North 40 Fly Shop eMagazine February 2016 | Page 44

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fter reading this information, I
realized how truly blessed we
are to be fishing on these rivers
during the up-swing of things. I
have had the pleasure of witnessing
blizzard hatches, unbelievable eats,
and several fish over 20 inches. I've
seen people who have never picked up
a fly rod before have great success on
their first time out. More importantly,
I have seen the quality of our fishery
grow almost every year, with the
exception of last year due to our low
snow pack. Every year, it seems that
the fishing gets a little better and the

fish get a little bigger. The moral of this
history report is that our rivers need
friends. Without the help of "river
keepers," our vulnerable Westslope
Cutthroat Trout would have vanished
a long time ago.
During my research, another question
came to mind: why have most of my
big cuttys (over 18 inches) on the St.
Joe, come from the lower half of the
river, below Avery? After some digging,
I believe this information might hold
the answer.

Three Distinct WCT Behaviors

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verett (1963) studied WCT in
the St. Joe River/Coeur d’Alene
Lake Complex between 1961
and 1962. He identified what
he called two races of cutthroat
trout. One race was adfluvial
cutthroat trout. They have been
reported to spend the first few
years of their life in the river and
its tributaries, and then moved
down to Lake Coeur d’Alene, where
they spent on average 1-3 years in

1.

the lake with most spending two
years before returning to their natal
streams to spawn. The other race
was referred to as resident fish who
spent their entire life in the stream
environment.
When we compare Averett's findings
with those of Mallet, we can identify
three distinct behavioral patterns
for Westslope Cutthroat trout:

Adfluvial fish spend portions of their time in the stream environment
while the other times in the lake. They travel great distances to and
from both environments.

fish spend a portion each year in a major stream or tributary,
2. Fluvial
then travel downstream to overwinter in deep pools.
fish spend their entire life in a relativity small section of
3. Resident
stream, with some resident trout never leaving their riffle.