So, I just finished getting the photos I need for the "Humboldt" Cutthroat trout. I put in the parenthesis, b/c there is debate as to weather they
are a separate sub specie or not. I'm still not sure how to list all the different populations in my book, but for now, I am just getting info. and data on
everything I can. I am trying to keep these entries short, as I need to get back out to the streams! Please excuse me if I don't respond quickly, as I am
often in very remote places and only a short time to do anything online. My first stop was on Gance Creek, in NE Nevada. I chose that spot, b/c Behnke did a
study years ago and found the population pure, and other studies showed it had a healthy popn. with good habitat. I will attach some photos to this in a bit.
But it was quite beautiful and wild. The first morning a coyote decided to stop on the ridge above camp and bark at Mojo and Arielle. So, I stumbled out of the
tent, remembered I forgot my glasses, went back in and got my glasses, and saw a coyote about 60 yards away, barking at Mojo, who was busy looking for birds in
the willows. The coyote didn't run after I got out, so I helped it decide to leave with my .380! It finally ran away over the next ridge, but it took three
shots sending rock at its hind end to get it to move! Guess people don't hunt coyotes in Nevada... So, that was an exciting start. It was a while later
that I finally found fish. I walked from about the very beginning of Gance Crk., down to camp the evening before--a distance of about two miles, and didn't
see a fish. It is a stream you can jump across in most places, with deep pools of about knee depth. Mojo didn't find any either! After the coyote incident,
I headed downstream and found fish about a half mile down--rising to small caddis! I started catching fish and taking pics. The next two days were rather
productive, including a fish that busted my 5x tippet, from a beaver pond on a trib. The knot failed, as the 5x was tied to 1x, so it wasn't a huge fish,
but judging from the size of the nose I saw take my dry, I would guess it in the lower teens, anyway. A big fish in a small pond!
The last few days Morrison Simms, my friend from Jackson, Wyo., and the oldest daughter of John Simms, founder of Simms Fishing, and I spent on the Marys
River, a bit east of the Gance. The Marys is the largest intact fishery for Lahontan/Humboldt Cutthroat trout in Nevada. A biologist in Elko told me there were
real live big fish, and held her hands out to about 16 or 17 inches! So, we started high in the drainage at Orange Bridge, worked down a couple miles, and
caught nothing. I didn't even see a fish after walking about 2.5 miles of stream. We drove down the next day, walked another couple miles of stream and
found two trout, totalling four inches of fish! We gave up, went back the 90 miles to Gance, and got the rest of the photos I needed just before the sun set
behind the Independence Mountains.
We are now in Winnemucca, on our way to Willow and Whitehorse Creeks in SE Oregon and plan on staying today and tomorrow, then heading back to Pyramid Lake,
and possibly in to Calif. to look for some Paiutes outside of thier native range (as you can't fish them in their native range). I'll update again when
I get a chance. Probably in three or four days when we get to Reno. Hope you enjoy the updates, and let me know if you have any questions. I can't post
everything about the trip, or all my photos, as I need to save something special for my book, but I will post enough to help understand what's going
on.
Above: Mojo looks for Cutthroat on Marys River. Arielle wonders what bugs might be hatching.
Below: Morrison holds a Gance Crk. Cutt. Parr she caught on an Elk Hair Caddis.

Above: A "large" Gance Crk. Cutt, about 10" long.
Below: Another Gance Crk. Cutt. Gance Crk. is a trib. to the N. Fork of the Humboldt River, and may be considered Humboldt Cutthroat trout.

Above: The setting sun reflects on a distant mountain in the Independence Mountains. Taken from our upper camp on Gance Crk.
Below: Driving in a dry lake basin, parallelling the Marys River (where I found two, two-inch Cutts.). This seen is typical for the Nevada trout angler!

Above: The beautiful (and seemingly fishless) Marys River.
Below: Mojo, Morrison and Bernice, her Jack Russel Terrier fish the confluence of Warm and Gance Creeks.
Above: The very nice Cutt. Morrison caught from the confluence of Warm and Gance Crks. This fish is about a foot long!

I landed a smaller, 18-inch fish a couple hours later. Then lost
another. I was loosing my mind about the lost fish. I got a third to shore, about 20 inches. The change in fish size was very welcoming, but I was concerned
the slow catch-rate would leave me forever casting on the banks of Pyramid Lake, trying to get enough for my book! Not a bad life/afterlife existance for sure,
but not good for my publisher, eh. The sunny, clear days had made the fishing a bit slower. I was sure to take time to enjoy the "rocks" along the
shore, which were really fossils of ancient reefs. There were sponges, and corrals of all sorts, hard as rocks. The haze from pollution and dust settles in the
lake basin, and makes an ominous setting. Quite beautiful. Morrison described our tent site as "biblical."
)
I'm glad you
enjoy what I post (still a little gun shy, eh)
