Renita's First Bonneville Cutthroat Trout!

Renita had yet to catch a Bonneville Cutthroat trout and so we decided to head to one of our favorite streams and concentrate on her adding one to her cut slam quest, ( the Wyoming Game and Fish Department awards anglers a cut slam award to anyone who catches all four of the cutthroat species in the state of Wyoming).

It was a short one-hour drive as we crossed Salt Pass and after parking the car we donned our waders, fly fishing vests, deer fly proof hats, and tied on our favorite dry fly. I told Renita that I would not make a cast until she had successfully caught and safely released a Bonneville cutthroat trout.

Reaching the first hole she made her first cast and a nice cutthroat tried to inhale the fly. She was a little late and so she missed the fish. It would have been too easy for her to catch one right away. The fish did not attempt to take her fly and so we moved upstream.

I explained to her how I always tried to go after active fish, fish that were feeding and easy to fool with a fly. This meant that I was somewhat impatient and so we moved and moved again. She missed another fish but I don’t think that fish had really tried to take the fly and instead had merely bumped it.

Moving again several small trout chased her fly but they were so small hat they couldn’t take the large fly in their mouth. We continued to move, and Renita was almost in a Zen like state as she cast and cast, each time concentrating on the fly. A dimple happened, (you don’t always watch the fly but often set the hook upon seeing any rising fish), and she successfully set the hook!

Fighting the fish in I netted he fish and then quickly snapped several images before returning the fish to its home. It flipped its tail and swam back to its refuge. She had a successful release of her first Bonneville cutthroat trout!

Now it was my turn to fish, and we leapfrogged each other so we both had virgin water to fish. I set the hook on a nice fish, a fourteen inch and also was able to release a healthy fish. Renita moved to the next hole and unfortunately got into a snag. She pulled on her rod and her rod snapped in two.

The break wasn’t on the tip but was on the piece of rod just above the butt section.

A rod should not break there and we always keep our rods in fly rod cases, so it wasn’t her fault, ( I have a cousin who shall remain nameless who use to have lots of rod misfortunes). We decided to keep on fishing and take turns using my fly rod.

More trout rose to our offerings and we ended up catching and releasing six fish. We also missed more fish and too soon it was time to hike back to the car. Returning home, we talked of the day and how we now both had two of the four species. Now we both have to attempt to catch and release a Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout and a Colorado Cutthroat.

The award was meant to be a lifetime achievement so there is no hurry. That’s good as the two types of fish require us to drive over the Wind Rivers and perhaps fish Wiggins Fork and to drive to the Green River and hope for a Colorado Cutthroat. Clear skies