Cutthroat Trout Equals Simplicity

I recently watched a video that someone had posted on YouTube about fly fishing for cutthroat trout. It was a pretty good fly fishing action video with a jumping trout making some good runs. At the end of the video I noticed the angler had on a strike indicator! I was dumbfounded as to why anyone would need a strike indicator for perhaps the most aggressive trout that swims. These little pirates are ambush predators pure and simple. They savagely attack almost anything thrown their way. I have had them nearly jerk the rod out of my hand when hitting my fly so needless to say they are rarely selective and that is why I cannot see the need for a strike indicator.
I fish the typical wet fly swing for cutts and have had great success over the years fly fishing no other way. I sometimes use a bead head fly to get a little deeper in the early season but have found that cutthroat will definitely move to my fly. A deeper slot will usually find them near the edge of the drop off. Underwater structure is another excellent place to find the trout as is on the seam of the current.
I once took a friend to one of my favorite cutthroat trout haunts and he hauls out this elaborate indicator contraption with three flies! All I could do was laugh. He was making something simple into something way too complicated.
Some overly pretentious fly fishermen turn up their elitist nose at cutthroat trout and I just shake my head. After all you do have to find them and their numbers are not as large as the redsides on the Deschutes! These "harvest trout" are still pursued by the older timers who hold them near and dear from years past and I count myself as one of these old guys. I do not kill them as I do not see the need for it from my standpoint but I can hardly begrudge these elderly fellows a trout or two for the skillet as they reminisce about the old days of blue back fishing.
The younger anglers treat them as little more than nuisances and are more interested in salmon and steelhead and seldom bother with them.
To me tossing a wet fly at a cutthroat trout is my favorite way to fly fish. This is truly the joy of trout for me.The colors and sounds of the spring,summer and fall along with these precocious trout is more than fitting way to spend my days on the river. It really is a simple pleasure.