Call of the Wild Cutthroats

Chasing cutthroat trout in Montana’s Glacier National Park

By R. C. Hooker

PHOTO: DREW RUSH

Article photography by

Clint Walker and Darrel Coverdell

One pair of socks, two, three pairs, four. I was afraid to ask why my fishing buddy, Neech, kept stuffing his pack with socks. A new foot fetish? “It’s like this,” he said, noticing my psychoanalytical gaze. “It’s 10 miles to Camas Lake on a good trail. And after that,” his voice dropped an octave, “we kinda make our own trail. For another three miles.”

“That’s 26 miles roundtrip,” I said. “With a three-mile bushwhack? In prime bear country!”

“Come on, she’s world class. You’ll fall in love with her.”

The “her,” in this case, was Lake Evangeline, a den of iniquitous beauty and home to trophy cutthroat trout. Adding to the allure was the fact that we weren’t in Yogi and Boo Boo’s crowded backyard, Yellowstone; we were about to enter Montana’s overlooked and under-fished paradise, Glacier National Park.

With more than 60 fishable lakes in Glacier, 100 miles of big-river float fishing and another 100 miles of smaller streams and creeks, the park’s greatest challenge may be trying to figure out which lake, river or stream to fish first. Fortunately, not all of them require a death-march undertaking. Those long overnighters merely grant us the rare opportunity to cast over fish unaffected by effete pedigrees, like the snobby trout we find in places like the Henry’s Fork or the Bighorn.

By the way, the difference between an over-nighter and a day-hike depends on what I call the “beer-to-doughnut ratio:” The bigger your gut, the less likely you are to engage in marathon daytrips. But how far can you go, and how fast? Remember, not all miles are created equal. What matters is the overall gain in elevation and the pitch of the ascent. As for distance, use 3 mph if you are an experienced hiker and 2 mph for the egregiously pear-shaped. It is paramount to know exactly how long the hike in and out will take. You do not want to be caught out on a trail in the middle of the night.... Read More »