Fly fisher lands possible record Yellowstone cutthroat trout
Published at | Updated atIDAHO FALLS — Idaho fly fisher Cyndle Clift has a fish tale on her hands that is unbelievable. She caught an estimated eight-to-10-pound Yellowstone cutthroat trout on the South Fork of the Snake River last month.
“We were coming up on some logs,” Clift says. “We were worried it would break us off in the log jam so we pulled it in in less than 5 minutes.”
Clift caught the cuttie on a streamer in a deep hole at the beginning of the day. It was her first, last, only and by far biggest catch of the day. She netted it, snapped photos and released it.
“I love fish,” she says. “I want genes like that in the river.”
Yellowstone cutthroat trout commonly weigh two to three pounds. Four to five pounders are considered big. The eye-popping poundage on Clift’s fish is double that so naysayers are actually calling it a brown trout. But cutties have orange slits on their lower jaw and this fish has orange coloring around its mouth.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologists say despite the size seeming fishy, it is possible and consider the catch a cutthroat.
“That lower end, there’s occasionally some really big cutthroat down there,” says Dan Garren, Idaho Department of Fish and Gamer regional fisheries manager. “When fish get that big, they’re probably eating a lot of smaller fish and getting a lot of nutrients into their body.”
This catch bodes well for a decade long effort to keep native Yellowstone cutthroat trout in the South Fork. It’s a fishery where you can keep all the rainbows you want, but cutthroats have to be released. The 2015 creel survey finally shows cutties increasing and rainbows decreasing making the South Fork one of the last strongholds for Yellowstone cutthroat trout in the West. The survey also shows 4,032 trout per mile. All wild. No stocking.
The jaw dropping doesn’t end there. Idaho Department of Fish and Game started a state record program for catch and release fish in January. Clift didn’t know that. She has no pictures of the fish next to a measuring tape so no record.
The best part? That trout is back to biting bugs in the Snake, but judging by its girth, it won’t be hooked easily again.
“They don’t get big by being stupid,” Clift says.
Portions of this story first appeared with Field & Stream.
Outdoor journalist Kris Millgate is based in Idaho Falls, Idaho. See her work at www.tightlinemedia.com