I'm a big fan of fishing in north Idaho and I love that area's cutthroat streams, including the Coeur d' Alene, St. Joe, Lochsa, Selway, Kelly Creek and Clearwater. Over the past four years there have been catch-and-release only regulations on the St. Joe and Coeur d' Alene rivers and dedicated fly fishers have seen overall numbers and size of the cutthroats in those systems increase.

Unfortunately, a vocal group of fish-whacking fanatics is

pushing the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to repeal the catch-and-release regs and allow harvest of native westslope cutthroats. This is disturbing and frustrating to myself and many others closer to the scene. Most north Idaho waters offer catch and kill seasons and it's not like someone needs to eat a wild cutthroat trout to survive. So, there doesn't seem to be a good reason to open a season on a fish that is pretty much threatened throughout its range, with the St. Joe and Coeur d' Alene drainages serving as some of the final refuges for that specie.

 

Calvin Fuller, a north Idaho fly fisher, says, "The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is having a public scoping on their Web site regarding native cutthroat trout populations and Lake Pend Oreille rainbow trout rules. They are checking  READ MORE