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See-food diet. That’s the term that
is used most often by anglers in British Columbia to
describe the feeding habits of the coastal cutthroat
trout. If they see food, they eat it. Yet this isn’t
as true as it claims to be.
Many years ago when the cutthroats were profuse from
Alaska to California west of the Cascade Mountains,
fishermen would catch these trout in huge quantities.
Often they would catch them using just about anything
they could tie on a line. This feeding habit, unfortunately,
turn out to be the cutthroats’ demise. They were so
easy to catch that the populations plummeted due to
over-fishing and loss of habitat. |
Today the coastal cutthroat has been recognized as needing
a helping hand, and restocking programs are meeting with some
success. Lucky for us that it is; it would be a shame to lose
this beautiful native British Columbian to our own stupidity
and ignorance.
The coastal cutthroat still inhabits much of its original
territory, although in lower numbers. It is highly adaptable
and frequents various waters from pristine lakes and streams
to tea-coloured backwaters and bogs, as well as running to
the ocean where it cruises the shorelines of brackish estuaries
and beaches near the river mouths.
The coastal cutthroat is a beautiful trout, easily distinguishable
from its interior cousin, or the rainbow trout. All cutthroats
have large mouths and a maxillary that extends back past the
back of the eye. Rainbows have smaller mouths and their maxillary
does not extend that far. Cutthroats are heavily spotted with
small black spots covering the majority of its flanks, often
right to the belly. Rainbows’ spots seldom extend past the
midpoint of the flank. The coastal cutthroats are very silver
in colour, whereas the interior cutthroats show much more
of a yellow hue to their body. The most easily recognizable
characteristic of the cutthroat, however, is the red-orange
slashes beneath the lower jaw; rainbows show no such attribute.
Rainbows and cutthroats are true trout and very
close relatives. They both spawn in the spring and where they
occupy the same waters they often hybridize to produce a cutt-bow.
The cutt-bow shows characteristics of both species. It has
a slightly smaller mouth than a normal cutthroat, fewer spots,
and still shows a faint red slash under the lower jaw. It
also shows the usual light pink stripe down the sides so characteristic
of the rainbow trout.
Cutthroats as a rule like big meals and their
preferred diet consists of salmon fry, sculpins, stickleback,
and smaller trout. In waters that don’t contain these big
morsels they survive on the usual trout fare of chironomids,
leeches, and various nymphs and adult insects. They are a
true opportunist and will often take a big offering even during
a hatch of other insects, yet they can sometimes be as selective
a quarry as any other fish.
Cutthroats in the coastal lakes most closely
deserve their "see-food" diet label. With the variety of food
available in lakes they are the least selective of the cutthroats.
Spring brings with it the midge hatches and these trout key
in on them. Chironomid fishing for cutts can be exceptional
at this time, but it can be a bit of a tough fish for the
spin-casters. If the lake has feeder streams that are actively
spawned in by salmon, the cutthroats will school near the
mouths of these creeks in the spring and wait for the fry
to migrate into the lake. Fishing a fry pattern or small silver
spinner across the drop-off at a creek mouth during the fry
migration is deadly and is one of the most productive ways
of angling for these trout. Throughout the season, lake-dwelling
cutthroats find a leech pattern or stickleback hard to resist
and a black woolly bugger, black and silver flatfish, or black
and silver Panther Martin fished deep and slow has been the
demise of more cutts than I care to mention.
Cutthroat trout have a habit of finding their
way into some very unusual spots and once there they tend
to grow quite large if left unmolested. A perfect example
is a small sphagnum bog near my home. The open-water portion
of this little spot is maybe 80 meters across in all directions.
It is a remnant left over from the days when the Cowichan
River used to flow through the area. The river has long since
moved to another course, but the bog developed in its stead.
Private lots surround the spot and access is severely restricted.
The trout, however, pay that no mind. In my younger days I
used to wander my way down there in my gum boots with my spinning
rod in hand and cast a small yellow and red Panther Martin
into the brown waters of the bog. Every second or third cast
produced a cutthroat that was bright silver, full of scrap,
and best of all, about two pounds in weight. I must have tangled
every second or third fish in the roots and moss that floated
along the shore of the little lake, but a long pole with the
net tied to it usually solved the problem.
Beaver ponds and bogs often support populations
of coastal cutthroats and it is certainly worth your while
to check them out. Most anglers pass them by without a second
thought and the trout are left alone to feed and grow. Without
being exposed to lures or flies, these fish are suckers for
the first imitation to be offered to them. Stickleback patterns
are deadly in tea-coloured waters such as these, as are small
silver spinners.
Stream-dwelling cutthroats are another story.
These trout can be so selective it drives even the most patient
of anglers crazy. The smaller cutts will feed much like a
rainbow, selectively taking nymphs and adult insects as the
hatches present themselves throughout the season. Larger cutthroats,
however, often ignore the hatches in preference of the sculpins,
fry, and minnows that inhabit the streams and rivers of the
coast. Fly patterns such as the muddler minnow, rolled muddler,
and Mickey Finn, or lures like the Mepps silver spinners or
brighter Panther Martins are the bane of these fish. During
the autumn when the salmon move into the rivers and streams
to spawn, the cutthroats lie a few feet behind them waiting
for the odd errant egg to drift by. These trout can sometimes
be seen actually banging into the sides of salmon to try and
jar eggs from the pregnant hens. Simple single egg patterns
tied from chenille or small craft pom-poms, or small gooey-bobs
bounced right along the bottom through holding water work
extremely well during the salmon spawn and the cutthroats
will often take them with abandon.
Sea-run cutthroats are the most mysterious and
most admired of the cutthroat trout. Early spring will find
the sea-runs in the very lower reaches of the rivers and streams
feeding actively on the migrating salmon fry. Any minnow pattern
tied to imitate the species of fry that is migrating will
take these fish then. The trout are aggressive at these times
and hit hard. As the fry move out into the estuaries and oceans
the trout follow.
Beach fishing for sea-runs is a great way to
fish for these trout. While catching them can be difficult,
finding them is the greatest challenge. Ocean-going cutthroats
prefer shorelines of cobble and barnacles. Sandy shores seldom
provide enough of the right forage to support them. Beaches
near creek mouths that have rocky bottoms are the best, especially
if structures such as old pilings and docks are nearby. Here
the trout find needlefish and fry in amongst the rocks and
floating debris and the trout utilise the structures for protection
as well. Fly patterns such as the Mickey Finn, rolled muddler,
and Professor, or lures like the Panther Martins and Mepps
spinners that contain yellow or gold hues are especially effective
for sea-runs.
To effectively fish sea-runs the fly-fisher
needs nothing more than a dry line or intermediate sinking
line in about a 5 or 6 weight system and a few of the patterns
I mentioned above. Long casts and quick retrieves are the
norm. The quick strip retrieve is important to remember. Since
these trout prey on minnows and fry they expect their prey
to be moving quickly to try to escape. Strip your fly quickly
and maintain that speed. Sometimes a trout will follow the
fly a good distance, often creating a slight wake behind it.
It’s hard to maintain your composure when this occurs, but
if you alter your retrieve almost invariably the fish will
refuse the fly and turn away. A steady quick strip will often
convince the trout that this is as fast as the fly can go,
or it hasn’t "seen" the predator yet and the trout will gobble
it up before the fly tries to escape.
Yes, the coastal cutthroat trout is a true coastal
British Columbian. From the crystal clear waters of the high
alpine lakes to the murky depths of the sphagnum bogs it lives,
and if give the chance, thrives. Its adaptability and "see-food"
diet have enabled it to survive the by-products of human progress
such as urban sprawl, pollution, and over-fishing. To continue
its survival, all it needs is a chance. The future of the
coastal cutthroat is still in doubt, but at least there appears
to be some light at the end of the tunnel. The provincial
fisheries management programs have recognized the cutthroat’s
plight and are working to ensure its survival through a combination
of restocking programs and barbless hook/catch and release
regulations.
Cutthroats provide coastal anglers with a wide
array of opportunities year-round. To continue to do so they
require our help. Do them, and yourself, a favour and release
the cutthroats you catch. Of all the gamefish on the coast
they are the most vulnerable. Their numbers have been severely
depleted over the past half-century, yet they continue to
provide us with immense enjoyment . . . they deserve to be
allowed to survive.
Bill Luscombe has been hunting and fishing for most of his 42
years. He has been flyfishing for 20 years. He instructs flyfishing,
and has done so for the past 12 years. He also instructs the
federal FSET firearms course and the BC CORE hunter training
course. He is an award-winning outdoor writer and has been writing
freelance since 1987. He has been published in BC Sport Fishing
Magazine, Outdoor Edge, BC Outdoors, Western Sportsman, Island
Fish Finder, and the BC Hunting Guide.
Bill Luscombe was born an army brat and raised in Ladner
(Delta, BC) where he was raised hunting waterfowl and pheasants.
He presently resides in North Cowichan on southern Vancouver
Island where he has lived and worked full time as a professional
forester since 1982.
He presently works in Nanaimo for the BC Forest Service and
continue to write the fly-fishing column for BC Sport Fishing
Magazine as well as contributing articles freelance to various
outdoor magazines in western Canada. Bill Luscombe is also
a BC Director of the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association.
"Catching fish is not hard. You simply need to understand
what makes them tick. If you think like a fish, you will catch
fish. It’s as simple as that."- Bill Luscombe
Previous Articles by Bill Luscombe:
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