Jeff DeLong

jdelong@rgj.com

For the first time in 76 years, Lahontan cutthroat trout have spawned up the Truckee River at Pyramid Lake, an event described as a key accomplishment in efforts to restore the native fish to its former home.

DNA tests Tuesday confirmed newly hatched fish collected by biologists to be of the hefty Pilot Peak strain of Lahontan cutthroats first reintroduced into Pyramid Lake in 2006 and which anglers have lately been pulling from the water at up to 25 pounds in size.

"What we do have is documented reproduction of the cutthroat trout," said Lisa Heki, fisheries complex manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "This is important. It's a really significant milestone. It hasn't happened since 1938."

An official with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe first noticed evidence that cutthroats were digging spawning nests in the river just downstream of Marble Bluff Dam in April. Since then, at least 89 cutthroats — ranging in size from 17 to 25 pounds — have dug spawning nests in more than 180 locations along a roughly 2-mile stretch of the lower river downstream of the dam.

It's one more exciting development for a fish that last year gained national publicity over its successful recovery, with the spotlight put on Pyramid Lake as a premier destination to hook some really big trout.

"It's a very exciting success story for the tribe," said Terence James, vice chairman for the Pyramid Lake Paiutes. "We haven't seen this happen for a very long time."

Nevada's state fish, Lahontan cutthroats once thrived in all the major rivers and lakes on the eastern side of the Sierra, including Pyramid Lake, Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River. Cutthroats — famous for their size and taste — were fished extensively from Pyramid and Tahoe and shipped by rail to 1800s mining camps and to San Francisco. In 1925, Paiute Johnny Skimmerhorn set a world record by landing a 41-pound cutthroat.

Overfishing, destruction of spawning habitat and introduction of non-native game fish — particularly the Mackinaw — combined to decimate the cutthroat population at Lake Tahoe, with the fish disappearing from its waters by 1939. Pyramid's last spawn of cutthroat was recorded in 1938 and by 1944, they were gone from there as well. That event was largely due to the 1905 construction of the Truckee River's Derby Dam about 30 miles upstream, which sharply diminished flows to the lake and ruined spawning habitat.

Lahontan cutthroats were listed as an endangered species in 1970 and reclassified to threatened five years later. In 1974, the tribe established a new cutthroat fishery with fish raised at a hatchery at Sutcliffe, but those fish originated from outside the Truckee River Basin. While anglers have been landing them for many years, there have been no documented spawning runs or natural reproduction of that strain of cutthroat, Heki said.

The strain that spawned near Marble Bluff this spring was originally collected in the 1970s from a small stream in the Pilot Mountains on the Nevada-Utah border, with researchers at the time suspecting the fish were part of the original Pyramid Lake population. That was later confirmed through DNA testing.

The Fish and Wildlife Service began raising the Pilot Peak strain of cutthroat at a hatchery in Gardnerville in 1995, with the first of those fish released into Pyramid Lake eight years ago. This spring's spawn indicates the cutthroats are on the road to healthy self-reproduction, Heki said.

Spawning that occurred this year is not expected to be particularly successful, in part due to drought conditions that limited water flow and make survival of many newly hatched fish unlikely. But those same conditions make it surprising that the fish attempted to spawn at all, Heki said.

"They decided to take advantage of pretty diminished flow," Heki said. "This was completely unexpected, particularly during a drought year."

During a better water year, it's likely the cutthroats would spawn with more success, Heki said.

"It's important in terms of showing this population still retains its intent to reproduce naturally," Heki said. "It's a new era."

BY THE NUMBERS

89: Number of adult cutthroats confirmed in spawning area.

182: Number of spawning nests dug in river bed.

9: Number of newly hatched fish collected for analysis.

25 pounds: Largest Pilot Peak cutthroat caught in Pyramid Lake this year.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.