Cuttbows

[Bowcane]

So this may be obvious, but how do you tell the difference between a Cutt and a Cuttbow? Professional fisheries biologists always say not to use colour/colour patterns(s) to ID fish, so then what. I know the Cutts in the North Ram do look differant than the ones from say the Oldman. Are the Oldman ones then really Cuttbows?

[trailhead]

Usually I just go with the spotting across the top of the head and also if there are faint slashes and a pink rainbow style body stripe I call it a Cuttbow. The official way to ID them is via the teeth on the tongue. Cutts have them and Cuttbows don't, but then I have heard rumours that even that isn't definitive. Though according to most biologists and a lot of the old fellows here, there are very few remaining populations of pure strain westslope cutthroat trout left in Alberta.

[Keith]

The easiest, though not necessarily the best, ways to tell are the spotting on the sides and head of the fish. Pure Westslopes will have an arc on their sides from the anal fin to the head where they don't have any black spots below the lateral line. Westslopes also generally don't have spots on their heads. And they generally tend to have larger spots. If you have a cutty with spots below the lateral line on its sides or spots on its head then it is a hybrid. If that spots are small then that is also another indication.

 

As trailhead said, there are not a lot of pure westslope populations left. Some are more/less hybridized depending on the quality of habitat for rainbows. As most know, westslopes tend to have the competitive advantage in higher colder waters, while rainbows win out down lower, so depending on how suited the water is to rainbows then less will have moved in, although it only takes one to compromise genetic purity, which is why there are few pure populations left. If you want to be sure then look at some of the academic or resource papers that have been released, and to be really sure go fishing above a barrier to rainbow migration such as a waterfall. There are some populations around that live above falls and these are likely to be the only populations that we will have left at some stage. It's important that we recongize these and protect them.

[bigbowtrout]

Cutty ID time

 

 

 

[Keith]

It difficult to say without knowing where they came from. But I would go with:

 

1) Westslope Cutt - difficult to say purity without knowing some history of the location. But no spots on head or below lateral line say that this one is more on the pure side. It does have a pink stripe, but colouration isn't a good guide. Color will change with the seasons and according to the food in the any given water.

2) Hybrid, for sure

3) Hybrid, for sure

[bigbowtrout]

Highwood

 

Highwood

 

Crowsnest