And than there was One.

The Truckee River Drainage used to be home to the largest cutthroat trout in the world.
When John C. Fremont first came to Pyramid Lake, the terminus of the Truckee, his starving men feasted on Lahontan Cutthroat trout given to them by the Paiutes. He remarked that they looked like Columbia River Salmon, "from two to four feet in length" and because of their size, he even originally named the river "The Salmon Trout River."

I'd love to be on the river 160 years ago with a 10 wt. Chinook stick throwing God knows what at the Lahontans lurking in there.

Due to a combination of overfishing, habitat loss, introduced species, pollution, the construction of Derby Dam, and several other factors, the Lahontan's that used to thrive in the hundreds of streams and lakes in it's 1,940 miles of stream flow drainage are now limited to two small areas. Aside from the hatchery planted Lahontan's in the Truckee in Nevada and obviously Pyramid Lake, there are two areas with a wild self-sustaining population. One is Independence Lake, which drains into Independence Creek, the Little Truckee, and the Truckee. These fish are battling for their survival against non-native rainbows, browns, and brook trout.
The other section where you can find wild populations of native Cutts is the Upper Truckee River, which is more of a tiny creek flowing just over the north ridge of Carson Pass, and it gains water and momentum as it descends into Lake Tahoe. Years of management and restoration have removed the Brook trout that were taking over the Upper Truckee in Meiss Meadow, and now that meadow is a miracle.
A few short miles of trusting, hungry, beautiful native fish doing there thing in a stream that evolved them. It's really a beautiful fucking thing.

Kayla and I headed up there to camp and fish. We stayed at Showers Lake, and shared some Beam and watched the Cutts rise to mosquito emergers. I was throwing a 26 and it was too big. Fuck that. We had an awesome night camping under a full moon at the lake.



My boy Matty Hargrave met us on the stream the next morning and we walked through the freezing water and willow tunnels all day.
All I could think about when I was cradling these 6-10 inch fish was Fremont eating their 40 lb ancestors, and how lucky I am to even have this last stand, this last best place. I hope I can take my kids there someday and they can enjoy nature as it was intended.