Fish story

We all know the stories of ridiculous behavior on the part of white European-Americans in the 19th century in terms of greed and slaughter on native species, capped by the horrific decimation of the great North American bison herd. In Nevada, this unfortunate track record of rapaciousness can be seen with the saga of the great cutthroat trout of Pyramid Lake. For those of you who are newcomers, you might be interested to learn that 100 years ago, the fish being pulled out of Pyramid were literally the largest in the lower 48. Mighty monsters of 20-30 pounds were the norm, the biggest of them all was a whopping 41 pounder, and the inevitable tall tales told of fish in the 50-60 pound range. Trains were loaded up with those giant trout, destined for the restaurants of Denver, Omaha and Chicago, where the awesome Lahontan Cutthroats were scarfed by those who adored the meat of the “salmon trout.”

But these huge, gorgeous fish, while abundant, weren't infinite. Duh. Indeed, it only took us honkies about 60 years of insanely shortsighted overfishing to wipe 'em out. By 1940, they were gone. And that was that. Chalk up another eco-black mark for us WASPS.

But hold on. Guess what? Curveball comin'! This isn't another one of my envirolyptic superdoom stories. Surprise! Because the big fish of Pyramid are—OMG—back?

Yep. It's an amazing story that's taking place at Pyramid right now. I'm gonna run out of room, but if you haven't heard, google the story from the New York Times (April 24) or the Reno Gazette-Journal (Feb. 25), and you'll read the incredible tale of how this remarkable comeback happened. How an old coot 100 years ago stocked a little creek up on Pilot Peak, near the Nevada-Utah border, with his favorite fish, and how those fish turned out to be a genetic treasure, waiting to be harvested. That little creek was wiped out a few years ago in a fire, but not before some real smart biologists got some of those trout and their eggs and brought them back to local fish hatcheries to see if maybe, just maybe, they could strike gold.

Well, sonuvabitch. They did! And from those eggs, those precious eggs from a little creek way the hell out in the sticks, came the resuscitation of The Greatest Trout In The West. The kind of fish for which guys travel to Alaska. And now, after being lovingly nursed at our hatcheries, they're back in their ancestral home, growing bigger and fatter as we speak. In the last year, dozens of anglers have caught 15-25 pounders, fish that left them sputtering into their Budweisers. The really cool thing is—these fish are just adolescents. In a few years, who knows how big they're gonna be? So I hope these dudes who are landing 17-pounders this year are doing one thing—throwing 'em back.