Bonneville Cutthroat Trout

Kayak fishing and ice fishing in one session! My son Judah joined me for a day trip up to Wyoming. The excursion was almost derailed as we drove past Horsetooth reservoir. So beautiful surrounded by snow; it was difficult for me to resist launching right there. Not knowing what conditions we’d find at our destination, we were prepared for both ice fishing and open water. Lake Hattie was one-third ice-capped and two thirds open. I figured the “ice off” open water would be the hot bite, so we fished by kayak first. We covered a bunch of water and tried at least four or five baits and methods. Despite throwing the kitchen sink at them, our only bite was one small rainbow trout that Judah caught. It’s the first time I’ve ever not caught multiple fish there. With a couple more hours of daylight, we switched to ice fishing. Since Hattie wasn’t producing, we tried Twin Buttes just down the road. We wore life jackets as an extra safety measure on late season ice. The bites were fairly consistent but we only landed a few. One was a decent rainbow trout, and one was a spectacular cutthroat hen that is from the Bear River strain (a member of the Bonneville subspecies and closely related to the Yellowstone cutthroat). I included two pictures of that fish (which I rarely do) as she is worth a second angle! Wrapped the session under a gorgeous Wyoming sunset, which seems to happen more often than not when I go north.

First ever cutbow I believe? Beautiful fish!