Settle a Discussion for me

[Bhflyfisher]

I came across this picture recently, and im seeing a cuttbow. The fish has no slash, but this bow river fish, is NOT the average bow river rainbow. It has no slash, and apparently according to mr armchair biologist, spotting is not the way to tell.

Am i not the only one that sees cuttbow? There must be some cutty in the mix.



bh

[fishpro]

I agree with you, definitely looks to me like there's some cutthroat in there.

[flyguyd]

I wood saw there is some Cutty in it also

[lannie]

Agreed but I am not a bio.

[Shawnlh]

A rainbrown cutbow maybe??

[1/2 oz Bucktail]

Only real way to tell cutty is to look for the presence of pharyngeal teeth. Both spot patterns and presence/absence of the gular slash (orange throat) are not always reliable.

[pikergolf]

Originally Posted by 1/2 oz Bucktail

Only real way to tell cutty is to look for the presence of pharyngeal teeth. Both spot patterns and presence/absence of the gular slash (orange throat) are not always reliable.

X2 This is how the bio's tell, spots mean nothing.

[Liarsenic]

I would agree that it looks like a cuttbow

[biggyJ]

Why all the concern on whether it is a cutt / cuttbow / rainbow.

I fail to see why it is so important in this matter to identify this fish. It is a great fish! look at the girth on that piggie.

Its an arugment waiting to happen for what? Is it going to stop you from fishing the bow, change your techniques? I think not.

Now if this was an argument between a brookie/cutt/bull and you were going to eat it...then it would matter.


ps- You sneaky devil, protected item on a forum (BH will know what I mean) hahahahaha good on you ;-)

[Bhflyfisher]

Originally Posted by biggyJ

Why all the concern on whether it is a cutt / cuttbow / rainbow.

I fail to see why it is so important in this matter to identify this fish. It is a great fish! look at the girth on that piggie.

Its an arugment waiting to happen for what? Is it going to stop you from fishing the bow, change your techniques? I think not.

Now if this was an argument between a brookie/cutt/bull and you were going to eat it...then it would matter.


ps- You sneaky devil, protected item on a forum (BH will know what I mean) hahahahaha good on you ;-)

Heheheheh. You got me.

[Burns]

Its a brookcuttybrownbow. The supertrout.

[brown trout]

Cuttbow, or even a relatively heavy cutt (with a smattering of rainbow).

1. No pronounced white tipped anal fin (characteristic of a rainbow). A MAJOR trait, BTW. Looking for teeth is not always practical...
2. Total head shape of a cutt (ya, ya. Not a "scientific" way to tell. But then that's how we tell bulls from Dollies...). Take it for what you want.
3. Lower belly colour. (Cutt)
4. Gill plate colour matching of lower body colour (cutt).
5. Caught in the Bow (point to the Rainbow)

I caught a total cuttbow or cutty (whatever....) on the Bow just below town last September. Nice size fish, too. Looked just like I caught it from the Livingstone. About 4 years after a major high water event, it makes sense that we see a bunch of these guys. Likely wash-downs or migrants from the Highwood/Sheep systems.

I'll call this trout: verdict.... cuttbow/cutty.

And side-note, IMHO, it does matter that we can ID these fish as distinct. At least the gov't should come up with an ID "standard" that doesn't take a bio's skill to perform. (like a slash and no white tip fins means cutt, for example...) Reason being, they are trying to come up with ways to allow harvest of rainbows in the U Oldman system, but can't allow harvest yet because of the culture of treating rainbows and cutts and the continuum of hybrids as the same in the regs. Now we have a province full of people who can't ID fish worth a damn. To make it worse, the "rainbow" on the cover of the regs is a brutal exemplar of the species.

Shameful, but now at east we know why Average-Joe is as ignorant as he is so much of the time.

Okay, rant over before I burst....

[rycoma]

I caught one of these two years ago. I wasn't sure either a to if it was a cutt or a rainbow. Mine was out of the Bow as well all I know for sure is that it looked a hell of a lot like a cutt.

[rycoma]

found the pic

[Bhflyfisher]

Originally Posted by rycoma

I caught one of these two years ago. I wasn't sure either a to if it was a cutt or a rainbow. Mine was out of the Bow as well all I know for sure is that it looked a hell of a lot like a cutt.

I've caught a few out of the bow. One was a 14", the other was a 20 while fishing stones on the top in july. Neither have looked as much like a cutty like this fish, but they both exhibited pretty significant slashes, and were emerald green with the spots towards the tail. This one just looks way more like a cutty then the 2 that i caught.

[thumper]

Originally Posted by biggyJ

Why all the concern on whether it is a cutt / cuttbow / rainbow.

I fail to see why it is so important in this matter to identify this fish. It is a great fish! look at the girth on that piggie.

Its an arugment waiting to happen for what? Is it going to stop you from fishing the bow, change your techniques? I think not.

Now if this was an argument between a brookie/cutt/bull and you were going to eat it...then it would matter.


ps- You sneaky devil, protected item on a forum (BH will know what I mean) hahahahaha good on you ;-)

For many of us, identifying fish, birds, even insects, wildflowers and trees, - down the species adds to our enjoyment of the outdoors. I know for me, just seeing a 'pretty bird' is not enough - I like to know where he migrates to, what he eats and as much about his natural history as I possibly can.

[Hydroman]

I caught one like that in the Upper K Lakes last year and thought it was a cutbow. Not sure if there are cutbows in K lakes as most of the cutbows I have seen are in flowing waters.

[ESOXangler]

That's without a doubt a northern pike!

[BeeGuy]

Originally Posted by ESOXangler

That's without a doubt a northern pike!

x2

Looks like a hybrid to me.

The only way to tell definitely is through genetic analysis.

A hybrid may or may not possess basi-branchial teeth or other specific level morphological characters.

Here is an overview of some O.clarki characters:

Body elongate and typically trout-like, rounded, and slightly compressed; scales cycloid, small to medium in size, 140-230 in the lateral line. Head conical, moderate to short; eye moderate; snout rounded, occasionally slightly pointed; mouth terminal, rather large; small sharp teeth on jaws, vomer, tongue, and median basibranchial plate between the lower end of the gill arches; gill rakers 14-22, usually 7 on the upper limb and 11 or 12 on the lower limb. Dorsal fin rays 8-11; anal fin rays 10 or 11; caudal fin slightly forked. Color highly variable, often differs between watersheds; normally greenish-blue to steel gray on back and upper side, yellowish-green to copper color on lower side, and sometimes silvery on belly. Black spots on back and side and more concentrated posterior to the dorsal fin. Spots on dorsal, adipose, and caudal fins; anal and paired fins without spots; red dash on each side of jaw along dentary; young with 9 or 10 oval parr marks on lateral line.

The cutthroat is distinguished from other trouts by a variety of characteristics. The maxillary of the cutthroat usually extends beyond the posterior margin of the eye in fish longer than 4 inches. In addition, this species has basibranchial or hyoid teeth behind the tongue between the second gill clefts. The rainbow trout differs in having a maxillary that usually does not extend beyond the posterior margin of the eyes (except in fish longer than about 20 inches), and in lacking the basibranchial teeth. The cutthroat trout usually has 10 (range, 8-11) rays in the dorsal fin and typically 9 in the pelvic fin, and red-orange "slash marks" on the underside of the lower jaw. The cutthroat trout has 140-230 scales in the lateral line; the rainbow trout has fewer than 150.