F l y F i s h i n g T r i c k s . c o m

Other Trout

Our western states have a confusing variety of trout. Local names bewilder the "tenderfoot from the effete east" but for the sake of convenience most of these fishes have been placed in three distinct series.

The Colorado trout known generally as the cut throat, mountain trout or black spotted trout is the fish most sought by tourists and natives in the western mountains. Concerning this fish Shields said: "The habits as well as color and shape of the Rocky Mountain trout vary in different waters but in all cases are different from those of the eastern brook trout. The latter loves to hide under a log, a drift or a rock while the former seeks an open riffle or rapid for his feeding or lounging ground and when alarmed takes refuge in some deep or open pool, but rarely or never under a rock or log. Fontinalis is a lover of dark, shady nooks while clarkii always prefers the sunniest parts of lake or stream. The eastern trout feeds well into the night while his mountain cousin suspends operations promptly at sunset.

"As to game qualities the western trout is every inch the peer of his eastern congener."

Other writers disagree as to the relative gameness of the mountain trout as compared with fontinalis but they all accord the mountain fish unstinted praise.

The cut throat trout gets his name from a blood-red, gash-like marking on the throat and he is always heavily spotted with round, black spots. These spots are heavier on the upper part of sides and on the tail and dorsal fins.

This trout spawns in the spring and in some of the sub-species reaches a weight of nine pounds in fresh water and up to twenty-five pounds when sea run, at which time the market fishermen call them "salmon trout." The steel head was once considered the same fish as the cut throat and many western anglers still maintain that the rainbow and the steel-head are identical except for local variations, showing that all of these western fishes greatly resemble each other in a general way at least.

The steel head trout is looked upon as a good game fish in the west, rising well to flies in the streams and putting up a good fight, mostly in the air like the rainbow. At the mouths of rivers very large specimens are taken with live bait.

The Dolly Varden or bull trout (Salvelinus malma) is the only charr native to the west. It is a stockier fish than the brook trout and can be told by its larger red spots on the sides, those on the back being very small and faint and vermiculations are not present. This trout rises most freely to flies, in both lakes and rivers, and is considered a good fighter.

In addition to the foregoing there are a number of other species or trout found in American waters. We have, all told, twenty-seven forms of salmon trout and fifteen charrs, only five of them being imported. Some are only of local interest or do not respond to the fly fishers' efforts but all together they represent a collection of fishes that no other continent can equal.

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