Time: 5:30PM – 6:45PM
Location: lower end of Baker Creek Campground
Fish Landed: 1
Baker Creek 08/15/2015 Photo Album
The Bonneville cutthroat trout is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout and is native to the Great Basin area of Utah, southern Wyoming and eastern Nevada. This cutthroat trout once inhabited Bonneville Lake, a large body of water that covered much of what is now the Great Basin, but when the water receded to what is now the Great Salt Lake, these trout migrated to cold headwater streams in the surrounding mountains. Their population has since diminished due to over fishing and other human degradation of their environment. When rainbow trout are introduced to their home water, they hybridize with cutthroat trout to create cutbows, and this compromises the pure strain.
After reading about this rare strain of cutthroat trout, I was intrigued by the possibility of catching one during our visit to Great Basin National Park. Information available to me on the internet indicated that Bonneville cutthroat inhabited Lehman Creek and Baker Creek within the park. How convenient that Baker Creek flowed within fifty yards of our campsite! Or was it?
When we returned from our tour of Lehman Cave, I estimated that I had an hour to explore Baker Creek with the goal of landing a Bonneville cutthroat. If I were successful in this endeavor, it would represent my first catch of the subspecies as well as my first trout landed in the state of Nevada. It was quite warm, so I decided to test my newly acquired Simms wading booties which enabled me to wade wet in the tiny creek. I cut across the native grass, shrubs and cactus until I intersected with the tumbling stream named Baker Creek.
The creek was tiny and never wider than five feet with thick brush serving as a barrier to upstream movement. In many places thick branches and dead logs extended over the water, and these obstacles forced me to make repeated exits and re-entry. Unfortunately for me, but lucky for the trout, moving on land was equally difficult as dead branches and pine trees grabbed my rod tip and fly with nearly every step. Since I was at my starting point I was not aware that these challenges stood in front of me, so I naively tied on a Chernobyl ant and went to work.
One of the Better Pools on Baker Creek
As I stepped toward the first small pool, I stumbled a bit, and this shock to the earth sent two fish streaking upstream. I cursed my clumsy approach, but I now knew that there were fish in the narrow trickle. Since I spooked the fish in front of me, I moved upstream a bit to another promising but diminutive pocket. Much to my surprise this location provided enough space to actually execute a backcast, so I flicked the Chernobyl just above a small deep depression. Instantly a decent sized fish charged the Chernobyl, but I cast farther than I anticipated and could not pick up my fly in the shadows. By the time I set the hook, the fish was wise to my presence, and it darted for cover.
There was another tiny deeper run within a few feet of my position, so I dapped a cast and allowed it to drift along the edge of the pocket. Once again I spotted a decent fish as it nipped the large foam ant, but again I was disappointed with only a momentary hook up.
This description of my first two fish encounters largely explained my fishing time on Baker Creek. I either spooked fish or endured momentary connections of which I counted six. I was spurred on by the realization that there were fish in nearly every small nook of this tiny stream, and surely many had to by Bonneville cutthroats. Conversely the skittish fish and tight vegetation made hooking and landing even one fish quite a challenge.
Between seductive momentary hook ups I battled trees and bushes and spent a significant amount of time reeling my fly to within two feet of my rod tip. In many spots this dapping technique with two feet of line was the only way to get a drift over likely fish. Unfortunately this approach was followed by time spent struggling to strip out enough line to clip the fly back in the hook keep in order to make farther progress without getting stuck on a tree limb or bush.
The preponderance of momentary hook ups was partly explained by the lack of overhead space in which to raise the rod tip to make a solid hook set. Another factor affecting my fish landing efficiency was the large size of the fly and the tendency of the Chernobyl to spin around the hook shank thus reducing the size of the gap. I probably should have switched to a fresh Chernobyl ant that was not subject to spinning, but I was too caught up with the other hassles and felt that other factors were having more impact.
Finally just before quitting I dapped a promising tiny run, and a fish charged my fly. In this case I had enough space to execute a swift hook set, and I quickly played a trout to my net. I wish I could report that it was the much sought after Bonneville cutthroat, but instead I must reveal that it was an eight inch brown trout. I completed one of my goals, that of landing a trout in the state of Nevada; however, bringing a Bonneville cutthroat to my net remains as a future accomplishment.