I tend to agree with Mark at Headhunters that, from the sometimes skewed perspective of a predominantly blue-line fly fisherman, February is probably my least anticipated and enjoyed month of the year.
Back in home country the novelty of winter’s cold and snow has passed (this year’s bizarre weather excepted), the days are still achingly short and it’s often as cold as it will be during the year.
Typically that means it’s time to work hard at fighting off the shack nasties by catching up on tying, finally dragging the gear out to clean and reorganize for the season, and getting some of that heavy-lifting reading done. It also means it’s time to do a bit of wishful thinking and plan out next season’s ‘special’ fishing objectives.
Almost a month ago I wrote about how native cutthroats had been on my mind this winter. I think I’d like to chase down a native Redband most of all (edit – now recognizing that it’s indeed a rainbow species). 
Clint Muhlfeld (Montana FWP) wrote a status update on Montana Redbands a few years ago for the Montana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society; he told much of what anglers need to know right up front…
The Columbia River redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri), a subspecies of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), is native to the Fraser and Columbia River drainages east of the Cascade Mountains to barrier falls on the Pend Oreille, Spokane, Snake and Kootenai rivers (Allendorf et al. 1980; Behnke 1992). Logging, mining, agriculture, grazing, dams, over harvest and hybridization and competition with other trout contributed to the decline of redband trout abundance, distribution and genetic diversity in the Columbia River Basin (Williams et al. 1989; Behnke 1992). Consequently, many populations are restricted to isolated headwater streams that may serve as refugia until effective conservation and rehabilitation strategies are implemented.
The Western Native Trout Initiative website is chock full of great information about all of the native trout species of the West, and you can dig through their Redband Trout Assessment here. And note that’s their nifty image above.
Practically speaking, this means a trip to the Yaak and the Kootenai in Montana and / or parts of the Spokane drainage in eastern Washington along with some hiking and hyperventilating to get into the backcountry where these guys are holed up these days.
It’s been years since we’ve had the pleasure of being on the Kootenai or the Yaak, perhaps some of the most overlooked fishery gems in a state renown for its fine waters. Sure, it’s a long reach to get back there but it’s certainly not country overrun by Sports and the Escalade crowd. Amen.
Addendum – kudos and thanks to Jerry Schoen at UMass for the polite reminder that my insinuation that Redbands were part of the cutthroat clan was evidence of my progressive insanity.
