WNTC-Lahontan Cutthroat
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Coming into 2025, I was 50% complete with Expert Caster in the Western Native Trout Challenge. Expert Caster is one third of the entire challenge and warrants a completion certificate and a commemorative hat. The idea of catching 18 species of Trout and Char in 12 states can feel like and unreasonable and expensive burden for some and for some reason, breaking it up in thirds makes it feel possible and worthy. My wife calls that girl math.
I had set the goal to complete the first tier of the challenge by the end of the year and as per usual, had a whopping six months starting in January to develop an itinerary without over competing with family time and other YouTube goals and obligations. The idea was to start in Montana for ice off Westslope Cutthroat in May and rolling into June, we had completely missed the margin due to schedule conflicts with my uncle and myself. Rather than let that distract me, I moved on quickly to my next fish on my list which was the Nevada Lahontan Cutthroat.
Nevada seemed like a great choice state for the LCT given it is the official state fish. It doesn't take much personal research within the small fan community of the WNTC to learn where the official LCT hotspot is for creek freaks like me. The drive would be five hours and these days, that seems a bit average for my grand adventures. The worrisome part for me was I would likely be taking this trip solo in a new-to me-used Subaru Outback which was purchased with these adventures in mind. Another anxiety inducer was the thought of getting skunked and missing the mark on the LCT and the Westslope back to back. That would be a setback that would carry for the remainder of my WNTC journey.
I woke up on the day after my birthday. It was a Monday. I wanted to ensure I would be the only one on the creek first; so a week day was carefully selected and I kicked off my drive from Utah at 4:30AM. The dirt road up to the creek was a bit maintained coming up to a private land boundary. Getting to public lands required all terrain tires for any vehicle. The Subaru handled it flawlessly. There was an absurd Mormon cricket hatch going on almost immediately outside of the city limits of Elko. The roads are covered, the desert is covered, and every bush is packed with millions of crickets nearly the size of two human thumbs in length. Fortunately they wanted nothing to do with me and would hop in any opposite direction as I trekked to the bank.
For mid-June it was a nice 86 degree day. Not too hot. The road adjacent to the creek is substantially higher in elevation. I walk straight down the decline to a very brushy stream. My immediate thoughts of comparison would say this creek was going to be identical to the Raft River Yellowstone creeks which have a famous "tough fishing" demeanor for native trout fans of Utah. The banks are so brushy, I spent the first twenty minutes working my way in and out of pockets with nearly one or two casts before realizing I was not in a fishy area.
Some last second advice from friends online, suggested a confluence of a second creek would be ahead which was examined by map before my arrival. It was stated that the fish could be caught up in that area. As I make my way up the bank, I find a small pristine open section of creek that required an approach from the high ground. Although not ideal, the bank closest to me would be a cut bank. Equipped with the DRAGONtail Mizuchi tenkara rod- in it's shortest configuration- I am not even remotely interested in touching a large hopper. Instead, I believe that changing it up from the hatch on purpose would yield better success. I have a small foam ant pattern and dangle the fly over the cut bank. Within a few finessed attempts, I see the first trout attempt to take my fly. MISSED. Not my fault, but the trout's.
Locking in, I take a few extra steps in slow motion and dangle the fly in the exact spot I could memorize the trout to be and sure enough I have my first successful take. My mind is still locked in and I am focused purely on not letting this trout wiggle free and am desperately lining up my hand-eye coordination to get the trout to the net. "WE DID IT", I shout as I quickly get the trout down to the water. The stress, the anxiety, the worry, was all lifted off of me in that moment and I sat crouched in the creek for a good minute before taking the moment to look at my very first LCT!
Catching my first fish in the first hour set my mind to a positive expectation. I assumed I was confidently going to slay it after this but that couldn't be further from the truth. The next open spot had to battle space with endless Mormon crickets. They would fall into the creek and it was clear the fish wanted nothing to do with them. I had an issue for a while with my tenkara level line and tippet. It would land in the water and the crickets would cling to it as a floaty. I missed a few takes going upstream and the reality set on me that I would have to stay humble on missed takes and casting to fishy looking pools with zero fish.
I only caught two fish on the first creek. The second one being much prettier. As I approached a roundabout "S" curve of the creek, I was able to cast over a small dirt mound into a deep cut bank pool and the moment my fly landed, I was hooked into an admirable trout. I could hear that tenkara "whistle" as I was in a tug of war match back and forth. As the LCT landed in my net, I see a beautiful bright pink lateral line streaking across the body. Immediately I thought to myself, this was going to be the turn in catch picture no doubt.
As the grind continued, a few fish hooked and lost, I decided to make a trip to my backup creek which was praised by a Nevada biologist for the region. The concept of backup was based on whether I got skunked, but I wanted to shoot for some numbers. A five fish day is considered a good day to me for context. A 35-40 minute drive later, I am putting my waders back on and already looking at some open pockets that look much fisher than my initial creek.
I almost walked up on a larger LCT without seeing him and was able to get a short cast on it. This time with a pheasant tail Kebari, I hooked the fish and it swung under a log and broke me off. As I rewatched the GoPro clip, I was centimeters away from landing it with part of the net touching the trout. Surprisingly, that didn't bother me too much until I got home.
Grinding away on the next run, I see an LCT swirling in major circles around my feet. "whirling disease?" I said out loud. I certainly hoped not! The next pocket would hold my third fish of the day. I saw it come up and sip a bug off the surface as I was sneaking up. This time with my tenkara rod fully extended, I cast my kebari into the pool and coaxed the little fish to the net. My fourth fish would be my second prettiest fish of the day. It reminded me of a Bonneville cutthroat with dark par marks.
The creek started to get very tight with vegetation, and started to feel a bit like the first creek. I was able to score my fifth trout of the trip and easily the smallest. I had passed a few great pockets with no fish so I ended my journey there and made my way to the opposite side of the drainage to land my first native redband trout. Although I didn't want to claim redband in Nevada, you can technically use different fish for Expert Caster than you would Advanced Caster for the Western Native Trout Challenge; though I wouldn't recommend it. These redbands are Columbia River variants and I was only able to catch and land one before I felt burnt out for the day. It was then, I made an impromptu decision to drive home instead of camp. After all, those Mormon Crickets were so abundant, I don't think I was going to sleep well when them all over my tent.
The Lahontan Cutthroat have a remarkable comeback story worthy of it's own article. The WNTC has invested over $222,000 into projects benefitting LCT and I was incredibly grateful to have an opportunity to fish in Nevada for them. After all, the WNTC has an ability to really get you out and fishing places you would never think twice about. The LCT get major credit for the behemoth sized monsters in Pyramid Lake, but I wasn't going to be standing on a ladder next to a few strangers for my first. I am a true creek freak and I couldn't have asked for a prettier specimen to add to my WNTC wall of fame. The confidence this particular trip gave me to finish Expert Caster was through the roof the next day and I was already planning my Idaho Bull Trout trip next.
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