12-10-2008, 03:25 PM
I am not a biologist, but the way I can generally tell (other than the much better fight from the cutbows) is from a couple of characteristics:
1) The light cutthroat slash under the jaw, not typically as bright or pronounced as the slash on a pure strain cutthroat.
2) Rainbow-type coloration on the body of the fish, but with slightly different spots. Rainbow spots are typically fine, round, concentrated toward the head and often have similar concentrations above and below the lateral line. Cutthroat spots (with the exception of the Snake River Fine Spotted strain and a couple of rare strains) are generally larger, less round, more sparse, and are concentrated above the lateral line. This is particularly true of Yellowstone and Bear Lake Cutts and does not hold as true for some Bonneville Cutts I have caught.
The fish I posted exhibited a red slash under the jaw and the spotting was a cross between cutthroat and rainbow spots. You can see how the spots are irregularly shaped (more like a cutt), but are less sparse than most cutts. It also had some orange/yellow coloration on the fins which is not typical for the hatchery bows at Strawberry (they usually have grayish fins)
I suppose that the most reliable way to tell is if it looks kind of like a rainbow, but has a cutthroat slash.
These are just my observations and given the diversity of the different cutthroat strains, cuttbows can look very different depending on where you catch them. For example, the hybrids in Henry's Lake look more like a cutthroat than the picture that I posted. However, the hybrids I have caught on the Green look more like a rainbow. I will see if I can find pictures of ones I have caught on the Green or at Henry's or maybe others will chime in with pics/comments of their own.
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1) The light cutthroat slash under the jaw, not typically as bright or pronounced as the slash on a pure strain cutthroat.
2) Rainbow-type coloration on the body of the fish, but with slightly different spots. Rainbow spots are typically fine, round, concentrated toward the head and often have similar concentrations above and below the lateral line. Cutthroat spots (with the exception of the Snake River Fine Spotted strain and a couple of rare strains) are generally larger, less round, more sparse, and are concentrated above the lateral line. This is particularly true of Yellowstone and Bear Lake Cutts and does not hold as true for some Bonneville Cutts I have caught.
The fish I posted exhibited a red slash under the jaw and the spotting was a cross between cutthroat and rainbow spots. You can see how the spots are irregularly shaped (more like a cutt), but are less sparse than most cutts. It also had some orange/yellow coloration on the fins which is not typical for the hatchery bows at Strawberry (they usually have grayish fins)
I suppose that the most reliable way to tell is if it looks kind of like a rainbow, but has a cutthroat slash.
These are just my observations and given the diversity of the different cutthroat strains, cuttbows can look very different depending on where you catch them. For example, the hybrids in Henry's Lake look more like a cutthroat than the picture that I posted. However, the hybrids I have caught on the Green look more like a rainbow. I will see if I can find pictures of ones I have caught on the Green or at Henry's or maybe others will chime in with pics/comments of their own.
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