# Wyoming Cutt Slam



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Wyoming has a neat program called Cutt Slam. The brainchild of fisheries biologist Ron Remmick out of Pinedale WY, the program rewards outdoorsman who catch all four species of cutthroat trout native to Wyoming. To qualify an angler must submit proof of catching each cutthroat specie with a photograph and information on the date and location of the catch.

I had caught all four cutts before and had pictures, but I wanted to do it all in one summer, maybe even one week! Easy to do in western Wyoming; you can catch three of the four types of cutts in one day if you know your way around. Some anglers have taken all four natives in one day!!

I put my Cutt Slam package together in 2007 and sent it in only to have one of the catches dissallowed because one of my pictures wasn't "definative enough." (a nice way of them saying it was a crappy picture) I finished the Cutt Slam with a Colorado Cuttthroat in 2009.

Colorado Cutthroat on the rifle elk hunt in the Hams Fork:


















Bonneville Cutthroat on the Thomas Fork during archery moose:


















Snake River Cutthroat from the Little Greys River while on the archery elk hunt:


















And the beautiful Yellowstone Cutthroat, this one from Lonesome Lake in the Wind River Mountain's Cirque of the Towers:


















A beautiful, and quite large, certificate is provided by the WY Game and Fish Dept with the dates and body of water for each cutthroat catch:









Colorado followed Wyoming's lead and started a Cutt Slam program. We should get together and rally for something like this in Utah. How many native cutthroat trout species are there in Utah?


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Congrats Wyogoob! I've wanted to get up there and do the cutt slam. It looks like a good time. In Virginia they do fishing citations if you catch one fish of a particular size for a particular species. It would be very cool to have something like that in Utah too.

Utah has a lot of different types of Cutts, though I don't know which are native.

I know the Bonneville cuts are native. I think the Yellowstone cutts are native to the Raft River Mountains. There's the Colorado Cutts, which might be native to the SE corner of the state. On top of that the Lahontan Cutts (which I don't think are native on a geologic scale but have been here since the mid 1800s) are out near Wendover. Now we also have the recently discovered Greenback Cutts, which no one knows whether or not are native.

My guess is that Utah isn't going to want to put a lot of pressure on the Lahontons and the Greenbacks since the populations are so small. It would also be tough on the Yellowstone Cutts too.

P.S. Did it really take them 2 years to go through your application?


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Good post! I would love to see the state start something similar. For some reason, it interests me more than that "trout slam" that has been promoted. 

Dodger accurately covered what we have here. On the Jellystone cutts, it was my understanding that some of the areas in and around Electric lake in central Utah have/had a reserve population of (introduced) Yellowstones. That may make it easier to get one of those besides having to trek to the Raft river range. Finally, some genetic studies have suggested that the Bear lake cutt is intermediate between a "true" Bonneville and a "true" Yellowstone cutt. Maybe that could be the fourth fish for the "slam"? (Bonneville, CRC, Yellowstone, and Bear Lake cutt)


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Yeah Catheder. The Cutt Slam is free, designed to promote fishing. The Trout Slam has an entry fee, and is part of a business, caters to advertisers....designed for profit. And I 'm not saying that is a bad thing, just showing the differences between the two.

There's no size or time limit for the Wyoming Cutt Slam, but you must catch them in their native waters: http://gf.state.wy.us/services/customer ... /index.asp

Doesn't take 2 years Dodger. Like I said, my Colorado Cutt pictures weren't good enough, so I went off and pouted for a year and then just finished the thing while elk hunting.

Utah's native cutthroats:
http://wildlife.utah.gov/education/maga ... native.pdf

And like Catheder says there is some debate over whether or not the Bear Lake Cutthroat should be treated as a separate species. They sure look different than the Bonneville, but I guess the DNA is same or close enough to the same.


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

I think getting a cutt slam in one day wouldn't be too difficult. Start in Yellowstone, hit the Greys River road for a snake, then over to the head of La Barge creek for a green, and then come back over Salt River pass and pick up a Bonneville on Thomas Fork. I'm thinking 4 to 5 hours travel time max and the rest of the day fishing. I've had it all planned out for a couple years now, just haven't been able to execute it.....too many other attractions along the way.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Cool stuff Goob! Thanks for sharing. 

When I lived in Nebraska, they had a deal called "Master Angler". Each species of game fish had a size threshold. Catch the fish, take a measure, take a picture, and submit it and you'd get a certificate. Then if you had enough Master Angler certificates for different species, you'd get another certificate and recognition as "Master Angler." Pretty cool deal.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Goobie....those are some dandy pictures you have there. Nice country !!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> Cool stuff Goob! Thanks for sharing.
> 
> When I lived in Nebraska, they had a deal called "Master Angler". Each species of game fish had a size threshold. Catch the fish, take a measure, take a picture, and submit it and you'd get a certificate. Then if you had enough Master Angler certificates for different species, you'd get another certificate and recognition as "Master Angler." Pretty cool deal.


That's cool Gary! It would be neat if Utah had something like that.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

.45 said:


> Goobie....those are some dandy pictures you have there. Nice country !!


Thanks man.

It's really cool if you stop and think about it:

You get rewarded for fish no matter what size they are and you can do it in one day or 10 years, doesn't matter, just as long as you have proof of where you caught the fish.


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## JERRY (Sep 30, 2007)

Looks like good times! Nice work! 8)


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> Yeah Catheder. The Cutt Slam is free, designed to promote fishing. The Trout Slam has an entry fee, and is part of a business, caters to advertisers....designed for profit. And I 'm not saying that is a bad thing, just showing the differences between the two.


I think the Cutt Slam is run by Wyoming's Fish and Game whereas the Trout Slam is run by a private business in Utah.



wyogoob said:


> Doesn't take 2 years Dodger. Like I said, my Colorado Cutt pictures weren't good enough, so I went off and pouted for a year and then just finished the thing while elk hunting.


I was looking at your certificate and it looks like the last picture was taken in 2009. I just added 2 for 2011. How long did it take to get the certificate after you turned it in?

Very cool accomplishment though.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

It took a long time to get the certificate. As-a-matter-of-fact I forgot about it for about a year. Had to call them up a couple times to get the thing out to me.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Mean of you to show those alpine settings in a February blizzard. Nice accomplishment! Great country..


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

Awesome job Goob. 8)


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

The Wyoming Cutt Slam program broke 1000 participants in 2013. Total certificate holders is 1083 and from all over the country.

All four of Wyoming's native species of cutthroat trout can be caught in the western part of Wyoming, a short driving distance from the Wasatch Front. 

Put it on your calendar for 2014 boys and girls.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

wyogoob said:


> The Wyoming Cutt Slam program broke 1000 participants in 2013. Total certificate holders is 1083 and from all over the country.
> 
> All four of Wyoming's native species of cutthroat trout can be caught in the western part of Wyoming, a short driving distance from the Wasatch Front.
> 
> Put it on your calendar for 2014 boys and girls.


Did you get a new job with the Uinta county chamber of commerce? Or is this an invite?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Catherder said:


> Did you get a new job with the Uinta county chamber of commerce? Or is this an invite?


uh.........I've always been the Ambassador of Goodwill in Uinta County; you know that. :mrgreen:

And yes, it's an invite.

.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

wyogoob said:


> uh.........I've always been the Ambassador of Goodwill in Uinta County; you know that. :mrgreen:
> 
> And yes, it's an invite.
> 
> .


Sweet! When are we going?--\\O


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

I'm in to try for the cutt slam. I was looking at it yesterday. I know where I can catch the Yellowstones and the Snake Rivers. But I might need some help with the Bonnevilles and the Colorados. 

I was looking at Sulphur Creek or Woodruff Narrows for Bonnnies but the reports were saying Sulphur had tons of rainbows and walleye, no reports of cutts. Woodruff didn't seem to have much going on either.

Are they any faster with certifying fish and sending out certificates than they were?


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## RYsenTrout (Jun 6, 2012)

This is awesome. I wish Utah did something like this.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

RYsenTrout said:


> This is awesome. I wish Utah did something like this.


Most of Utah's cutthroat populations are too sensitive to have a program like this. Bonnevilles and Colorados would be fine to do here. But Yellowstones, Lahontans, and Greenbacks are FAR too sensitive to receive that kind of fishing pressure in Utah.


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## RYsenTrout (Jun 6, 2012)

Dodger said:


> Most of Utah's cutthroat populations are too sensitive to have a program like this. Bonnevilles and Colorados would be fine to do here. But Yellowstones, Lahontans, and Greenbacks are FAR too sensitive to receive that kind of fishing pressure in Utah.


I understand that, I didn't mean cutthroat specifically. They could possibly do a trout slam including Bow, Cutt, Tiger, Brook, Brown, Lake, Splake or something like that.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Oh, absolutely. And they'd probably have a lot of takers for something like that.

(I was really more hinting that you can make your own Utah Cutthroat Slam, make your own certificate, and complete the Utah slam ;-))


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Dodger said:


> I'm in to try for the cutt slam. I was looking at it yesterday. I know where I can catch the Yellowstones and the Snake Rivers. But I might need some help with the Bonnevilles and the Colorados.
> 
> I was looking at Sulphur Creek or Woodruff Narrows for Bonnnies but the reports were saying Sulphur had tons of rainbows and walleye, no reports of cutts. Woodruff didn't seem to have much going on either.
> 
> Are they any faster with certifying fish and sending out certificates than they were?


Both of the ones your worried about aren't far- closer than the yellowstone Cutts- did this when if first started - tried to do it in the shortest time feasible - that ended up being a fiasco and PIA- took 4 days if I recall


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## Kingfisher (Jul 25, 2008)

congrats goob... very nicely done.


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## Gila-Atraria (Nov 9, 2013)

Colorado








Yellowstone








Bonny








Bear Lake

I did my own utah cutt slam multiple times this summer/fall


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## stevo1 (Sep 13, 2007)

*Cutt Slam*

Beautiful fish, and nicely done in a quiet way >>O


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

OK boys and girls, get out the fly rod and camera and get over here and getchya that Wyoming Cutt Slam.



http://wgfd.wyo.gov/wtest/fishing-1000209.aspx

.


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## delement87 (Sep 18, 2012)

i would sure love to...


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*US Senator gets Slammed*

The Upper Bear River Trout Unlimited (UBRTU) Chapter in Evanston helped US Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo) get a Colorado Cutt and a Bonneville Cutthroat to complete his Wyoming Cutt Slam. His Colorado was taken from Gilbert Creek in Uinta County and Mr Enzi caught a nice Bonny in the Bear River around Evanston.

see https://www.facebook.com/UBRTU

Mike is an accomplished fly angler and one of my two favorite US Senators in Wyoming.

Give it up for the UBRTU and Senator Enzi.

.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Congrats to the Honorable Senator. 


The more I think about it, the more I think I need to put catching all of the cutt subspecies on the bucket list. Got half of them already but the rest would require some travel and effort. Not that its a bad thing to travel and fish. ;-)

Top of page!


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