The Cutthroat Trout



Posted: Sunday, August 15, 2010

by John Jax

Sounds like a fish with a criminal record, huh?

Meet the original trout of the Rocky Mountains - the Cutthroat Trout. And I do mean original. They are native to the western half of the United States.

Well, meet a Cutthroat if you can. Elusive like the Golden, the Cutthroat is found predominantly in only remote and pristine locations. They tend not to do so well in the more competitive climates. This is especially true in areas which contain predatory fish, like the Pike.

Because of this, you'll discover the actual range of the cutthroat has been pushed back over the last several years. Oh sure, you'll still find them in reasonably large numbers in many of Montana's rivers, but the best fishing experience, anglers agree, is to be discovered deep in the back-country in isolated mountain lakes and streams.

And as you can probably guess, it takes quite a bit of effort to reach these locations.

Because they are so isolated, the cutthroat doesn't receive a lot of fly-fishing pressure. This, is turn, makes them a little easier to catch than their relatives the golden trout and brown trout.

This trout doesn't possess the aerial agility and the other physical attributes of its cousins, so they are easier to bring in once they're hooked.

So just how do you know when you're looking at one of these guys? First, they can be identified by two red slashes on the outside and under its lower jaw. Beyond this, their sides are a brownish yellow highlighted with black spots.

Of course, these fish can have several other colorings as well. This is due to the crossbreeding that has occurred among them, the rainbow and the brown. The cross breeding not only occurred naturally in the wild, but in hatcheries as well. And the end result is usually called the "cut-bow" trout.
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