Meet the Western Native Trout Challenge

Easy and familiar can get boring. Sometimes you need to stretch yourself a bit and take on a new quest.

If you want to take your trout fishing up a notch, consider taking the Western Native Trout Challenge. The program is rewarding for anglers and fish alike.

People benefit by going to beautiful places and connecting with unique wild trout and char species. The fish benefit via funding for conservation projects and the creation of advocates for wild-trout watersheds.

In simple terms, the Challenge consists of catching and photographing a number of fish from a list of wild trout/char species in 12 participating western states. The program includes incentives for attaining milestones in terms of the number of species caught and the number of states visited. Anglers must register first, as old catches are not grandfathered in.

"We see a lot of families taking the Challenge as a team," said Martin Koenig , coordinator of the Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI), a collaboration of western states. "We probably have more individual anglers in the program but it is not uncommon to have parents and children deciding they are going to do this together. And that is a great thing because we need younger people to advocate for wild trout in the future."

The first level of achievement is the Expert Caster, consisting of six trout/char species caught and photographed in four states. Completers receive a commemorative certificate and baseball cap. The second level, Advanced Caster, consists of 12 species across 8 states. Prizes for Advanced include a certificate and medallion. Finally, the Master Caster level requires catching and photographing 18 species across all 12 participating states. This highest level also includes commemorative certificate and medallion.

Program statistics:

• Since launching in 2019, more than 2,030 anglers across the US have registered from all states and Canada.
• California, Utah, and Arizona are the top three states for participation, with Oregon in 5^th place at 181 anglers registered.
• More than 400 people have completed at least one level of The Challenge. WNTI recently celebrated the 300^th person to complete the Expert level, and the 100^th person to complete the Advanced level.
• Over a dozen anglers have completed the Expert level twice. Only 2 anglers have completed the Master level twice.

Koenig said planning is half the fun. "People get very strategic about their travel and fishing plans," he said. "They might try to knock off several states at a time or stretch it out. There's no time limit to complete the Challenge."

He also emphasizes that trophies don't matter. "We are not worried about fish size for this, and that means a lot of these trout are relatively easy to catch, especially in smaller streams."

So what's in it for the fish? Of the $25 registration fee, $23 goes directly to local communities in the form of grants for conservation projects benefitting wild trout.

In 2025 WNTI awarded $23,700 out of its small-grant program for five projects in six western states, which will be matched with $78,400 in other public and private funding. The community-based projects were selected because of their emphasis on community science and outreach to help address challenges facing the restoration and recovery of western native trout species.

"The grants are important, but we think outreach and education are even more so," Koenig said. "We are trying to raise awareness of the diversity of the watersheds these fish live in. We are hoping people become advocates for wild trout."

Oregon native trout included in the Challenge include:

Bull trout: Anglers can fish for bull trout in the Imnaha, Wenaha, and Metolius rivers and Lake Billy Chinook. Please follow regulations specific to each waterbody. Bull trout are voracious predators of other fish, so anglers often use lures or flies mimicking large minnows or small fish.

Coastal cutthroat: They inhabit streams and beaver ponds throughout the Northwest, Southwest and Willamette fishing zones. This includes a multitude of water bodies and a wide variety of scenery.

Westslope cutthroat: These can be found in the John Day Basin. They live in several creeks that feed the mainstem and North Fork John Day, including Dixie, Canyon, Desolation and Clear creeks.

Lahontan cutthroat: This variety has adapted to dry weather, highly alkaline waters and was once widespread throughout the Lahontan Basin of California, Nevada and southeast Oregon. Today, native populations can be found in the Whitehorse and Willow creek basins in far southeastern Oregon.

Oregon redband: Redbands are found throughout the Central and Southeast fishing zones. They are adapted to severe desert conditions.

Search for each on MYODFW.com to learn how and where to catch each species.

For more details and complete program rules, visit westernnativetroutchallenge.org. or MyODFW.com and search for "trout challenge."

Photo: Beau holding a big bull trout he caught on a fly in Lake Billy Chinook, one of a few places where bull trout do not need to be released. Coastal cutthroat, Westslope cutthroat, Lahontan cutthroat and redband trout are also part of the Trout Challenge in Oregon.