Editor’s note: The following is exerpted from TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available for overnight delivery.
On native trout water in some parts of the West, sometimes large chunks of water seem unoccupied, making you think that maybe the stream is completely barren. Not so.
Cutthroat love to occupy certain stretches of habitat and leave other stretches blank, particularly with fluvial fish that run up small streams from another water like a river or a lake. Get some good polorized glasses and learn to sneak along a stream, looking for fish. Listen for fish. I once discovered a big Yellowstone cutthroat in little water because I heard his head rise behind a willow as I approached. I caught and released him. He was 20 inches and was up out of a lake downstream about six miles.
— Tom Reed