Cutthroat Trout and Dolly Vardon Fishing
In May the increased flows of the spring rains flush small salmon fry from their rearing areas and get pushed down stream. Dolly Vardon congregate at bottle necks in the stream to ambush these salmon fry. This creates a feeding frenzy that makes for fast action and a unique fishing experience. Small lures or flies which imitate small minnows work very well.
Later as the weather starts to warm in June the Dolly Vardon back out of the streams and the Cutthroat come down out of their wintering areas in the lakes and upper parts of the streams. They begin to feed on the salmon fry and the new insects that are starting to hatch. This is a great time of year for some incredible Cutthroat Trout action. They are extremely aggressive this time of year and often take a dry fly at full speed, leaping out of the water in pursuit of their prey. We don't get the fishing pressure so the fish are aggressive and ready to bite. I feel this is a greatly overlooked fishery on the island and at times it can be world class dry fly fishing.
As the summer gets going the trout have so much food they get lazy and are tougher to catch until fall. During September the Cutthroats and Dolly's come back up to the shallows to feed on eggs from the spawning salmon. Again this is a time of year when some great fishing is over looked because people are focused on the salmon runs. This a great time to catch some large trout.
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