I got a little taste of cutthroat trout fishing in Wyoming on my first trip to the state two years ago. It was just fishing from the side of the road en route to Jackson, but it was enough to get me motivated to get back out there and try my hand at the state’s Cutt Slam program.
What better way to experience the state of Wyoming than to try and catch it’s four native cutthroat species? It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing to get Blake to come along – I think both of us have been looking for another trip out West since our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park back in 2012.
After a good six months worth of planning it was time to pack our stuff……
and fly to Salt Lake City. I had no idea Outdoor Retailer was this week, but several folks asked if that’s where we were headed. No thanks, I’d rather go fishing.
After a quick stop at Western Rivers Flyfisher it was on to Evanston. Once there we made two more important stops – food/camp supplies and beer.
Then we drove north. On to the Wyoming Range, where we would hopefully have enough time to land our first cutthroat of the trip – the Bonneville cutthroat trout.
In the interest of time we stopped off the side of the road, close to the same spot I fished back in 2012 and close to where we would be camping for the night. We decided to fish some of the beaver complexes that looked pretty fishy from the road.
We rigged our rods and got suited up lightning fast, the anticipation of catching the first fish of the trip was killing us. The overcast skies started to drizzle rain, it didn’t take long to notice that fish rising in the ponds. Blake was first on the board and fooled a decent Bonneville with a dry.
It took me a little bit of time to knock the rust off, but I got on board as well.
After that the fishing was on fire. These Bonneville cutts were crushing a hopper pattern Blake had tied.
The action was so consistent that it was tough to call it a day and walk back to the car, but we knew we still had to set up camp, which was not something we wanted to do in the dark – especially on night 1.
It was a solid start to the trip though and felt really good to get the first cutthroat species under our belts. We’d actually be fishing for Bonnevilles again in the morning, but we were hoping the next stop would yield a few bigger fish. For now it was time for cold beer and campfire and hopefully getting some sleep in a hammock system I’ve yet to sleep in.
Just got back in town from an awesome fishing/camping trip Blake and I took out to Wyoming. Going through the pictures now and will hopefully write a few words about the trip soon. I’ll post a few teaser pics up now and if you look hard enough you’ll find a few more scattered throughout the site.
The salmonids are in family Salmonidae, which has 10-11 genera that is divided into 3 subfamilies; Coregoninae(whitefish), Thymallinae(grayling), and Salmoninae(char/trout/salmon). Living in the Southeast you have access to a very limited amount of salmonids and I’ve caught the 3 that occur in Georgia. The brook trout is the only native trout species in Georgia and it is actually a char.
Updated, December 2025: I made my first trip out West in September of 2012 to Colorado and caught several “greenback” cutthroat trout in Rocky Mountain National Park – or what were considered greenback trout at the time. Made another trip out West in August of 2013 to Teton and Yellowstone National Parks where I picked up another cutthroat species and mountain whitefish. In August of 2015 I was able to complete the Wyoming Cutt Slam, picking up Wyoming’s four native cutthroat species (they do have a fifth, the Westslope, that is not required for the slam). In July of 2017 I completed the Utah cutthroat slam, which didn’t necessarily add any new species to the list, but I was able to add Bonneville cutthroat outside of the Bear River drainage and Bear River cutthroat, which some consider genetically distinct. In June of 2021 I made it out to Arizona and New Mexico to catch Apache and Gila trout in their native range. In August of 2022 I made it up to northern Idaho and caught several Westslope cutthroat in their native range. In July of 2023 I made a northern New Mexico/southern Colorado trip and caught lots of Rio Grande cutthroat in their native range. Finally, in August of 2025 I made it out to the Olympic peninsula of Washington and caught coastal rainbow trout in their native range, coastal cutthroat, southern Dolly Varden, as well as the genetically distinct Lake Crescent cutthroat trout.
Dr. Robert Behnke is the man when it comes to salmonid knowledge. Pick up his book if you want to learn more about this particular family, “Trout and Salmon of North America”. Another great resource is Gary Marston’s Native Trout Fly Fishing blog, he has a Trout and Salmon species page with pictures and information of all those that he has caught (which may be all that are found in the U.S.). Gary’s trip reports are a good read as well, he has had some epic road trips to catch trout in their native range.
Trout found in the Southeastern United States
Salvelinus fontinalis – Brook trout
Brook trout are the first native trout species I ever encountered as they do live in Georgia.
Salmo trutta – Brown trout
Brown trout are not native to North America.
Oncorhynchus mykiss – Rainbow trout
The first trout species I ever caught, happy to say that I have now caught them in their native range too!
According to Wikipedia, the coastal cutthroat trout occurs in four distinct forms. A semi-anadromous or sea-run form is the most well known. Freshwater forms occur in both large and small rivers and streams and lake environments – pictured above is the stream resident freshwater form. The historic native range of the coastal cutthroat trout extends south from the southern coastline of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to the Eel River basin in Northern California.
Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii crescentii – Coastal cutthroat trout – Lake Crescent form
At the time this fish was considered a greenback, but it’s more likely that it isn’t after genetic research determined that the true greenback was limited to only one stream, outside of it’s native range, in Colorado. Work has been done to re-establish populations throughout it’s native range and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to fish for a true greenback cutt. Their historic range is pretty much in the state of Colorado on the Front Range, with some watersheds slipping into Wyoming. They are found in the headwaters streams of the South Platte and Arkansas River drainages.
Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus – Colorado River cutthroat trout
Their historic range is headwaters streams in the Green and Colorado Rivers, as far south as the San Juan River, west of the Continental Divide. They are currently limited to a few small headwater streams of the Green and upper Colorado rivers in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, including the Escalante River drainage in southern Utah.
Oncorhynchus clarkii virginalis – Rio Grande cutthroat trout
Their historic range is headwater streams in the Pecos and Rio Grande watersheds in Colorado and New Mexico.
They are found in the headwaters streams of the Bear River. No range map was given from NatureServe or the USGS for the Bear River cutthroat trout, but they are native to the Bear River and it’s tributaries, including Bear Lake.
Their historic range is the Yellowstone River drainage in Montana and Wyoming and the Snake River drainage in Wyoming and Idaho. Their current range overlaps with that of the Finespot in the Snake River drainage above Shoshone Falls.
Oncorhynchus clarkii behnkei – Finespotted Snake River cutthroat trout
Their historic range overlaps the Yellowstone cutt in the states of Wyoming and Idaho. They are found in the headwaters streams of the Snake River, particularly the South Fork.
According to Wikipedia, Westslope cutthroat trout are native in northern Idaho’s and British Columbia’s upper Columbia River system and northern tributaries of the Snake River. East of the Continental Divide in Alberta and Montana, Westslope cutthroat trout are native to the upper Missouri, Milk and North Saskatchewan rivers. In Montana, the historic range extended east to the mouth of the Judith River and south into the Madison, Gallatin and Jefferson river systems. Isolated populations of Westslope cutthroat trout exist in upper tributaries of the John Day River in the Strawberry Mountains of Oregon and Columbia River tributaries along the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Washington. Isolated populations exist in the Fraser River basin in British Columbia.
Other Native Salmonids
Salvelinus malma – Southern Dolly Varden
According to Gary Marston, the Southern subspecies of Dolly Varden are native to coastal watersheds from the Susitna River, Alaska south to the Quinault River, Washington.
What better way to experience the state of Wyoming than to try and catch it’s four native cutthroat species? It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing to get Blake to come along – I think both of us have been looking for another trip out West since our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park back in 2012.
Mountains to Marsh 