Fishing Forum

I had a family reunion in Island Park this last weekend and had time to do a little fishing. Fished 3 different parts of the Henry's Fork (Box, Ranch and Mack’s Inn). I use to fish all of these areas often when I worked in Island Park but haven't fished them much the last few years. I wasn't really expecting much because IMO late July and August are normally the most difficult time to catch fish on the Henry's Fork. Little fish were not difficult to come by and I only caught one fish that took me close to my backing. I also broke one nice fish off but you are going to break off some when using 7X tippet. Water temp in the Box, Ranch and Mack's Inn was in the upper 60's.
There were many small fine spotted cutthroats (8” or less) in the Mack’s Inn stretch. There are many more cutthroat in the Mack’s Inn area than there were a few years ago. A majority of the fish I caught in this part of the river were cutthroat. In the past it was about 1 in a hundred fish were cutthroat. In the past I believe most of those cutthroats were fish that spilled out of Henry’s Lake. The ones that I caught a couple days ago were all fine spotted cuts and were likely fish that were planted by the F&G or offspring of fish planted by the F&G. I guess most of the larger cutthroats have migrated downstream to Island Park Reservoir??? I did see several larger cuts mixed in with the big rainbows at Big Springs. Anyone consistently catch any larger cutthroat (12”+) around Mack’s Inn or Coffee Pot?
Here is a picture of a colorful but small cutthroat I caught.

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I love to fish the Mack's Inn area, but the fish do seem to have gotten smaller.
Several years ago, I was landing 18" to 20" out of there but I haven't seen that for quite a while.
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Brian, Great pics of that cutt. Sure has a lot of rainbow characteristics. Are those "fine spotted cutts" becoming more common? I haven't read the regs for ID recently. Is there still something in there about cutts needing to be 16 inches to keep up there in the upper snake river drainage? And do they distinguish between a fine spotted cutt and other other standard cutt like out of HL that can also be found in the HL outlet and around Macks inn? I am heading up there next week to the cabin and like to keep a few small fish for the frying pan but don't want to keep anything I shouldn't. Thanks in advance.
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Brian,
Thanks! Good information! I knew you would have the answers. Just a follow up question.... is there a reason they are planting so many of the fine spotted cutts rather than yellowstone cutts or bows in that area? I like a little variety but I was wondering if there is some real reason they are choosing to plant them (more available, better suited to that area, lower mortality rates, less suseptable to whirling disease????).

Also you mentioned the "par" markings. Can you explain what they are. Also do you have a picture of a mature fine spotted cutt so i could compare? Thanks again! You the man!
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[black][size 3][/size][/black][size 3][black]Fine Spotted cutthroat and large spotted cutthroat are currently classified as one subspecies of cutthroat trout, the Yellowstone Cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki). However, it has been argued the fine spotted cutthroat is a different subspecies. Genetically the fine spotted and larger spotted Yellowstone[/black][/size][size 3][black] cutthroat are very similar. Fine spotted cutthroat (aka Snake River Cutthroat) have been more successful maintaining a presence in there historic range than the large spotted cutthroat (more often referred to as the Yellowstone Cutthroat). I don't know the exact reason the F&G decided to plant Fine Spotted cutthroat on the upper Henry's Fork instead of the Henry's Lake variety of Yellowstone Cutthroat. I would guess that the F&G hope the fine spotted cutthroat will thrive where the Yellowstone cutthroat have failed. The F&G must also believe the fine spotted cutthroat was historically in that section of the Henry's Fork. You made me interested so I'm going to see if I can get answers from guys who should have an opinion (Jim Fredricks and Rob VanKirk)[/black][/size]
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[size 3][black]The Idaho F&G are trying to promote native strains of fish in historical habitat state wide. Over the last few years the F&G have really changed the way they manage cutthroats by restricting or eliminating harvest, encouraging anglers to keep non-native species (kill rainbows on South Fork), planting sterile fish (triploids, splake, etc) and planting cutthroat instead of rainbows in several places (Ririe Reservoir, Upper Henry's Fork and many others). [/black][/size]
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[size 3][black]There are many reasons the F&G want to promote native strains of cutthroat in historic waters. One very good reason is to keep the cutthroat off the endangered species list. Extreme environmentalists who do not approve of fishing have been pushing to get the Yellowstone[/black][/size][size 3][black] listed as an endangered species. If Yellowstone cutthroat is listed as an endangered species the "feds" would step in and manage historic Yellowstone cutthroat waters in Idaho[/black][/size][size 3][black], Montana[/black][/size][size 3][black], Wyoming[/black][/size][size 3][black] and Yellowstone Park[/black][/size][size 3][black]. Henry's Lake[/black][/size][size 3][black] could be severely affected by federal management. The big hybrids Henry's is known for would be no longer planted and the wild hybrid population would be severely reduced if not eliminated from Henry's. Brook trout would also no longer be planted in Henry's. It is also possible no fishing would be allowed at Henry's if the Feds thought the cutthroat in the lake were a high risk population. Fear of cutthroats being listed as an endangered species is also shared by irrigators and hydro power companies. That is why those with Palies Reservoir water rights are willing to alter flows coming out of Palies[/black][/size][size 3][black] in a way that benefits cutthroat.[/black][/size]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Here are some pictures of cutthroat from Eastern Idaho. Keep in mind the classification of each is just my opinion. If anyone thinks I'm wrong on any of these feel free to point it out. I would always like to learn something new.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This picture shows the classic look of a fine spotted cutthroat. This fish is from the South Fork of the Snake.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This fish is also from the South Fork of the Snake and the spot pattern on this fish is typical of most of the cutthroats on the South Fork. It doesn't have large spots of a Yellowstone Cuthroat but also has larger spots than I would expect a fine Spotted Cutthroat to have. I believe it is a hybrid between the two cutthroats. I still refer to cutthroat like this as "fine spotted cutthroat."[/size][/font]




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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This cutthroat is also from the South Fork of the Snake. I also believe it is a combination of a fine spotted and yellowstone cutthroat. The gill plat and side has a color that sugests it may have some rainbow genetics but I would guess that is not the case with this fish. The tips of the pectoral, pelvic and anal fins on this fish do not have a white tip like cutbows on the South Fork typically do. If you kept a fish on the South Fork that looked like this thinking it was a hybrid you should expect a ticket.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is another cutthroat from the South Fork that I think is a yellowstone/fine spotted hybrid. I would still call it a fin spotted cutthroat.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]***edit*** Picture #5 was to large to fit inline you will have to click on the link below the post to view it**** [/size][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is a cutthroat from Ririe Reservoir that was almost certainly one of the fish the F&G planted as a fine spotted cutthroat.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is a cutthroat from the Portnuef Drainage. It appears to have a spot pattern that is combination of yellowstone and fine spotted cutthroat. Many of the cutthroat that I've caught in the Portnuef drainage have had more of a yellowstone spot patern than a fine spotted cutthroat patern. [/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is a cutthroat from Henry's Lake. It has the dark red color spawning colors because it was caught in late may. The picture isn't extremly clear but you can tell the spots are large and less dense than those of a Fine Spoted cutthroat. The spot patern is a typical Henry's Lake Yellowstone cutthroat.[/size][/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]This is typical Yellowstone Cuthroat from Henry's Lake. [/size][/font]
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Brian,
Once again you have proven that you are the man! Thanks for taking the time to write that detailed explanation and upload the pics. Excellent! I will fish through different eye's this week while in Island Park.
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I have heard a lot of reports from the coffee pot area of only small fish. I have had a wonderful time catching the "fine spotted" cutts in the canyon stretch of the Teton this summer. Some of the fish have som many parasites that they are really covered in spots. I have heard that this is a normal thing for Teton cutts. I wish I had a good picture of one, but I don't I will have to take a picture next time I catch one they are really unusual.


Windriver
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Hey Windriver, i think this is what you are talking about.
While these spots aren't too pretty to look at, they don't actually harm the fish, even though they are caused by a parasite. I wasn't able to pin down what the parasite was called, but i once asked a fisheries biologist about this and i was told that the parasite uses the cutthroats as an intermediate host, meaning it just uses the trout for one stage in its development.
I wish they didn't have those spotts, but at least they don't do too much dammage, to the fish at least.
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