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Cut-throat Trout — Part 2
Images coming soon.
In August they could be taken on the artificial fly as rapidly as one could cast, averaging more than one per minute. They bit vigorously, and were very gamy, often jumping 2 or 3 times out of the water. In this region the best fishing in the small streams is in the spring and up to late July. In the small lakes it continues good through the summer. In the streams somewhat larger, summer fishing is fairly good, but not until October is it at its best. But while some seasons are better than others, the angler will quite certainly always find good cut-throat trout fishing at whatever season he cares to try it. The typical cut-throat trout (Salmo clarkii) may be described as follows:
Head 4; depth 4; D. 10; A. 10; coeca 43; scales small, in 150 to 170 cross series. Body elongate, compressed; head rather short; mouth moderate, the maxillary not reaching far beyond the eye; vomerine teeth as usual set in an irregular zig-zag series; teeth on the hyoid bone normally present, but often obsolete in old examples; dorsal fin rather low; caudal fin slightly forked (more so in the young). Colour, silvery olivaceous, often dark steel colour; back, upper part of side and caudal peduncle profusely covered with rounded black spots of varying sizes and shapes, these spots often on the head, and sometimes extending on the belly; dorsal, adipose, and caudal fins covered with similar spots about as large as the nostril; inner edge of the mandible with a deep-red blotch, which is a diagnostic mark; middle of side usually with a diffuse pale rosy wash, this sometimes quite bright, and extending on to side of head; under parts silvery white. The red blotches or washing on the membrane joining the dentary bones of the lower jaw are usually constant, probably always present in the adult, and constitute a most important character.
This species has been called Salmo mykiss in various publications by the writers and others, but the true Salmo mykiss is allied to Salmo salar, and has never been taken outside of Kamchatka.