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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Fly fisher had two chances to catch two-face fish in CdA River

Cutthroat trout with two mouths caught in the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River on Aug. 20, 2011. (Jason Kirchner)
Cutthroat trout with two mouths caught in the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River on Aug. 20, 2011. (Jason Kirchner)

FLY FISHING -- Jay Kirchner was fly fishing on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River Saturday morning when he hooked a scrappy cutthroat trout.

"It hit an Elk Hair Caddis on the surface," he said. "There was nothing odd about the strike or the fight except that when I could see it during the fight it looked odd. It wasn't until I got it in the net that I saw the fish had two mouths," he added, swearing he wasn't fishing up in the Selkirk Mountains at Two Mouth Lakes. 

"I laid it out on the shore for a quick picture, then set it loose again. The cutthroat happily swam off.

"Apparently the fish are so aggressive that some have decided to grow a second mouth to aid in their insect attacks!"

Although the photo is sharp, it's not clear whether the lower mouth is a deformity from the egg or whether it's the healed result of suffering hooking damage as a young fish.   Any ideas out there?

Kirchner is the public information officer for the Idaho Panhandle National Forest in Coeur d'Alene.


Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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