Westslope Cutthroat Trout: A Success Story

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Thumbing through some old fish pictures, I found myself wondering: what was it like back in the good, old days? When were the good, old days? How bad were the rivers when they were at their worst? When did they start to shape up again? So, I began to do some research, and after a while, I found what shaped up to be a little history lesson on the Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WCT) in our area.

1858: Captain Mullen describes Lake Coeur d’Alene as a noble sheet of water filled with an abundance of delicious salmon trout a.k.a. westslope cutthroat trout. (Ellis 1932)

1885: The Bunker Hill Strike occurs, and very soon, the large abundance of cutthroat trout from Lake Coeur d’Alene is being harvested and transported to the mining camps to help feed the influx of miners.

Late 1800's: A severe mine pollution totally takes out the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River as a productive habitat while the main Coeur d’Alene River and Lake Coeur d’Alene are also being adversely affected.

1889: The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is established. Charles Arbuckel assumes head position, and is credited in his first year for stopping the shipment of game and trout from Idaho to other states for sale on the open market, as 50,000-90,000 pounds of fish were being removed from Henrys Lake every winter.

1901-05: The St. Maries newspaper frequently reports catches of seven to nine pounds taken from the St. Joe River. Fishing trips are also reporting 50-100 fish caught ranging average size being three to five pounds. Later examination of these photos confirms that these were cutthroat trout.

1906: Citizens are dynamiting cutthroat and sein netting spawners.

1913 & 1914: The trout bag limit is 20 pounds per day and 30 in possession.

1932: Ellis reports that there had been a definite decline in cutthroat trout in Coeur d’Alene, and that trout are rarely taken out of Harrison Slough.

1946: Despite early problems, cutthroat trout in remote areas still remains in good condition.  This changes when fishing pressure increases after WWI as veterans returning to civilian life had considerable leisure time and roads were being built into remote areas.

1948: The Mitchell 300 spinning reel is introduced by a French company.

Mid 1950's: Cutthroat populations begin to be extensively studied.

1960: Added protection is given to cutthroat trout due to their vulnerability from stream degradation and fishing pressure.

Late 1960s: A chemical squoxin is used to eradicate pike minnow on the St. Joe River for squawfish control.

1966: A hatchery is placed on the St. Joe River. The program was carried on for a few years with no measurable results and high operating costs. MacPahee observes that cutthroat trout were nearly twice as vulnerable to angling as Brooke trout.

1968: Fish from the St. Joe River hatchery are released.

1969: A creel sample shows that in 598 fish 6.9 inches was the model length.

1970: 554 fish sampled average a length of 6.5 inches and large numbers of fish in the 3.5 range.

1971: Rankel concludes that cutthroat populations have declined due to over fishing of this extremely vulnerable resource. He also states that westslope cutthroat populations have collapsed and are at great risk in the future economically and most likely biologically.

1971: A trophy fish management plan is established and anglers could keep three cutthroat trout over 13 inches, and no bait fishing is allowed above prospector creek.

1971: Red Ives up the St. Joe River is closed to fishing for a year, and then reopens. As soon as it reopens, cutthroat abundance drops 59% and cutties longer than 8" virtually disappear.

1973-75: Bowler studies the WCT populations above the confluence of the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. He finds a depressed cutthroat population and recommend trophy regulations be put into effect. He chooses trophy regulations due to the public’s desire to harvest some fish. A 3 fish limit with none being under 16" is established.

1980-81: Lewensky studies the Coeur d’Alene River WCT populations to evaluate the response of the new special regulations. He finds that the new regulations had no detectable effect on trout abundance, reproduction, mortality rates, or fishing success. Lewnsky reports that non-compliance was high and significant enough to limit WCT populations. A recent conversation between Horner and Lewnsky reveals that within two weeks of the opening of the trout season, all surplus WCT were gone.

1984: The Coeur d’Alene River is placed under catch and release regulations. Ponds alongside the river are used for catch and keep of rainbow trout.

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Westslope Cutthroat Trout: Species Population and Health Today

The entire Coeur d’Alene River system has an acceptable level of WCT, including fish over 20 inches.

After 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 cutties (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.

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Averett (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 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:

  1. 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.
  2. Fluvial fish spend a portion each year in a major stream or tributary, then travel downstream to overwinter in deep pools.
  3. Resident fish spend their entire life in a relativity small section of stream, with some resident trout never leaving their riffle.

Large sums of money and considerable manpower have been spent over the years trying to establish fishable WCT populations in the large lakes of northern Idaho. Despite these efforts, little improvement has been made. In 2003, Wydoski & Whitney indicate that WCT will disperse through the lake when predators are not present. When predator fish are present such as chinook and kookane, the WCT will hug shorelines and not make their way into the lake. This means that the bigger ad-fluvial WCT's, with the presence of predator fish, are not making their way into Lake Coeur d’Alene and are  hanging in the lower end of the St. Joe River.

I believe those big fish I've been catching over the years are adfluvial WCT that are a little shy from predators to make their way deep into Lake Coeur d’Alene. My advice for everyone pursuing bigger cutties is to try fishing in the St. Joe River below Marbel Creek. You might be surprised at how big some of those fish can get in the lower part of the system.

Check out the latest fishing reports from the CDA region here.