I got this interesting little bugger yesterday on a Puget Sound river. It had different spotting than the typical searun cutties that I've seen over the years and it was fat as a football. Also had a red hue to the belly and brilliant red stripes on the underside of the jaw. Could this have been a resident cuttie? Looked like a Lake Lenore fish to me, just thought it was weird for up where I caught it on "The Ranch". Sorry that pic quality sucks, I can't figure out the software for my new digital camera, but I will keep at it or get Parker to help.



Look at the belly on this little biatch!


What a little fat ass! Swam off nicely though.

Kid -
Nice trout - It is a westslope cutthroat, the Washington strain is often called a twin Lakes cutthroat; that probably dropped down from one of the high mountain lakes or an alpine stream. The westslope is native to the westslope of the Rockies and eastern Cascades. Haven't seen them in the salt. There are a number of lakes in that basin that have these fish. The brood source of the fish is a alpine lake in Eastern Washington not too far from Lake Chelan; they have been planted in quite a number of lakes throughout the Washington Cascades. Have seen a few of these in Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Skagit and Nooksack systems.

They are an interesting fish in is not uncommon for them to get really heavy for their length. You can find some in the Yakima (especially upper river) and they are nearly always a much chunkier fish than the naitve rainbows. With our coastal cutthroat the rainbows are nearly always the heavier of the two but not so with the westslopes. They have been a problem in many high lakes as they seem to easily reproduce and tend to "stunt out".

Tight lines
Smalma

A real pig belly there Justin !!
He's built like the four 4 pounders I caught in
lake Wash. this morning. If ya get another one,
try and get some scales and we'll see if they are
going to sea.

Cigar

Cigar -
Most of the Lake Washington cutthroat don't go to sea. They find more than enough feed in the Lake; smelt and sticklebacks. Those 4# fish are what 21 or 22 inches long?. A sea-run that size would likely be 9 or 10 years old. Lake Washington cutts that size are only 1/2 that old. Truly amazing fish.

Tight lines
Smalma

Nice trout kid sauk. Thanks for sharing. You can definitely see the red slash on the jaw of your fish. I've caught a few of those cutthroats from Lake Washington on needlfish, but they don't seem to have the same red gash. For that matter, I have a hard time telling the rainbows from the cutts on the big lake. Any experts out there that can give me a tip on telling the difference for the Lake Washington fish?

Cigar - what are you using in Lake Wa to target Cutts? I would like to give it a try.

jeff'e'd,

Check behind their tongue for hyoid teeth, only
cutthroat have them, but not all cutts have them.
Since I release all mine, I look the maxillary over, if it extends past the eye... it's a cutt.

Be kind to these fish, they are pretty much wild.
Last planting of cutts in Lake Washington was in
1976.

Busy,

I troll with size 3 needle fish spoons and 3.5 coyote spoons. Troll fast and deep in the summer
months...2.5 mph to 3.5 mph. Fish during the tide
changes...it works!!!

Cigar