “Montana Black Spot” (westslope cutthroat) stocked into quite a few high lakes. Through those stockings, they appear to have established a foothold in a few westside Cascade drainages. There was a guy on the old site who caught one in Skagit tidewater!

I think the westslopes in some Central WA rivers were also introduced but I can’t recall the history.

 

[Dave Westburg]

Nice report Matt B. Got to love the blue line fish. Page boys of the hills. Simple uncomplicated fishing.

 

[Billy]

That trout is surreal! Great report!

 

[Matt B]

There seems to be some continuing debate about whether Washington has native Westslopes. I read up on this a while back, forgot it all, and am trying to refresh, so if anyone knows the straight door please weigh in. But it seems like Westslopes May have been more widespread in WA before O mykiss invaded and pushed a couple populations way into headwaters refugia, but that those few populations are distinct from the Westslopes we catch further down in the system(s) which show evidence of having been imported.
Take all the above with many grains of salt.

 

[SKYKO]

Really great report and pics, my dad and uncles used to talk about catching Montana black spots in some of the lakes in what is now the wild sky wilderness this would have been in the 30' - 50's. The creek you fished is stunning as a little kid I learned to fish dapping renegades in streams just like that wearing tough skins and converse, good times!

 

[Smalma]

I believe Matt has the Westslope (west of the Rockies) cutthroat essentially correct. They have been introduced into quite a few west side of the Cascade alpine lakes. In most they were successful in establishing self-sustaining populations, many of which extended into the outlet streams. In a few cases they have been introduced in other small streams. They now are found in most of the main stem streams in the NW corner of the state and like Matt have caught then throughout the main Skagit/Sauk including down in tide water. Also found them in the lower reaches of the Stillaguamish and Snohomish. Interestingly they seem to be found in more rainbow than coastal cutthroat holding. In the areas I'm familiar with the Westslope cutthroat are usually better condition (heavier for their length) than either the native rainbows or coastal cutthroat.

Curt

 

[Paige]

Have caught 2 west slopes cutthroat on they Skykomish both below Gold Bar.

A friend had a client catch this fish at IRS.

Sure looks like a Brooke trout, I believe there is a small population in Olney creek, a trib to the Wallace.

 

[John Svahn]

Behnke shows Westslope cutties as native to the NE side tribs of the Cascades. Also to the upper John Day basin. Interesting isolate areas. Maybe they were much more widespread at one time

 

[mcswny]

You’re welcome for properly inspiring you

 

[SilverFly]

Realizing this was a very long time ago, but I would imagine the Missoula flood(s) played a significant role in westslope and other native fish distribution. Like fish swimming in the Clark Fork one day, and charging through the CR Gorge the next.

 

[DanielOcean]

Dang, what a great trip. I am a sucker for purple butts also. To top it off you are using in my opinion one of the top 5 quintessential rod and reel combos. Not even that pricey to boot.