Trophy Trout - What Conditions Grow Big Fish?

Why does one watershed support only your average sized trout and the one a few miles over supports trophies? Why is that and what conditions need to exist to enable fish to grow big here but not there. I love fly fishing just to fish, even if I don't touch a thing, but I'd be outright lying if I told you i don't target large fish whenever I can. I don't purport to have all the answers but I have fished enough places and made enough observations to have some answers. Whether it be a high alpine lake in the Sierra's, the desert still waters of Northern Nevada or the arid wind swept steppes of Patagonia, one thing I've observed in most trophy trout fisheries I've encountered is relatively high alkalinity.

A Nevada rainbow obese from a strict scud diet. This picture was taken May 7th 2017, the picture below is the same fish on July 23rd 2016.  Theses are Tasmanian strain rainbow, originally a native Rainbow from Nevada, it was shipped to Tasmania in 1898 for fish farming.  After decades of  being bred in Australia it was brought back to Nevada.  Its one of my favorite strains of rainbow trout.

Same fish (matched by comparing spots on the lateral line, ventral fin and anal fin) 8.5 months earlier.  She put on an average of 3.8/oz per month through the leaner winter months, thats just under 3 pounds per year.

Without turning this into a chemistry dissertation, alkalinity is effectively a measure of a body of water's ability to neutralize acidic pollution. It is one of the best measures of the sensitivity of the stream or water body to acid inputs. A Ph of 7.0 is considered neutral, below that is acidic, above that is alkaline. Generally speaking, there is a direct correlation between alkalinity and water productivity. That relationship can be expressed in a formula, and I think it goes something like this: higher alkalinity = more microscopic photosynthetic items at the bottom of the food chain = more zooplankton = more trout forage (bait fish/insects) = more and larger trout.  Note, I'll steer clear of dissolved oxygen and water temperatures here, important factors for trout survival but not specific to trophy trout.

Scuds in an Alkaline Spring - scuds live about a year, gather like this about every other month to spawn and supposedly prefer low light conditions, although the later has not been my experience.

In Lake Tahoe, this formula may look something like this: low alkalinity = lower levels of phytoplankton = lower levels of zooplankton = smaller populations of forage fish, introduced mysis shrimp and invertebrates = fewer trout. Its not a knock, but Lake Tahoe is a big pristine granite catch basin and pretty unproductive relative to its water volume as are most high Sierra lakes. Notwithstanding introduced Lake Trout (Mackinaw) which are highly piscivorous - they are beneficiaries of being the apex predator at the top of the food chain.  Lake Trout in Tahoe may seam big but are they trophies? Our 37.6 pound state record is big relative to our other trout species in the state, but its by no means indicative of the true size potential of this fish. To find a true trophy, you'd have to join me (Aug 11-18th, 2018) on a trip to Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories Canada which provides a truly food-rich ecosystem allowing this species to reach its full size potential. The all tackle record of 72 pounds came from this lake, trophies are considered over 40 pounds.

Tui Chub, the prefer forage of Lahontan  Cutthroat Trout

By contrast, in Pyramid Lake the formula may look more like this: high alkalinity = higher levels of phytoplankton = higher levels of zooplankton = larger populations of Tui Chub = Plentiful and large LCT's. Fueled by a diet of Tui Chub, Pilot Peak strain Cutthroats fish can grow an impressive 4-6 inches and 4 pounds per year. Lastly, in Spring-fed Systems, you may see the relationship look like this: high alkalinity = high levels of phytoplankton & vascular elodea plants = high levels of amphipods (scuds) = plentiful and large trout. I've recorded trout putting on as much as 3.8 oz per month in alkaline spring waters, that equates to just under 3 pounds per year.  They almost exclusively eat scuds during the winter months and though they expand their menu to include aquatic insects and mice throughout the year, scuds can comprise 60% of their annual diet.

A Lahontan Cutthroat from Pyramid Lake Nevada.  After about 18" in length they become almost entirely piscivorous eating primarily Tui Chubs followed by juveniles of their own species. The clipped adipose fin give this fish away, its a Pilot Peak Strain. 

There is a point where alkalinity can be too high for trout, 6.5-8.5 is ideal for most trout, however, Pyramid lake has an unusually high Ph of 9.4.   This is lethal to all trout but the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout which has evolved in this unique terminal lake system. These inland terminal lakes have slowly receded over the millennia resulting in slowly increasing levels of dissolved solids including salinity and alkalinity. Alkalinity any higher that what it is now is even lethal for LCTs.  In addition to higher alkalinity, salinity can build in terminal lakes and affect trout too, just look to the east at another terminal lake, the Great Salt Lake.  The Bonneville Cutthroat Trout can no longer tolerate its salty waters. The high alkalinity in Pyramid Lake forms a natural barrier agains't other trout species for the lake fish in as much as it prevents intermingling of the Lahontan Cutthroat with Rainbow Trout which are present in the Truckee River. This barrier, however, isn't present in the river itself where trout spawn, hence authorities have been resistant to allowing LCT's past Marble Bluff damn where hybridization is possible in the Truckee River.

Argentinian (Patagonian) Rainbows grow to gargantuan proportions in a lake devoid of all forage fish due solely to its alkaline water and prolific scud populations. This particular strain is a McCloud River Rainbow (yes, transplanted from California to S. America in the 1990's).  This fish is large due to a nearby alkali terminal lake, they're only in the river briefly to spawn. 

Other Considerations for Trophy Trout (Other than Food):

• Definitional Considerations - Only you can define a trophy - is it only a big fish? I caught 30" Lahontan Cutthroat under an indicator the other day after work within 100 feet of my truck out at Pyramid, another time I caught a 16" golden on a multi-week trip at ice-out in a stream at 12,000 feet. To me, the former was not a trophy, but the later was. Generally.  In my personal equation, I consider the relative size and number of large fish, while also factoring in the difficulty to cast to, fool and ultimately land the fish.  Back to relativity, a creek trophy is not comparable to a river trophy is not comparable to a lake trophy, etc.  Back to difficulty, a fish caught on an egg pattern in the Rio Barranocoso is not comparable to one fooled on a dry in the Little Truckee's 610 pool - a mouthbreather could do the first, the later requires a patient and skilled tactician.  There is no universal  definition of what makes a trophy in my book.
• Water Body Considerations - As a rule of thumb, lakes typically have more forage and habitat and generally speaking, can accommodate larger numbers of larger fish. Don't get me wrong, rivers like the big Truckee can house resident trophies too (plus I prefer fishing them over lakes). But in the Little Truckee for example, the resident browns seldom exceed 20", however the migratory lake browns and Mackinaw coming out of Boca can exceed 30". Fish often grow quicker in lakes, so it goes without saying that rivers going into/out of lakes will often have larger fish (on average). I've spent a lot of time on the Naknek River in Alaska, touted as north America's premier rainbow trout fishery boasting some of the largest non-steelhead rainbows in North America.  These trout don't get that big by living in the river alone, true there's literally tons of roe and smolt to fatten the up on for 4 months of the year, but they also grow large because during the other 8 months of the year they have a massive lake to continue feeding in. Same goes for the Wood and Williamson Rivers in Oregon, were it not for Klamath and Agency Lakes, you won't see the monsters they're famous for. At the risk of belaboring the point, the Tree River in Nunavek Canada has a run of the world's largest Arctic Char eclipsing 30 pounds.  That trip is coming up next year, but the reason for the big char is the big body of water at the terminus of the river the fish are able to grow up in - that body of water being the Arctic Ocean.  The resident river char rarely exceed 4 pounds. Another water consideration, big fish need cover to get big. Deeper waters, structure, and riffles which camouflage their silhouette all provide cover - cover from predators, cover to ambush prey, and cover to avoid anglers. This cover promotes larger fish.  Lastly, lakes (and streams for that matter) with large littoral zones (shallow, weedy shorelines where photosynthesis can occur) can be prime trout growing habitat.  Craine prairie reservoir in Oregon is one massive littoral zone which is why it pumps out huge fish (off traditional aquatic insects no less).
• Species Consideration - Golden Trout have evolved in high alpine lakes/streams which have limited aquatic/terrestrial invertebrate food sources and short growing seasons, so they've genetically evolved to thrive in these harsh conditions by developing smaller frames which require fewer calories to survive and procreate. That said, if you want to target trophy goldens, the same fundamentals apply. Find alkaline waters, particularly with scuds. In 1996 I hiked the John Muir Trail and completed several cross country loops (6-weeks, +300 miles, 72 lakes, 150 streams). I painstakingly documented all my catches.   Hands down, the largest "trophy" goldens were in just 3 of the most remote lakes, each lake having higher levels of alkalinity and a substantial scud population (a rarity in the high Sierras). Its no coincident that the 9.5 pound California state record golden came from one of these lakes. By contrast, Pilot Peak strain Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (Pyramid's original strain) have evolved to be piscivorous apex predators in terminal alkali lakes which boast huge numbers of Tui Chub. Pyramid Lake is believed to have approx. 500,000 Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, and there are estimated to be 100 Tui Chub per trout or 50,000,000 chub. Now that's protein. Fishing for Pilot Peak strain LCT's in Pyramid will yield much bigger fish than indigenous LCTs in Summit Lake (the home of a cousin strain of LCT) a much smaller isolated lake where the fish have evolved to primarily subsist off of scuds. They're also going to be bigger than indigenous LCT's in Independence Lake, a less alkaline lake with respectable but lower productivity situated in a high-altitude granite catch basin which freezes over in the winter. 
• Growing Season - Water systems that freeze don't offer much forage in the winter, and while those that don't freeze often have insects which hatch out year around, and while your typical aquatic insects (midges, caddis, mayflies & stoneflies) do a good job of sustaining fish during the winter, they usually don't lead to substantial growth during these lean months. Having a large year round calorie source is key, and alkaline lakes which produce huge populations of forage fish and scuds allow fish to actually pack on weight every month of the year, with or without ice. I can't leave out this formula either: Tailwater's = year-round growing season. Tailwater fisheries (rivers regulated by dams) don't freeze in the winter and typically have stable year-round temperatures. For instance, water coming out of the Stampeded Reservoir in CA is usually 45 degrees in both the winter and summer, perfect for trout all year. Stable year-round flows and temperatures promotes a year-round growing season.  Such is the case with Colorado's Frying Pan River which produces monster trout year round.   
• Invasive Species - You can have all the right conditions resulting in high levels of productivity but still not have a trophy fishery if the water system has been taken over by invasive species. Northern Pike at one time ruined the trout fishery at Davis Lake in California and Large Mouth Bass have really taken their toll on rainbow fishery at Craine Prairie Reservoir in Oregon. Not only do they feed on the same forage as trout, juvenile trout are on their menu. 
• Competing Species - Particularly for high country alpine lakes, avoid brook trout. I know they're pretty but they're not very compatible with trophy fishing. They are capable of spawning even without a flowing tributary and are prolific breeders. They can quickly over populate a lake and outstrip its food sources.  The result is a lake with hundreds of brook trout with large heads and skinny, malnourished bodies. If you're targeting trophy brook trout, same principals above apply, find alkaline lakes with scuds.  They didn't really evolve in high altitude lakes so you may target lakes at more moderate altitudes, Kirman Lake in California has some trophies in it (on my list of places I still need to explore). 
• Water Quality and Quantity - Rapid changes of water levels, particularly in tailwater fisheries, ravages populations of aquatic insects, forage fish and scuds which translates into less food to grow large trout. Additionally, as it the case with Pyramid Lake, the diversion of the Truckee River's fresh snow-melt waters to Fernley, NV (occurring at Derby Dam) has altered the chemistry of the lake. Being a terminal lake, water leaves Pyramid in one of two ways, through evaporation or percolation. The diversion of approximately 50% of the Truckee's incoming fresh water annually has resulted in the lake receding approx. 100 feet over the past century (average of 1 foot per year since 1905). Instead of being 450 feet deep, the lake is now only 350 deep, a 28% decline in linear depth, but in terms of volume, its likely more than a 40% decline in total water volume. Now then, dissolved solids can't leave the lake through either evaporation or percolation so these solids are now more concentrated in the lower volume of water resulting in changes to lake's chemistry. Over the past century, newly altered levels of alkalinity, salinity and other dissolved solid has occurred faster than evolution can keep up is likely preventing fish from reaching their full size potential because of reduced lifespan. If fish need to live 12 years to reach 40 or 60 pounds, but are only living 5 or 6 years, they won't reach their full trophy potential. I have no doubt this explains why a 24-pound Lahontan Cutthroat stocked in 2007 was caught in November 2012, and since then, in the past five years, despite becoming ever more popular and heavily fished, nobody has cracked 30 pounds. I'm not saying fish that size don't exist, a handful may, but I'm saying the fish are limiting out and reaching the mid to high twenties at year 5 or 6 years and then dying. The good news is that the massive inflow of water from the Truckee this year (2017) is raising the lake approx. 5 to 8 feet and should serve to dilute the water and hopefully help rebalance the chemistry a little. Further, several years of silt, nutrients and detritus from the drought years have been washed into the lake by flood-level waters and should result in higher levels of phytoplankton, larger schools of Tui Chub, and (fingers crossed) Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Eclipsing 30-pounds by 2020 (that is my prediction).  I'm being mindful that 2011 and 2012 saw no Pilot Peak strain fish stocked at Pyramid, so if they're dying when I think they are, 2016-2018 will have a lull of big fish, hence my 2020 prediction.

Ed Smiths 36", 24pound LCT caught in November 2012. The fish was stocked in 2007. 

• Regulations - I debated throwing this in, but at the risk of stating the obvious, catch and release fisheries tend to promote larger specimens, but not always. Catch and release Blue Ribbon streams such as Rock Creek in Montana have 10,000 trout per mile (a common attribute of Blue Ribbon waters) but good luck finding something over 15". By contrast, the Truckee River has between 1,000 and 3,500 fish per mile and you can find nice healthy trophies throughout. Also, although the CA side of the Truckee is largely managed as a catch and release fishery and the NV side is managed as a put and take fishery, most anglers agree there are more trophy fish on the NV side, so food and/or water considerations can trump regulation. 
• Spawning - There are two ways this can come into play, first, fish that spawn are occupied fattening up, producing eggs/milt, and spawning/fighting for a very big portion of the growing season.  While is normal and natural, its also something to be aware of.  Fish that are alternate year spawners (i.e. Pilot Peak strain LCTs) and triploids (sterile fish) have less demands on them caused by spawning and therefore more time to pack on the pounds.  Secondly, resident trout which inhabit waters with large populations of migratory spawning trout or salmon can grow larger as a result. Trout often times key into spawning cycles, for instance, rainbows will follow browns up in the fall to gorge on their roe, browns will do the same to rainbows.  Also, browns and Mackinaws will follow up Kokanee in October to eat their roe and even the fish itself (the Kokanee in/around Tahoe/Truckee are of the stunted high altitude variety, are are bite sized for mature trout).  These are unique times of the year where large lake dwelling fish occupy streams/rivers otherwise to small to sustain them year round.  In the Ushigak Narrows in Alaska, thousands of starving Arctic Char pile in on a 400-yard stretch of river between the two lakes to descend on Silver Salmon roe, in June the char emaciated, but after 2 months of gorging on protein-rich roe, they're bursting at the seems, more than doubling their pre-spawn mass.
• Pressure - Another obvious one, but if you can drive right up to it, high chance trophies (if they're still there) are well educated with PhD's in fly avoidance. Get off the beaten back, hike in, sometimes you need to work hard to find that secret section of river, the one that's a mile from a turnout off on I-80, or that piece of water that may only see a handful of anglers in a given year. Exploration and finding new water is a huge part of the experience so get out there and find your trophy!  

In summary, food source is the single most important factor in finding large fish, and alkalinity is closely correlated to food productivity. Additionally, food and alkalinity is so important, I feel it can trump many if not all of the other considerations I've mentioned, so keep that in mind as well.

Hope you enjoyed my medley of opinion and fact, feel free to leave a comment.

Pyramid Lake - April is Here!!!

April is here but it's still not just about catching, most fish are very focused on the spawn and it can be quite frustrating.  Overall for me its hit and miss for sure, I must have seen 300+ fish Saturday afternoon but only 5 takes, same for others on the beach.

In my experience there are 4 groups of fish this time of year: Summit spawners (most likely to form a big school and the most plentiful group by a good margin), summit feeders (what you you're most likely to hook), Pilot spawners (probably up in the Truckee right now) and Pilot feeders (what everyone and their brother is looking for).  From what I've read, Summit and Pilot fish tend not to intermix, rather they tend to go their separate ways, why I don't know.  According to Fishes of the Great Basin and Great Basin Naturalist, there is also evidence the LCT female is an alternate year spawner, who knows about the Pilot strain, the books are are a couple decades old when only Summit fish were present.  This is interesting to me because I'm always trying to figure out fish behaviour, and alternate year spawning would explain why some schools are in feed mode right now (as would fish just finishing spawning or fish spawning late)

 I really prefer to retrieve big nasties, but most days, indicators with balanced leeches have been consistently out performing.  That said, the the biggest fish for me this month was sight fished on a big streamer.

When you dredge the bottom with streamers and hook multiple dragon fly nymphs, it becomes obvious what to throw on as one of your flies.  These are hearty meals for fish and unlike popcorn beattles and boobies, they actually imitate what fish feed on.

Jan's Draggin is the best dragon fly pattern I've come across, dumbbell eyes get it down fast.

The boys out fished me 2 to 1 this day with 12 in the net on balanced leeches.

Pyramid and her many moods

Normally a storm front like this will get the fish coming in close to shore to ambush Tui Chubs...not today, all it did was turn the lake into an ocean and get everyone soaked.

The colors in and around this lake are amazing, they shift from day to day and hour to hour.

IMHO, she's the most beautiful desert lake you're ever going to come across.  All of these colors occurred over one weekend.

Pyramid Lake - The Giants are Back

Dave Hamel with a massive 34", 20lb-class Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, February 2013

Preface: I never do this but these two articles (scroll down) were too good to pass up and they won’t be easy to find on the internet for long.  They were in the RGJ and written by Jeff DeLong and Mary Peacock to whom I give full credit.  I just had to put them up again because not much is written about the plight of the mighty Lahontan Cutthroat Trout and I found the info in the articles worth sharing. So in other words, I'm doing this for posterity's sake.  Over the past 12 years I’ve spent a good amount of time fishing and researching Pyramid Lake combing through books, magazines, blogs and internet articles in an attempt to better understand this unique desert fishery.  I’ve visited Summit Lake, NV and Independence Lake, CA, the last two bastions for self-sustaining lacustrine populations of these apex predators, have spoke with several fisheries biologists and have visited the Lahontan National FishHatchery in Gardnerville to see and inquire about the Pilot Peak Strain first hand.  

Now then, I’ve been theorizing for the past few years that the seldom heard of Pilot Peak strain, which even fewer people knew was introduce into Pyramid Lake back in 2007 (~13,000 juveniles per the biologist I spoke to), was the culprit which explained the ever increasing size of fish showing up in the creel in recent years.  I’ve kept loose tabs on fish caught out of the lake since 2000, and whereas for the next 10 years that followed, 14-15lbs seems to be a glass ceiling for rod and reel anglers (per the Tribe’s “creel census”) and the Sutcliff Hatchery (per the brooder spawning records that the Tribe used to publish), starting about 3 or 4 years ago fish started showing up that mysteriously broke (and even shattered) that ceiling.  In particular, several 15+ pounders showed up in 2009 and 2010 timeframe, fish up to 17lbs or better were reported in 2011, in early 2012 they were pushing the low 20's and by the end of 2012 and into this year, there are reports that I'm aware of about three 23-24lb class fish (amongst others slightly smaller).  You can even go to the Crosby Lodge website, its as if 10 pounders don't even't turn heads anymore and 15-18 pounders are a weekly occurrence (for everyone but me, I can't break 10).   Are they going to have to start a 20lb club?  There is no denying that in recent years, the big boys seem to be coming back and the maximum size for mature fish had grown by an astonishing 8-10lbs (60-70%) . How could this happen if food sources, alkalinity, spawning habitat and fishing pressure remained relatively static during the same period?

The good news is that it was happening, and there is speculation by some that fish approaching 30lbs could be a reality in the not too distant future....i tend to agree.  Will they grow to their historic gargantuan proportions of 60lbs or more, who’s to say, but biologists believe the recent slough of 20 pound pilot peakers are only 1/3 through their natural lifecycle.  Even still, they'll have some challenges given whats been done to the Truckee River (and the water rights contained therein) over the past century.  The fish have many things going against them these days than was the case before 1905 from the lake level being 100 feet lower than it was 100 years ago, thereby increasing the alkalinity and decreasing the life expectancy of these fish, to the inability of brooders to navigate the Truckee/Pyramid delta and Derby Dam to spawn naturally, to antiquated fishing rules that allow the biggest fish to be culled rather than released to propagate their genes.  On top of this, the Pilot Peak fish has been living in a small desert creek for the past 60 plus years, and I've read that there is concern that some natural selection may have occurred over that time frame that may have deselected certain traits that allowed these fish to grow to be 60 pound apex predators in a tui chub-rich lacustrine environment in exchange for the traits of stealth, agility, wariness and perseverance needed to survive in the harsh environment of a small desert creek half way up Pilot Peak on the Nevada and Utah border.  Only time will tell.  Anyhow, now that it seems to be widely accepted that the Pilot Peak strain is the cause for all the hub-bub, it’s a good thing I’m not the type of person who says “I told you so”.  Now for the articles:

Giant cutthroats show efforts to restore native fish to Pyramid Lake working

By Jeff DeLong

It’s been three months, and Ed Smith still gets worked up talking about it.

After all, the 72-year-old Sparks resident has been fly fishing for Pyramid Lake’s cutthroat trout for more than 30 years. He’s caught plenty of fish. Plenty of big ones.

“You want to catch a 10-pound fish or over. That’s what we look for,” said Smith, who generally throws a line into the lake five days a week.

So imagine Smith’s surprise on Nov. 21 when he pulled a struggling 24-pounder out of the water, an experience he said came with a thrill that still sometimes wakes him at night.

“Excitement is an understatement,” Smith said. “It was a giant fish. It would barely fit in the net.”

Smith’s not the only one excited. That fish might have been the biggest, but cutthroats in the 20-pound range are now “coming in pretty regularly” as efforts to restore native fish to Pyramid Lake appear to be paying off big-time, said Lisa Heki, complex manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lahontan National Fish Hatchery.

It’s still early to say for sure, but the size of the so-called “Pilot Peak” cutthroat being caught in Pyramid Lake over the past year points to a healthy fish population that might, in a few years, be producing fish like the 41-pound world record fish landed in 1925 by Paiute Johnny Skimmerhorn.

“We’ve turned a corner,” Heki said. “Based on what we’re learning, there’s a strong indication they’re going to provide a great fishery, a fishery reminiscent of that 1930s fishing experience.”

A troubled fish

If that’s true, it would be a profound reversal.

Nevada’s state fish, Lahontan cutthroats (also known as Pilot Peak cutthroats) once thrived in all the major rivers and lakes on the eastern side of the Sierra, including Pyramid Lake, Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River. The fish were famous for their size and taste, with explorer John Fremont declaring in 1845 that “their flavor was excellent — superior, in fact, to that of any fish I have ever known.”

Lahontan cutthroats were fished extensively from Tahoe and Pyramid. Rail cars full of the fish were sent to mining camps and to San Francisco as people harvested a succulent resource that one newspaper reported in 1881 was “inexhaustible."  That was not the case.

Overfishing, destruction of spawning habitat and the introduction of non-native game fish — particularly the Mackinaw — combined to collapse the cutthroat population in Lake Tahoe, with the fish gone from the lake by 1939.

By 1944, cutthroats disappeared from Pyramid Lake as well, with the death knell for that lake’s population largely linked to the 1905 construction of Derby Dam about 30 miles upstream. The dam diverted much of the Truckee River’s previous flow into Pyramid Lake into the Carson River for irrigation use, destroyed spawning habitat and blocked fish passage.

Lahontan cutthroats were listed as an endangered species in 1970 and reclassified to threatened five years later, a status change designed to provide greater flexibility for restoration efforts.

In 1974, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe established a new cutthroat fishery. To this day, the tribe releases fish raised at its Sutcliffe hatchery into the lake, but these fish come from stocks originating outside the Truckee River Basin, a step taken because experts assumed Pyramid’s original cutthroats were gone for good.

Pilot Peak discovery

That assumption came into question in the late 1970s when a taxonomist named Bob Behnke collected trout from a small stream in the Pilot Mountains on the Nevada-Utah border. Based on their physical characteristics, Behnke came to the conclusion those fish were likely related to the original Pyramid Lake stock.

Decades later, that conclusion would be confirmed through DNA testing.

“This strain definitely represents the original Pyramid Lake legacy,” Heki said.

Based largely on Behnke’s early conclusions — in a move later supported by the DNA tests — the Fish and Wildlife Service began raising the Pilot Peak strain of cutthroats at its Lahontan hatchery in Gardnerville in 1995. The first of those fish were released into Pyramid Lake in 2006, joining those already planted there by the tribe.

It was late on a breezy afternoon on Jan. 21, 2012 when Matt Ceccarelli — having fished unsuccessfully throughout the day at two locations — threw his line into the water near the marina at Sutcliffe. After his third or fourth cast, Ceccarelli recalls, he hooked a fish that was a big surprise when he finally got it ashore. It was the first confirmed catch of an adult Pilot Peak cutthroat, and the fish weighed 19.8 pounds.

“When we pulled that fish in, it was amazing,” Ceccarelli said. “I had no idea fish were getting that big out there.”

In October 2012, Ernie Gulley landed a female Pilot Peak cutthroat that weighed 17 pounds. The following month, Ed Smith caught that whopping 24-pounder, an experience he describes as “just beyond belief.”

Ed Smith caught this 36", 24lb Pilot Peak strain Lahontan Cutthroat in November or 2012.  It was stocked in 2007

They keep on coming. At Crosby’s Lodge in Sutcliffe, there are 19 photos posted on the wall of big cutthroats caught during the lackluster fishing season of 2011-12. More than 80 photos of big cutthroats are posted for the current season, and many of them are of the Pilot Peak variety, said owner Fred Crosby.

“It’s quite the buzz,” Crosby said of a situation that is gaining increasing attention by fishing magazines and blogs around the country. Crosby said he thinks a 30-pound Pilot Peak cutthroat will likely be landed within two or three years, and he agrees the long-term prospects for the Pyramid Lake fishery appear very promising.

“It would sure be nice to get those fish back,” Crosby said. “It’s a shame we lost them in the first place.”

Positive effects

Tribal officials, who agreed to allow U.S. Fish and Wildlife to begin stocking the fish into Pyramid Lake in 2006, concur.

“Now they’re getting big, so we’re pretty happy about it,” said Albert John, fisheries director for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. The Pilot Peak strain, John said, is “the closest there is” to the lake’s original cutthroats.

“This is really what it’s all about,” agreed tribal planner Scott Carey. The seeming success of the Pilot Peak cutthroat introduction, Carey said, bodes well not only for conservation goals but for the tribe’s economy.

“From a tourism perspective, this has been absolutely huge,” Carey said.

What’s unique about this particular cutthroat? Plenty, said Heki, the hatchery manager.

The main thing, of course, is their size. Several factors combine to cause these fish to grow big and at an estimated rate of about a half-inch per month. Among them, the Pilot Peak cutthroat reach sexual maturity at six or seven years — relatively late. That allows them to put more energy early in life to growth, “which is a good thing,” Heki said.

They also switch from eating zooplankton to other fish when only a little more than a foot long, earlier than other cutthroats, which also helps promote quicker growth. Heki also believes they are long-lived, maybe 15 or 20 years, which could make for some whopper old-timers.

“These are the traits we are looking for,” Heki said, adding that decades of efforts to restore Pyramid’s cutthroats may well have reached a positive tipping point.

“It’s been a long time, and this is very exciting,” Heki said. “Now, it’s tangible.”

DNA confirms Pyramid Lake trout's origin

By Mary Peacock

Bringing them home required years of costly efforts combined with cutting-edge science to scrutinize clues of the past.

In the end, DNA analysis confirmed what experts had suspected for decades. Cutthroat trout pulled from a once-fishless stream in the rugged mountains on the Nevada-Utah line were the last remaining remnants of the native Lahontan cutthroat trout, also known as Pilot Peak cutthroats, that disappeared from Pyramid Lake nearly 70 years ago.

After Bob Behnke discovered the fish in that stream in the late 1970s, he and other experts agreed their characteristics indicated they were descendants of the original cutthroat strain. They had the right look, grew the right way.

The experts also knew that Nevada officials in the early 1900s had pulled cutthroat trout out of Pyramid Lake and, as one researcher put it, “dumped them into streams all over the place.”

That was the assumption about what had happened, and in this particular case, the population survived.

Science of the 1990s allowed researchers to examine DNA from the Pilot Peak cutthroats found on the state line. The problem was that DNA from the museum mounts of fish taken from Pyramid Lake, Lake Tahoe and the lower Truckee River before they vanished from the area could not be examined for comparison.

Because the specimens were preserved in formalin — which chemically bonds to DNA — the old genetic material could not be successfully extracted.

“They were really interested in finding out if these were the original fish,” said Mary Peacock, a professor of biology and genetics expert at University of Nevada, Reno. “But we had no way to get the DNA out.”

Fast forward to around 2005, when evolving science solved the problem. Peacock and colleagues then gained the ability to compare DNA taken from the Pilot Peak strain with museum mounts of cutthroats taken from the Truckee River system between 1872 and 1911. It was a match, or nearly so.

“I think it was a watershed event,” Peacock said. “These guys are genetically the closest. When you ask the question where these fish came from, the answer is very clearly from the Truckee River system — from Pyramid Lake.”