About Cutthroat Stalker (Scott)

essays and musings on fly fishing for native trout

I’m glad you found me. This is my little attempt at sharing the meanderings of my mind. Why anyone else would choose to enter that realm, I have no clue. But here you are. Cutthroat Stalker—sounds a bit intimidating, but I’m pretty harmless. My main interest in fly fishing is for native trout species. Here in northern Utah, that means Cutthroat Trout. (A small bit of info about cutthroat trout is located here.) I’m not against other species, but I’m definitely a big fan of finding the “right” fish in their “rightful” location. I like to stalk the backcountry when needed to find native species. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fly fisherman first, and I have to admit that fishing for the “wrong” fish in the “wrong” place (tailwaters for instance) is also a blast. But most of my fishing is done in small creeks in out-of-the-way locations. My “home” waters would be anything flowing in or around Cache Valley, Utah.

	Scott, AKA “Cutthroat Stalker”—since stalking native cutthroat trout in their native environment is the thing I do. A small bit of info about cutthroat trout is located here.

I started fly fishing when I was about 23, so I’ve been at it about 22 years now. I enjoy not only fishing, but tying flies (well, not really enjoy, but I do it) and writing about fly fishing, both prose (fiction and nonfiction) and poetry. Dry fly fishing for native trout is my main interest. The main locations I write about are northern Utah and southern Idaho with the rest of the intermountain west thrown in.

I started riding motorcycles when I was 13. My friend owned a 1969 Kawasaki. We used to ride it in his small backyard, just a short oval. He later moved to the end of town that bordered some fields and he upgraded his motorcycle to a 1975 Yamaha YZ 360. We rode in the fields near his house. When we turned 16 we used to take the bike in the back of his International to the foothills and ride there. My family moved out of town and lived on a ten acre plot in the county. He sent the motorcycle with me and there it stayed for me to ride until I was 18. I didn’t ride many motorcycles after that. Then, in 2006, I guess I needed a mid-life crises because I decided to buy a Yamaha V-Star 1100 Classic. My wife and I love to ride it as much as possible.

I’m a teacher, and I love it. Teaching allows me to have an 80 day vacation every summer. It’s always such a dilemma to figure out what to do with all of that time! I try to get in as many fishing outings as I can.

Any of the following criteria will make for a “successful” fishing outing (in order of importance for me):

Catch native fish.
Fish in a place we haven’t fished before, someplace that still has wild populations of native fish.
Be adventurous (goes along with criterion directly above) / enjoy the company (each other’s or other people we may happen to hook up with).
Catch fish on a dry fly.
Catch fish feeding on the surface.
Catch big or many (or both) fish.
(and a quickly descending list of minor points, small tippet, hand made fly, etc.)

So I’m not in it just for the biggies—I can find joy in fishing for fishing’s sake if any of the criteria above are met. Notice the second and third criteria says nothing about fish? So I can enjoy almost any outing. Very few fish are required to make me happy. Granted, I always like catching fish more than not catching fish, and I like catching large fish more than catching small fish and I like catching native fish more than non-native fish. And yes, I do occasionally hanker for a big fish (cutt, brown or bow) when all I’ve caught are little fish for awhile.

If you would like to contact me, but don’t feel like leaving a comment, go to my <a href=”http://scarles.org/blog/contact/”>contact</a> page and leave a message on the email form there.