We’ve posted three times about the fantastic new Utah Cutthroat Slam program, which requires anglers to land the state’s four native subspecies—Bear River, Bonneville, Yellowstone, and Colorado River cutthroats. I was able to complete the Slam in 2016, and both Aaron Smith and Tyler Coleman got it done last year. If you have any interest in discover native trout subspecies in their native ranges, I highly recommend a trip to Utah.
My friend Paul Thompson, Northern Region Aquatics Manager for UDWR, sent me links to these four videos from KSL in Salt Lake City, each of which focuses on one of the subspecies and offers some great information. There’s some spin fishing mixed in, so I led with the two fly-fishing episodes above. The videos cover the philosophy behind the Slam, as well as many of the conservation efforts that are part of restoring Utah’s native fishes.
As of today, 1,163 people have signed up for the Utah Cutthroat Slam, and 234 have completed the challenge. You can see them all here; check out number 37.
Your first stop when planning a Utah Cutthroat Slam trip should be utahcutthroatslam.org, the website dedicated to the program. There, you will find descriptions of each subspecies, maps of watersheds where each is found, and more.
(skip ahead to 6:20 for the fishing.)
Paul Thompson shows the stunning colors of a wild, native Bonneville cutthroat.
Photo by Phil Monahan
Phil, since you’re bringing up the Utah cutt slam again and I never commented previously, I wanted to thank you for documenting your Utah cutt slam experience. It was a lot of fun to read and a good primer last year as I prepared to take on the cutt slam myself. I documented my trip as well over on my blog, thought I’d drop you a link since you may be interested – https://mountainstomarsh.com/2017/08/08/utah-cutt-slam-trip-day-1/. I know I like to read everyone else’s cutt slam experience.