The 'Bull Trout Curse'

... and how to acquire it

When I moved to Idaho some 27 years ago, I got busy getting to know my “new” fishery. I grew up fishing the high-country streams of the Colorado Rockies, so the waters here in the Gem State weren’t totally foreign. The topography is similar, and what Idaho lacks in elevation, it makes up in latitude. It felt very familiar. I didn't know it at the time, but a surprise awaited me. Sheltered by my Colorado upbringing, I honestly didn't know to look beyond what I considered normal. So I dove into the "normal."

As I grew into the fly fishing and did my share of exploring, particularly along the state’s very fishy eastern border with Wyoming, I found myself awash in some of the best native cutthroat fishing I’d ever experienced. While there were some native cutthroats in Colorado, the bulk of the more accessible native trout habitat had long been populated by introduced brook trout, pale hatchery rainbows, or surly brown trout. These changes took place over decades — even as a kid in the 1970s, most of the cutthroat streams had become brook trout streams, and the big trout rivers, like the South Platte, the Gunnison, the Roaring Fork, and the Colorado, had become legitimate trophy rainbow and brown trout fisheries. The natives were relegated to the hidden backcountry streams where hatchery trucks couldn’t go or overlooked high-mountain lakes that were ignored by the fish-dropping airplane pilots.

The move to repopulate trout water in Idaho was perhaps a bit less zealous. Yes, we have our share of brookies swimming where cutthroats once lived, and rivers like the Henry’s Fork are now almost exclusively rainbow and brown trout fisheries. But, I found out fairly quickly, our native Yellowstone cutthroat trout were hanging on, and, in some streams, they were doing very well. And for a small-water “creek freak,” the chances of catching sizable native trout in small water were solid. I loved it. 

The Northwest's native char

Then, a couple of years into my Idaho adventure, I "discovered" the surprise. Idaho boasted another anomaly that my adopted home state does not share with Colorado. Idaho is home to a native char. Yes, we have our introduced brookies, but the state is also home to the secretive bull trout. Generally speaking, Idaho marks the southern terminus of the bull trout’s native range (it actually extends into northern Nevada, where the Jarbridge River drains north into the Snake). A bit far-flung from my home in Idaho Falls, the federally protected bull trout swim in the rivers and streams of the Snake (below Shoshone Falls), Salmon, and Columbia river drainages, and, like those native cutthroats of Colorado, they take some effort to get to. 

Better yet, I learned, bull trout get big. Like … 30 inches big.

And I caught my first legit big bull trout in a little stream that flows out of the Gospel Hump Wilderness in west-central Idaho. Just over two feet long, this late-summer fish likely pushed up out of the main Salmon River in search of cold water and the little native redband trout that live there and served as the perfect little morsels for a piscivore like the bull trout. It hit an orange-and-black Zonker, and I literally had to chase the fish down the creek to land it. I remember holding that fish and admiring its bright orange spots peppering its sleek-yet-muscular frame, and its creamy white fins that often give it away when pursuing anglers swing streamers to this fish (it’s legal to fish for, and catch, bull trout in Idaho, but that’s true in other states where it’s found). But mostly, I was drawn to its head and its oversized jaws. This fish-eating char just looked mean, and the name “bull trout” suddenly seemed perfectly appropriate. 

The first taste is free

I was thrilled. And, at the same time, I was cursed. From that moment on, I became a bona fide member of a tight-lipped Idaho cult of dirtbag fly fishers who go to great lengths to very quietly pursue the state’s bull trout. Don’t ask where. We won’t say — I’ve given up too much information already. Just know that bull trout fishing gets in your blood, and chasing them isn’t so much a fly fishing side hustle. Once you do it again. And again, and again.

The good news? Bull trout are starting to gain some notoriety among the fly-fishing crowd in general. From Idaho north to the southern Yukon, these noble char still swim in the most remote, coldest, cleanest rivers, lakes, and streams on the continent. The more anglers who understand the exacting habitat these fish require, the more advocates they gain when it comes to their protection. They are, indeed, quite fragile and perhaps more susceptible to the impacts that accompany development, climate change, and overfishing than other trout we might normally pursue.

That said, where they are healthy and plentiful, bull trout are legitimate fly-rod targets, particularly among the streamer crowd who likes to watch these gregarious fish chase big flies in crystal clear water. Anglers who find themselves spotting and stalking bull trout in backcountry waters would be advised to take a look around and admire the wallpaper. Bull trout live amazing places — look up once in a while and take in the scenery.

 

A bucket-list fish to be sure

Add the bull trout to your bucket list. With a little help, just about anyone can get to some of the places where they swim, and once you’re hooked up to this beefy char, you’ll understand the appeal. Unfortunately, you’ll also acquire the curse, and you’ll have to chase these fish again … and again. So choose wisely, my friends. 

Interested in acquiring the bull trout curse? We can help. We have a number of destination partners who can put guests in the right place at the right time to cast to these extraordinary native char in some of the wildest places left in the world. Drop us a line, and we’ll happily help.