What's New

Updated 11/22/08

2008 Christmas Party - Signup by Dec 7 at Jimmy's All Season Angler - $27.50 per plate - Prime Rib or Chicken

2009 Class Schedule is now posted and Check out the Events Calendar!

2009 Eastern Idaho Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo

The 2009 version of the Eastern Idaho Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo (EIFTE) is now being organized. The show is scheduled for April 17^th-18^th, 2009 at the Shilo Inn in Idaho Falls. Chairpersons for the show have been appointed, and volunteers will soon be sought to help with various parts of the show. As in the past, a graded approach towards compensating volunteers will be used. After the first of the year and as details are finalized specifics on how to volunteer help, schedules, packages, workshops, fly tying demos, youth, ladies, destination programs and such will be placed on the www.srcexpo.com website for the 2009 EIFTE. Currently information for the 2008 EIFTE is on the web site.

Updated 02/13/08

ISU researchers document South Fork rainbow trout numbers

Idaho State University and Clemson University researchers say they were surprised to find that only 7 percent of trout sampled in Idaho’s South Fork of the Snake River drainage were introduced rainbow or rainbow-cutthroat hybrid trout that can threaten native cutthroat trout populations. Snake river cutthroat

cutthroat

“We expected to find more rainbow trout and rainbow-cutthroat hybrids,” said Ernest Keeley, Ph.D., ISU biological sciences professor. “On the whole, the South Fork system in cutthroat fishery.”

Some fisheries managers say they are concerned about the threat that introduced rainbow trout pose to the South Fork’s Yellowstone cutthroat population, one of 14 major cutthroat sub-species in the Western United States and

Where non-native rainbow have been intermixed with native cutthroat, the rainbow can interbreed with cutthroat and dominate the gene pool. This interbreeding has threatened and, in some cases, eliminated the cutthroat population in some waters – for instance the North Fork, also called the Henrys Fork, of the Snake River is primarily now a rainbow fishery. Besides the genetic dominance rainbows have, they are heartier fish that out compete cutthroat where they share the same waterway.

South fork snake river

South Fork

Keeley and a Clemson University, South Carolina, biological sciences professor Margaret Ptacek, Ph.D., (a former ISU faculty member), with assistance from several graduate students, completed a comprehensive study analyzing the genetic makeup of South Fork of the Snake River cutthroat trout.

The study was completed in 2005 and results were published in 2007. The researchers measured and took genetic samples from 1,200 trout (those fish were released live back into the water) in the South Fork and its tributaries in below and surrounding Palisades Reservoir, which straddles the Idaho-Wyoming border.

In the South Fork Snake River system around Palisades Reservoir – including major tributaries such as Pine, Rainy and creeks – less than 10 percent of fish sampled were rainbows or rainbow-cutthroat hybrids. However, there were “hot spots” of high populations of rainbows in the main stem of the South Fork: in some areas rainbows and hybrids made up as much as 30 percent of the fish population.

ISU students search for trout.

Nearly 80 percent of the rainbows/hybrids sampled were either in the main river or on extreme lower ends of tributaries.

Fisheries managers have already taken a number of steps to help stop the decline of the South Fork native cutthroat. Those steps include encouraging anglers to keep caught rainbows, while making it illegal to keep cutthroat; trying to mimic natural stream flows, including high spring flows, which benefit the cutthroat over the rainbow; and putting weirs on the lower ends of tributaries to prevent rainbows heading up them to spawn.

“Although introduced rainbows pose a threat, there is a strong chance for preserving the cutthroat in the South Fork because it still has its interconnected tributaries intact,” Keeley said.

The cutthroat can use the tributaries for spawning and for juvenile survival, and the fish can still return to the main river where they can grow to be large-bodied, healthy fish, he added.

The study mentioned is posted at www.isu.edu/~keelerne/Publications.html. Click the link with the description “Gunnell, K.,, Tada, M.K., , F.A., Keeley, E.R. and Ptacek, M.B. 2007. Geographic patterns of introgressive hybridization between native Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri) and introduced rainbow trout (O. mykiss) in the South Fork of the Snake River watershed, . Conservation Genetics, in press.

Photos provided by Dr. Ernest Keeley

“Bug Club” To Begin Meetings

OK, so you want to be formal and call this “The Rocky Mountain Fly Dressing Guild”. In any case, it is easier to say and type “Bug Club”. The Guild, or Club, started about ten years ago by Snake River Cutthroats members with the purpose of maintaining personal proficiency in fly tying techniques. Fly tying is so subject to “what is in fashion” or “mode of the day” that some significant mechanics and materials become forgotten. Bug Club activities therefore attempt to keep “out of style” tying techniques and materials in mind. So here is your chance to learn and experience the joys of such “not-so-popularly-practiced-today” techniques as Catskill style dry flies, feather-wing streamers, material weaves, married wings, classic dubbing techniques, whip finishing by hand, winding hackle by hand, and so much more. Click here to go to the Bug Club page for more details.

The Winter Class Schedule has just been added to our Education & Training page. Whether it's fly tying, rod building, entomology or fly casting, there is something here for everyone. Classes start in January, but take a look at the list now so you can plan ahead.

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR NEW SISTER SITE DEDICATED TO

ALL THE CURRENT INFORMATION ON THE 2008 EXPO

Just click on "ANNUAL EXPO"

This Site will provide the most current information and you will be able to use it to buy your banquet tickets, etc. on line.

Snake River Cutthroats is proud to be a

Read more about the
Idaho Sportsmen's Caucus Advisory Council,
a federation of 30 Idaho hunting, fishing and trapping organizations
representing over 20,000 Idaho sportsmen members