Deeter: Low Profiles and Rare Greenback Cutthroat Video

Here’s something you don’t see every day… underwater video of rare, native greenback cutthroat trout in a wild river environment. I made this video with a simple water-resistant Olympus point-and-shoot camera. The name of the high country Colorado creek shall remain a secret…

But there’s an important lesson to take away from this. Keep a low profile when you fish for trout in clear creeks. I crept on my belly to the edge of the stream, and stuck my arms in the water to take these shots. I inevitably made some splashes and noises in doing so. But, the fish weren’t put off in the least. If I’d have stood up on the bank, however, they’d have darted away, as sure as the sun was shining.

The most important lesson about how not to spook trout is to understand that these fish are almost always looking up. Shadows and sudden movements above them create problems. If you are careful to hide your shadows, you can sneak up on these fish. The closer you sneak up on trout, the easier it is to catch them.

Don’t believe me? Here’s another clip of a greenback… this time eating a dry fly as I’m shooting video from the bank, just upstream of the fish… maybe 10-15 feet away from where it eats the fly.

Stealth matters. You’d be amazed at what you can see, and how many more fish you can catch, it you’d just slow things down, and think about being stealthy. Being stealthy starts with knowing where your shadow and your rod/line shadows are, and hiding them. Trust me on this one.

Deeter