Montana Blackspot Trout

[Bob Martin]

Years ago, in the 50’s and 60’s, many high lakes in the Cascades were stocked with what sportsmen referred to as the Montana blackspot trout. They were a beautifully marked cutthroat that seemed to thrive in alpine lakes. Question: Were they the same fish as what we now call the west slope cutthroat, or were they a special strain that for some reason is not stocked any longer?

Bob

[Brian Curtis]

Some people do refer to westslope cutthroat as Montana black spots so it gets very confusing. But the fish that were stocked locally as Montana black spots were Yellowstone cutthroat. They stopped stocking them when the supply from Yellowstone lake was cut off. These days varieties of cutthroat native to the drainage in which they are being stocked is the norm. So coastal cutts are being stocked on the west side and westslope cutts on the east side. Around Yellowstone you’ll find Yellowstone cutts in the high lakes, and so on with other varieties and other areas.

[Anonymous]

The following has an old photo link of MBS trout…

http://www.alpinequest.com/cannedbacon.htm

McPil

[lake x]

iv caught montana blackspot trout in a lake s. of stavens pass. even said it was stocked with them according to the lakes of washington book they where realy good fried.

[Jim Mighell]

Some of us are in quest of remaining populations of those fine trout; much better than Westslope cutts as they never (or nearly never) overpopulated the lake they resided in, due to their being only moderately successful at beach spawning, and they are also much more predatory (fish eating) than Westslopes), thus, self controlling their populations, and growing larger than Westslopes in the process. Some lakes that had them in the past contain hybrids of Westslope X Montana Blackspot, which may be a better fish than Westslopes also, but more needs to be determined about them – Augusta lake is a good example of such a population. There is also some confusion due to the incomplete nature of Washington State Planting records – because of the silvery coloration of the Skagit County lake’s Montana Blackspots, planted in the early thirties thru the 50.s by such men as Brown Wiseman and Bill Rivord there is some feeling they may have been hybrids of Rainbow trout, but there are some subspecies like Colorado Cutthroat and Bonneville Cutthroat that are known to be more silvery (perhaps because they eat a lot fish) by nature, than Pure Yellowstone cutthroat, which tend to be brownish /yellow in overall hue with no red on their abdomen; when the first federal fish hatchery in the west was established at Leadville, Colorado(?) it shipped west by railroad primarily, hundreds of thousands of cutthroat fry that were dished out to people at RR stops along the way, waiting with buckets; most of those fish were originally Colorado Cutthroat and Greenback Cutthroat, but were later primarily Yellowstone cutthroat; Bonneville Cutthroat were also shipped West from Utah, possibly primarily to National Parks (?).
Many feel the MBS cuutthroat would be a much beetter fish for our Mountain Lakes, than Westslopes for fishing AND for the health of the lakes invertrebrate populations, and their is hope that they could be re-established, but we won’t hold our breath, because there is a movement afoot that would ban ALL fish planting in high lakes; a policy already adopted by the Washington State DNR, and what if the DNR is put in charge of all federal waters in Washington State ? (which IS being discussed and advocated)- need I say more? . Glad I saw the best of the mountains while I hiked (alone) to 670+ wilderness lakes, planting most, over 57 years of brush beating and climbing; and I’m still out there doing my best to get there, all the while looking for the MBS.

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