Where the Cutts Are

[kandersonSLC]

don't know about your chart but the cuts are all over and the big ones are under the kokes the ones over 22' are hard to catch but they are under the kokanee    I go down 50 to 60 feet and catch them.

Thanks for that info. In the middle of the day, we were targeting Cutts but at the same depth as the Kokes, and we didn't have any luck. We'll go 50-60 feet next time.

By the way, thanks for the images of you new sonar and the explanation of what it was showing. Fun stuff. Some day I'm going to get the Fishhawk temp, speed and depth sensor you show on your video of how you fish for kokanee.

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I think the chart is correct but not complete.  The big Cutts will go where the easy food is, and Kokes are good food.  While at the proper oxygen levels, they likely don't feed.  While they feed, the Oxygen levels are sufficient, but not good.

The bigger cutties will move up and down to feed, just as the smaller cutties will, just in opposite directions.

Interesting observations from you and Robert G -- certainly based on years of experience. I agree it is incomplete as the data is based on the activities of just 7 different Cutts (I'm sure the sensors were pricey). According to the Deseret News, May 30, 1991, 260,000 Kokanee were planted in Strawberry with 100,000 being planted in Strawberry Bay. So it would seem the availability of Kokanee has perhaps changed where the Cutts go to feed.

It also makes this observation about a Cutt's diet:

In summer and autumn 1997, Daphnia and invertebrates dominated the diets of adult Cutthroat Trout, but juvenile salmonids episodically represented 11–44% of the diet. Non-game fishes, including the Utah Chub, Utah Sucker, and Redside Shiner, comprised negligible fractions (<1.1%) of the diet for adult Cutthroat Trout during the study period.