My daughter recently asked which is my favorite trout. I told her, “It’s complicated.”
While that is my truth, this answer was inadequate and she demanded I choose. At her insistence, I meekly answered, “Cutthroat,” and moved on. That’s my usual answer when pushed — the westslope cutthroat trout to be exact.
“It’s complicated” is most accurate, however. I can’t pick just one, but I have a list of contenders, as well as a few species of trout I love, though not quite as much as the top tier.
Finalists
Westslopes — While I’ve broadened my fly-fishing repertoire beyond dry flies, surface bugs still hold a special place in my heart. And no trout is a greater sucker for dry flies than the westslope cutthroat. It shares the title of Montana’s state fish with its east of the divide cousin, the Yellowstone cutthroat. The westslope is the most beautiful trout, in my estimation. That orange slash on the lower jaw and orange belly, glistening in the spring sunlight, is as good as it gets. Give me one fly and one fish to cast to for eternity, and it’s a greased-up Orange Stimulator cast to rising westslope cutties. Sounds like the definition of heaven.
Rainbows — Rainbows were my first fish, my first trout and my first trout on a fly. Rainbows are the trout most universally associated with western fly fishing, for good reason. They are natives, to the coastal states at least, they fight hard, jump like they mean it, and are almost as pretty as westslopes.
Bulls — My love of bull trout has little to do with catching them, as I’ve landed just a few, all small enough to still eat dry flies on the forks of the Flathead. But I once watched a dark shape twice as big follow a 16-inch cutthroat my daughter caught to the boat on the North Fork, and was relieved that ghostly shape shied away instead of attacking. Bull trout are fish eaters. Bull trout are ideologues. They recognize one way to live and shun compromise. I used to discuss trout with an FWP fisheries biologist friend while we watched our daughters play soccer. During one match, he told me of a radio-tagged bull trout that migrated from a spot near Columbia Falls to a spawning site near the Canadian border, then returned to the same spot near Columbia Falls every year. There is no compromising for bull trout. I must respect that.
Second Tier
Browns — I’ve mixed emotions about adding a European species to the list, but I can’t say no to brownies. This species was my No. 2 on a fly. Those early browns were small-stream jewels with butter-yellow bellies and black spots haloed in turquoise and red.
Big, predatory browns are another matter entirely and are many fly fishers’ obsession.
Yellowstones — Montana’s other state fish. Just as cool as the westslope, and honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference if I examined them side by side. I used to fish a river in Wyoming that held both species, and I never tried to be more specific than, “It’s a nice cuttie.”
Goldens — While the westslope and Yellowstone cutthroats are the state fish of my favorite state I wasn’t born in; golden trout hold a similar title in the land from which I emerged: California. That state has both rugged mountains and a long coastline with the Pacific Ocean, so the golden’s title is limited to “freshwater” state fish. The garibaldi, more golden than the golden, holds the title of “saltwater” state fish. I’ve only caught a few goldens, in small streams and lakes in the Sierra Nevada, but they are the fanciest of the trout. I hope, before I’m too old, to get up into Wyoming’s Wind River Range, where golden trout still reside.
Next week: the trout that didn’t make the list, and why.