Article by Kelly Walker
When I got heavy into fishing four years ago, it didn’t take long before I learned about the Utah Cutthroat Slam and was totally intrigued by it. For those who don’t know about the Utah Cutthroat Slam I’ll explain.
The native trout species in Utah is the cutthroat trout. And if you dig into the genes there are four unique sub-species based on separate evolutionary lines by being separated into four different watershed drainages.
The Bonneville cutthroat is the most numerous and exists in waters that flow into the Great Basin. Colorado River cutthroat live in water that flows into the Green and Colorado River systems. Bear River cutthroat are a little weird as ages ago, the Bear River flowed into the Snake River Basin, but some geologic changes altered its course and now it flows into the Great Basin. But these fish are genetically different enough to be counted as a separate subspecies. Yellowstone cutthroat are the smallest population. They live on the north side of the Raft River Mountains in the extreme northwest of the state. They are also the hardest to catch as the streams they live in are small, brushy, and very hard to fish. The Raft Rivers are also very remote, three hours away from the Salt Lake Valley.
My first attempts at completing the slam occurred before I began fly fishing. I did them all on a spin rod with artificial lures. These trips took me to some of the most beautiful locations in Utah and completely changed the way I fish and the way I perceive success for a trip. I completed my first slam in 6 months during the summer of 2020.
Shortly after completing my first slam, I got into fly fishing and through a crazy set of circumstances worthy of a different story, I got into tenkara fishing. I began looking at the next big challenge with the slam and that was to do it all in a single day!
To understand how much of a challenge a single day slam is, you have to know just how big Utah is and the distances in between the specific drainages where these fish can be found. The closest waters to catch a Yellowstone and Colorado are 235 miles apart if you drive straight there. If you add in the two stops for Bear River and Bonneville that number climbs very quickly. Less than a dozen out of the nearly 2,000 people who have done the slam have ever done it in a single day and no one had yet done it with a tenkara rod.
The logical order to catch these fish is either north to south or south to north. I spent a year creating a plan of locations that met very specific criteria. The criteria I came up with was that the location had to be as close to the other drainages as possible, as close to the major highways in the state as possible, and it had to only contain cutthroat trout to eliminate unnecessary catches of other species. I found those four spots and made multiple trips to each location to ensure I knew what flies to use, what holes or sections to fish, and that I was able to catch fish on multiple trips within an hour.
After a year of planning and scouting trips I was ready to make the attempt. I started with the Yellowstone, it’s the hardest to catch, but I had a spot to sleep in my truck right next to the best hole I found and was confident of a quick catch. I left my house just north of Salt Lake City and made the two hour drive to the Raft Rivers. I got to my camping spot and fished the hole for an hour to ensure the fish were active. I was ready.
On August 13th, 2021 I was up at first light, set up my camera, and began my one-day slam attempt. After only three casts I had my fish on at 6:30 am. I landed my Yellowstone, got a quick picture, and headed out for the 1.5 hour drive to catch my Bear River.
The Bear River creek trailhead I was using was right off a major highway but I had to hike about a mile to the best spot. I got there, had to deal with hikers, but had a wonderful interaction with a small boy and his dad who wanted to watch me fish with this weird “fishing pole.” While interacting with them I landed a very small, 2.5-inch Bear River cutthroat. It’s not the size but the species that matters. I was stoked and the young boy was also very excited. I quickly hiked back down the trail with the boy and his dad explaining what tenkara was all about and began the hour long drive to my spot for the Bonneville.
I was the most confident in my Bonneville location. Each trip I went there during the previous year I caught multiple fish in under 15-minutes. It was not the case this trip. For some reason, the fish just didn’t want what they had previously gobbled up. With multiple fly changes and hole moves over an hour and a half, I finally, sweating bullets, landed a Bonneville.
I was now beginning to worry. I was behind schedule and had a two hour drive ahead of me to get into the Colorado River drainage and it was now mid-afternoon. I began doubting myself, constantly worrying that it wasn’t going to work, that I would fail. Would I have enough time to fish? Would I be able to hook and land a Colorado? I’ve had some struggles during my scouting trips and not every trip was successful. I was stressing hard. It was eased by the drive over Wolf Creek Pass, one of the most beautiful drives in the state to arrive at a gorgeous canyon where my target river flowed.
I rolled up to my pre-planned point and quickly slid into the river and began fishing. The minutes passed, cast after cast, foot after foot of river, no takes. I saw plenty of the trout as I was moving up through the areas I just fished, but no luck. Minutes and casts turned into an hour, then two. I was really stressing out, nearly to the point of giving up. The sun was getting low over the canyon ridge, and I was beginning to come to terms with the fact that I might just fail at this.
I stopped for a minute, took some deep breaths, and began to weigh my options. I saw another bend in the river, one that I hadn’t gone past before and decided to go see what the water looked like around the next corner. I made my way up through the water, now exhausted. I’ve been going for 11 hours and made a mile up this river. As I rounded the corner, I saw what makes every trout angler’s heart skip a beat. A beaver dam. It wasn’t big, maybe 10 feet wide, but only 2 feet tall. Which meant the pool behind it was most likely shallow. I slowed my movements, began stalking a pool of water like I stalk a deer with a bow.
I knelt down at the base of the dam, tied on a perdigon nymph my friend had tied for me and cast to the left side if the pool at the upper end of the log that made up one side of the beaver dam. A slow drift, a line mend here and there, and then a flash of red and dull silver. I lifted my tenkara rod to set the hook and was rewarded with a series of jerks as the Colorado cutthroat that just took my fly tried to resist the set.
I was so excited, I yelled out “YES!!!” as I was fighting him to keep him clear of the snags of the beaver dam. I pulled a little left, then right, and then the weird dance of pointing my tenkara rod backwards and extending my other arm with my net and… done. What a relief! A year and hundreds of hours of planning and scouting, a very tiring and stress filled day, gone. All the weight, gone. Just joy, accomplishment. I did it.
I took the picture, and gently placed this wonderful fish back into his home and watched him quickly dart back under the log he came from. As I walked back to my truck, I began looking at the footage I captured and the pictures I took and realized that for the last two catches, the Bonneville and the Colorado, I didn’t hit record on the videos. All I had were the fish pics. A small let down, but the real feeling of the day was pride in myself and joy in the challenge accomplished.
From that point on my fishing trips weren’t focused on numbers or size. I had evolved past those notions. It was now about the trip itself, the time on the water, the views, and the smell in the air. The fish are just a bonus. It’s a place that not a lot of anglers get to. They get really good at their craft and always want a lot of fish in the net, or the big fish, and getting skunked is worse than not going. Not me. I love the time, the water, the smells, the quiet, the peace of mind, and time to think and reminisce.
I love this state. I love the opportunities this hobby presents to me and love the community of friends and fellow anglers that I interact with. All of these things have made my life more fulfilling. Especially now that I am making trips with my children, and they are finding as much joy in it as I do.
Kelly Walker has been fishing since he was a kid, but in the last four years it has taken a much bigger role in his life. After learning to fly fish he quickly found and fell in love with the art of tenkara. Since then he has been fishing all over his home state of Utah and sharing his love of tenkara as a “Tight Lined Ambassador” for Wasatch Tenkara Rods. He can be found on any quiet small stream on any given weekend throughout the year.
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