Richard Probert
Steelheader Contributor

Since I was a small boy, I have been enchanted by cutthroat trout.  There is just something about these fish that is very appealing.  While Kamloops trout may leap higher and Cariboo rainbows fight harder, there is nothing more thrilling to me than catching a sea-run cutthroat fresh from the ocean.

My fascination with cutthroat trout goes back 50 years, when my father took me fishing in Maria Slough, near Agassiz.  Although I was only four years old, I vividly remember my father casting a fly and catching trout after trout, filling a fishing basket.  As I touched the dying trout I felt a twinge of sympathy for them but was delighted by their yellow and red coloring.  This was February, spawning time for cutthroat, so their coloring was particularly distinctive.

In my father’s era, the limit of cutthroat trout was fifteen fish per day, and some anglers kept that many, but my father seldom did.  My father was a conservationist before this was popular, knowing that he could always catch many more trout in a day of fly fishing than was necessary.  My father died when I was eight, and for about twenty five years after that, I fished only occassionly.

One of those occasions was in the fall of 1961, when I was fifteen.  With two other youths I walked into Deer lake, north of Agassiz, camping and fishing on Labour day weekend.  I have vivid memories of that weekend: The can of exploding beans cooking over the campfire, the heavy weight of a fifty pound packsack, the sound of birds chirping and fish splashing and a silence that seemed almost spiritual, especially in the early morning mist that arose from the lake -- like some artists palate. 

These are all part of any anglers experiences, but what really sticks in my mind is the old wooden boat we found fifty feet from shore.  With inexperience that only youth can have, my companions and I loaded our gear in the old wooden rowboat and paddled our way down the other end of the lake.  The boat leaked, so one boy bailed water, while I trolled a willow leaf and worm.  About two thirds down the lake I hooked a monster fish, fighting the lanker for a good fifteen minutes before it was netted.  What a trophy-twenty inches long, at least three pounds, that was the largest cutthroat trout I had ever seen and I have never caught one bigger in Deer Lake.  A memorable weekend indeed, one that is still fresh in my memory forty years later.

In later life, after work in the woods, a university and technical school education and a lengthy illness, I started fishing again, becoming fairly good at catching cutthroat trout, both in local lakes and the sea-run variety.  Expo year (1986) was memorable for both the quantity of trout caught (about 250) and for the quality of fishing.  That was the year I fished Tranmer’s bar, east of Agassiz, every other day, starting in mid October.  Tranmer’s bar was different then, and I think better fishing, since I always caught at least one big hatchery cutthroat trout from fourteen to nineteen inches. It was a good year.

When I look back at all those trout I kept, I am somewhat ashamed, considering the decline of very large sea-runs.  Many of the bigger trout get caught in nets as well as by anglers and I am just as guilty as anyone.  The lack of big cutthroat trout probably has something to do with the many small size cutthroat, since there may be a genetic component to fish size.  It’s a debate for the scientists, but it is proven that the bigger female fish carry more eggs than the smaller ones.

Even the local lakes have shown a decline in the number of very large trout, both rainbow and cutthroat, as have the local rivers and sloughs.  My last very big trout in Hicks Lake north of Agassiz, was about nine years ago, when I fished in a small bay near the boat ramp.  Even then an angler could catch twenty or thirty trout in four hours and I was having one of those days, releasing fifteen or twenty small trout.  On my last cast I hooked a trout every angler dreams about, eighteen inches long and about three pounds in weight.  That was surely a cutthroat to remember.  I have not surpassed that big trout, at least not in Hicks Lake.  There has certainly been a decline in the quality of cutthroat fishing throughout the Fraser Valley.

This decline is partly due to past over fishing, when fifteen, then eight, then four trout limits were common.  Cutthroat trout will eat almost anything, which makes them easy prey for even children.  Aside from usual worms, cutthroat trout will eat salmon eggs, krill, insects, small fish and a variety of human foods, including gum drops, cheese, cheesies, bread, corn, meat and hard boiled egg.  Even spaghetti, chicken soup and cottage cheese will attract cutthroat trout.  Clearly, these fish will eat almost anything.

The decline of cutthroat numbers may also have something to do with pollution in local rivers and sloughs, especially in the Fraser river estuary.  All of the treated, pulp mill effluent, farm run-off of pesticides manure, as well as silt from logging in the Fraser river watershed, contributes to poor water quality.  While it may be difficult to prove, I suspect that the factor of pollution is playing a significant role in not only a deteriorating water quality but the numbers of cutthroat as well.

Pollution affects fish in many ways.  Fifteen years ago, I caught a cutthroat trout on Tramner’s bar that has been almost completely eaten away by what looked like cancerous sores.  The skeleton of the trout was showing and this was definitely made by disease, not a seal.  How that fish managed to live long enough to take the bait I really don’t know.  Since then I have caught other cutthroat trout with sores and signs of disease. I suspect that the lesions on these trout has something to do with the levels of pollutants in the Fraser River estuary, which is where the sea-runs live before returning to their stream to spawn.

  I don’t eat many sea-runs anymore, preferring to release them, than take the chance of them being contaminated with pollutants.  However, I still love to fish for cutthroat trout, especially the sea-runs, with their beautiful yellow and red coloring.  They show up in local rivers in September, with migrations until late November.  Slough fishing is excellent from November to February, as is river fishing in the Fraser, Chehalis and Harrison Rivers.  Try fly fishing with various patterns, lure and spinner and if that doesn’t work, use worms or single eggs on the lightest line possible (check regs for bait bans).

For coastal Lake cutthroat, I recommend Deer, Hicks and Trout Lakes in Sasquatch Provincial Park.  In the last eighteen years, I have pulled in about 3,000 fish from these lakes, releasing most of them. Sometimes these small lakes can fool the angler with a surprisingly good day of fishing.

Local Lakes, rivers and sloughs still offer the angler some fine and occassionly memorable days of angling.  Be prepared for any weather, keep good records, learn from each angling experience and you will soon be having many memorable days of cutthroat fishing in the Fraser River watershed.

Although it has been nearly fifty years since I first saw a cutthroat, I am still awed by the beauty, resilience and fighting spirit of these remarkable trout.  May there always be a cutthroat trout, may they continue to inspire anglers, for eternity.  I guess I really am hooked on cutthroat trout.

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