Point 18 & 19: Backpacking for high-alpine trout

August 27th-29th, 2025

A few years ago in my late 20s, I caught the backpacking bug. I absolutely loved everything about it; hiking for miles across beautiful mountain terrain, complete solitude, the wildlife and of course catching trout after trout in alpine lakes I practically had all to myself. It's been a couple of years since I've been able to do any backpacking but luckily had a recent opportunity to escape to familiar territory this last week. I was excited to do another packing trip and immerse myself in nature once more but if I was being honest with myself I was interested in doing it for something more: a chance to catch the elusive and illustrious golden trout.

I drove hours to the remote trailhead and started my journey with a 5AM hike through dense forest. Four hours and seven miles later my dog and I arrived at the last lake on the trail, one rumored to have golden trout that grew to large sizes.

I excitedly set up base camp close to the lake grabbed my fly rod, fully engaged in doing nothing but trying to catch this legendary fish for a whole day. Unfortunately this didn't go quite as planned as I spent the entire day relentlessly slinging and retrieving streamers from every angle imaginable without so much as seeing a single fish. I fished until dusk and was completely skunked. I left the water and retreated to camp feeling a sense of defeat I hadn't felt for some time from fishing. I turned in early and woke up at first light around 6AM to try again for a few hours, this time I saw a few fish rising across the glassy surface of the water and an occasional glance at 8-10 inch fish but yet again, still didn't catch anything. I reluctantly packed up camp in a solemn state, disappointed that despite the time and energy spent on pursuing one of the most prized and rare fish on the fishing challenge, I turned up empty. It wasn't a complete loss however, as I planned to fish another more reputable lake on the descent for a few hours before hiking back to my truck.

We ended up hiking down to another lake and decided to try fishing the inlet where a beautiful mountain stream fed into the lake. I felt immediately rewarded for this decision as dozens of cutthroat, brook and even some tiger trout were seen in this little tributary. Most of these fish were quite wary and unwilling to take the caddis or black ant pattern I was presenting to them-it's possible my dog didn't help with her trudging along the shoreline spooking countless fish also. With the dry flies not producing much I decided to switch it up and try a mop fly. I know from a purist standpoint they scoff at such flies but truthfully I wasn't sure what other wet flies would be indicated at this altitude. Within minutes of switching up my approach, I caught multiple beautiful, vibrant brook trout who eagerly chased down the fly and

engulfed it. Each one fought vigorously for their small size. I pulled one brookie after another out of the crystal-clear water and quickly lost count of how many I caught. All were approximately 6-7 inches but made for some very fun and fast fishing. Interspersed amongst all of these little fish, an occasional cutthroat would be caught which are some of my very favorite fish.

After getting my fill around the inlet to the lake, we moved upstream where more schools of fish were seen in each pool. Each pocket of water held what appeared to be dozens of brook trout preparing to spawn and smaller populations of Yellowstone Cutthroat. I began targeting the cutthroat as they were the larger fish in the pool and presented as more of a challenge than what was quickly becoming the run-of-the-mill brook trout. Time after time I dropped my mop fly

ahead of the school where some larger cutthroat were leading the pack. They intermittently showed interest in the fly but not before yet another brook trout snatched it up. It felt great finally having a productive fishing experience after getting snubbed and I trekked on upstream, encountering pool after pool of the same schools of fish without another angler-or person in sight.

Eventually we encountered a waterfall feeding into a deep pool which proved a too great of a barrier to continue our little adventure. In this pool there was perhaps the largest school of brook trout yet and amongst them was a large cutthroat that quickly caught my eye. It was certainly the king of the stream, seemingly controlling the pack of much smaller fish. I was approaching from behind and felt presentation for such a fish would be very important as it would quickly wise up to seeing the same fly over and over. I let the fly downstream and roll cast about three feet in front of the fish. It couldn't have accepted the bait any better as it quickly rose up to snatch the fly before any of the brook trout had a chance to bite and the hook was set. The cutthroat sprang into action, darting back and forth to every corner of the pool until it luckily swam close enough to me where I could nab it up in my net. The trout

was about 16 inches and certainly the biggest fish of the day. The previous cutthroat caught earlier in the day were maybe an inch to two inches smaller but every bit as beautiful. Soon after catching this fish I decided it was a fitting end to the day and start hiking back to my vehicle for the drive home. I left feeling quite satisfied that this little excursion saved my fishing experience from being totally skunked. I resolved to myself on the hike back that I will return next year for the famed golden trout and definitely wouldn't leave empty-handed that time around. All in all however, it was a great retreat from life's usual routines and felt nice to be totally immersed in nature once again.

For this trip, although I didn't catch any golden trout which is what I came for, I ended up catching 2 cutthroat of 14+ inches and countless brook trout of 6+ inches, satisfying both of those points. After this trip this brings my grand total up to 19 points on the Legendary Angler Program, only 81 points to go.