How can you tell which cutthroat subspecies

[Highmth]

I was fishing an unnamed beaver pond and I caught some fish that looked like Cutthroat but I don't know which kind. I have caught Colorado River Cutts in Southern Utah, Bonniville cutts in Schofield and surrounding streams. And Bear lake/river cutts in the Logan river and also in Strawberry. These ones are somewhere in between.
[signature]

[albinotrout]

Depends where you caught them. Send me a pm with drainage location and I will do what I can.
[signature]

[T-DOG91]

I would call them bonneville. But again without knowing where you caught them it's hard to be certain.

http://www.utahcutthroatslam.org/utah-na...oat-trout/

This map might help
[signature]

[ReelMasta]

Colorado river... I believe the spots have dropped to his tail.
[signature]

[doggonefishin]

Spotting patterns are not a reliable way to tell cutt subspecies apart. However, the crimson red belly that the second fish has is seen in Colorado river cutts and not the other subspecies that live in our state. So, a Colorado river cutt, unless the red color seen is a photographic artifact.

Beautiful fish!
[signature]

[wiperhunter2]

Did you catch these cutts recently? I'd like to catch some that have that red coloring and I had always heard that the red color only came out around the time of the spawn. If you caught that red one recently it must be getting close to the spawn. Unless what I heard wasn't true[:/].
Both cutts are nice fat fish.
[signature]

[Highmth]

They were caught a couple of weekends ago. The colored up fish is a male and he was the only one I caught that was colored up like that. Cutts traditionally spawn in the spring but, in my opinion, once a male gets those spawning colors, they tend to keep those colors.
[signature]

[wormandbobber]

Both Bonnevilles and Colorado River cutts will get that red coloring along their belly. The Bonnies generally won't be that colored up unless they are spawning; the colorado rivers, however, will often maintain that color year round. Looking at your pics, my guess is that they are Colorado Rivers. But, like others, it can be difficult to distinguish them apart and, without knowing the drainage or the location, I don't know. Part of me wants to say that the fish are Bonnies...the first fish especially looks like a bonneville. But, my guess would be CR.
[signature]

[PBH]

It's hard to say -- like others have mentioned, without knowing where they were caught, it's all speculation.


A general rule of thumb is to look at the drainage. Most of the time, Utah will stock cutthroat based off drainage (ie: Colorado River, Bonneville Basin). But this isn't 100%.

If you really want to know, call the DWR at the office from the region you caught the fish from and ask them. They could tell you. All of us? We're just guessing.
[signature]

[SkunkedAgain]

Boy they sure look like the ones from the Wind Rivers which are probably Colorado, but I've seen fish like that out of Henry's lake in Idaho as well so I'm not a very good guesser. Pretty fish though. J
[signature]

[BigBlueTrutta]

The identification of cutthroat trout in the western states can be a very interesting conversation.With the various fish plantings by different agencies and private stockings it's not always correct to assume a certain drainage has the native cutthroat that it should.In a perfect world all cutthroats that occur in drainages of the Green or Colorado would be Colorado cutthroats,all drainages of Bear would be Bonnevilles.This can become some what complicated in the upper Snake as Yellowstone and Fine Spotted Snake River Cutthroats do occur in the same drainege,with the Fine Spotted thought do be a sub-species.Hybrids can pollute dna and it's some times hard to field judge a fish on color and types of spots.I would recommend Patrick Trotters book Cutthroat Native Fish of The West to those who want a interesting read that gets into the nuts and bolts of this topic, it chronicles Dr.Robert Behnkeis work on our natives.
[signature]

[Highmth]

Thanks for the information, these were caught in a drainage that flows into the Green but there have been Bonniville cutts planted in the area. To my knowledge this pond has never been planted. It was a fluke that I even discovered fish in it.
[signature]

[ReelMasta]

So are the Woodruff Reservoir Colorado River Cuts on the correct drainage?

No plantings that I could find. Documentation on the interweb states they are CR.

Either way all must be native or from a very early influence.

I landed 3 this weekend all with the same markings.
[signature]

[BigBlueTrutta]

The native trout of the Bear river drainage is the Bonneville Cutthroat,with Woodruff reservoir being in this drainage, if they are Colorado river cutts they were planted there.It was very popular in years past to stock non-native cutthroats in reservoirs and even rivers.This year while fishing the Green River below Fontenelle I caught Fine Spotted Snake River Cutts and the native cutt of that drainage the Colarado in the same stretch of the river.The Snake Rivers were stocked in there at some time and are doing well but are not the native trout of that drainage.So to make long story short what you caught was a very beautiful Cutthroat trout and if its not a Bonneville then it was planted in there.While talking about Bonnevilles it's fun to dream about hooking into one in the old Lake Bonneville where the got up to one hundred pounds,this is not so hard to imagine as Lahontan Cutthroats were netted in Pyramid lake over sixty pounds.
[signature]

[PBH]

[quote Highmth]Thanks for the information, these were caught in a drainage that flows into the Green but there have been Bonniville cutts planted in the area. To my knowledge this pond has never been planted. It was a fluke that I even discovered fish in it.[/quote]

You should call the DWR office for that region and talk with the fisheries manager. I would bet they know the pond, and could tell you with confidence what type of cutthroat they are. They might even tell you when they stocked that pond, or the stream providing water to the pond.


Remember, drainage is just a good guess. But management plans don't always follow drainages. Sometimes they will use other strains based off fishery management needs.

[quote BigBlueTrutta]The native trout of the Bear river drainage is the Bonneville Cutthroat...[/quote]

Are you sure??

Some theories suggest that the Bear Lake cutthroat are truly Snake River cutthroat. At some point in the past (50,000 years ago) the Bear River was in the Snake River drainage -- not the Bonneville basin like it is today. Those Bear Lake cutthroat had a different evolutionary path than most Bonneville cutts did.

[url "http://www.utahcutthroatslam.org/bear-lake-cutthroat/"]http://www.utahcutthroatslam.org/bear-lake-cutthroat/[/url]


In the Pine Valley Mountains of Southern Utah we have a stream that has a native population Bonneville cutthroat trout. There is no historical record of white men putting those fish in this stream. The fish have been used in the past to help populate other streams on that mountain, as native Bonneville cutthroat. The problem? The stream flows into the Santa Clara, which then hits the Virgin River, which then flows into the Colorado River. How do you have native Bonneville cutthroat trout in a Colorado River drainage??

Just like with the Bear River, past historical geological events caused a change with the stream path. The original drainage of this particular stream went into the Bonneville basin, while to course of the stream today is in the Colorado River. The fish were still isolated and are genetically pure Bonneville cutthroat.

Interesting stuff, for sure.
[signature]