Species Guide: Lahonton Cutthroat Trout
There are probably more man hours expended per pounds of Lahontan cutthroat trout caught than any other trout species. Think about it. It's spooky. Like steelheaders, but landlocked, the participating fly fishers pay the time it takes to catch a Lahontan.Known because of their reputation as being big fish (up to four feet long said Fremont in his notes in 1845), Lahontan cutthroat still have an aura about them that makes them popular with fly fishers. The biggest sport-caught Lahontan on record was a 41-pound behemoth caught in Pyramid Lake, Nevada, in 1925. Even larger trout were caught from the same water by commercial nets.These large trout spawned in small tributaries, and unregulated irrigation diversions coupled with an extended drought, and a large-scale commercial fishery, caused the extinction of Lahontan cutthroat trout in Pyramid Lake and many other locations by 1940. While Lahontans were eventually re-introduced across much of the region, they have never approached the size of the earlier fish, indicating that the Pyramid lake fish were a distinct race of giants that is lost forever.Named after ancient Lake Lahontan--located in the western part of the Great Basin--today's Lahontan cutthroat trout inhabit lakes and streams in an area vastly reduced since the time of their ancestors. Today you can find Lahontans in Pyramid Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the surrounding drainages of the Walker River, Humbolt River, and Reece River in Nevada.Lahontans resemble anadromous coastal cutthroats, with an overall silvery hue to the body. But since they developed in lakes as opposed to serving some sea time like their distant cousins, today's Lahontans are largely a bluish and silver lake fish with relatively few spots distributed all over the body, back and tail of the fish. The spots on the Lahontan are large and round.For years fly fishers visited Reno in the spring to cast for the spawning Lahontans. They'd pay the fee to go on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation and take small step ladders or plastic or metal milk crates to stand on in the lake. They needed the extended height to reach further out into the lake where the fish were moving.When float tubes came along, a whole new method of fishing for Lahontans developed, and the preferred method today is to slowly troll or cast flies on sinking-tip lines. Successful patterns vary, but leech patterns, "down, dark and uglies", and streamer patterns in an extraordinary breadth of choices, all have produced big fish for aggressive and lucky fly fishers.
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