Sea Run Cutthroat Trout: A Saltwater Fly-Angler’s Guide to Their Biology, Prey, Angling Strategies, and Conservation. California to Alaska

First place winner of the 2019 Northwest Outdoor Writers Association Excellence -in-Craft Award.

Sea run cutthroat trout inhabit the margins of aquatic communities. These are the runs, washes and aquatic byways that other salmonids rarely frequent. Their nuptial beds are in the margins of very small streams and tributaries. These are where they spend two to three formative years feeding in their mostly hidden lairs. When they move down and out of rivers and streams and into estuaries they prefer outer margins of ever-changing nearshore areas. Once in saltwater, they mostly confine themselves to low salinity margins of inland seas, areas that are subject to often aggressive and ever-changing tidal dynamics. They rarely venture into calmer, deeper waters. Regardless of where they are, they are non-discerning marginal eaters targeting what is most available at any given time, in any given place.

This book is the most definitive treatise written on sea run cutthroat trout to date.  In it, Richard Stoll explores the realms of sea run cutthroat trout from both scientific and practical angling perspectives. Richard attempts to unlock their secrets and expose their habits as has never been done before. At the same time, he engenders a new age of ethical angling; that is how, where and when to angle for these fish while preserving the resource.

This book is an invaluable read for the fly angler and environmentalist who wants to explore this exciting and heretofore substantially unexploited fly fishery.