Finding the San Juan Cutthroat Trout - A Rediscovered Subspecies - Colorado Fly Fishing

Hey everyone! In this video I travel to the headwaters of the San Juan River to find a recently rediscovered species, the San Juan cutthroat trout. This species, since its rediscovery, has already had restoration efforts in their behalf. From saving 2 isolated populations of them from the 416 Fire that blazed through part of their home range in 2018, to rearing up a new stock of them in captivity, and even reintroducing them to the headwaters of Wolf Creek after it was treated to remove any existing fish. That is where our adventure takes us today.
However, I later discovered I was fishing below the reintroduction boundary for these San Juans. Therefore, as you see in the video, I was catching a mix of cutthroat, rainbow, and cutbows. There is a chance I was catching some San Juan cutthroat who had swam down from above the barrier, however it is also possible the cutthroat were existing cutthroat the Colorado Parks & Wildlife had stocked historically and they were simply Colorado River cutthroat, not San Juan cutthroat, since until 2012 they didn't know there was a difference.
Either way it was a fun creek with lots of fish!
Hope you enjoy watching and check out some of my other videos for more fly fishing adventures!
Hayden - Chasing Cutts

[@humphreyjohnson8578]

Thanks for posting this, Hayden. This is a great video of a beautiful little creek and some really beautiful fish. Your commentary was also really interesting. I don’t often sit through a complete fishing video, but I did with this one. Really nice job.

[@ceetee1032]

Another great video, Hayden. Great looking fish - even the hybrids!

[@bryankerns258]

Hey Haden. Great to see you again, especially getting out there on the stream. If you make it out to NE Colorado, hit me up.

[@lorencook4663]

Dang that looks awesome and fun!

[@markgreer3560]

Nice adventure video, Hayden. I did not know that there are San Juan Cutthroat. Thanks for sharing.

[@ChasingCutts]

Yep it is a fascinating recent discovery and I’m happy that they figured it out literally months before that big 416 Fire near Durango so they could rescue a couple of these rare populations!

[@EvilBlonde1]

Nice, Did you get a chance to fish above the Barrier ?

[@ChasingCutts]

@@EvilBlonde1 not yet, I will have to go back!

[@waynegraff3942]

😅😅😂😅😂😅.