cuttbow or bow

[Xman]

since we were talking about this i figured i would post a picture of a fish and see opinions on this one as well since it wall right into this category of question.
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]I'm gonna have to agree with the Tubemeister on this one. Looks like a bow to me as well. The picture isn't much of a close up, but judging from what I can see, it looks like small spots (not large ones like the cuts tend to have), as well as white trim on the fins as apposed to orange, etc.
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[Curtisfish]

Pure Rainbow by my eyes.
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[Xman]

yeah bad picture for identifying actually. but i can say this i didnt dna test this fish but in my opinion was a cuttbow. it had dark orange slashes underits jaw and a hint of orange on fins from the belly side. also i have caught hundreds of rainbows from this particular lake and it looked considerably different when i caught it than others i had seen. i would also say though if it wasnt my fish and i looked at the pic not knowing anything about it i would call it a rainbow.
but hey pat as you know im not the best species identifier given that sunfish i caught haha.
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[Xman]

and just for the heck of it here is one more pic. i like this topic of hybrid or pure strain thing. interesting to see and after its all said and done it seems you really dont know unless its dna tested.
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[tightline]

It looks like a Cuttbow to me. And by the way what are you doin fishing in my fishin hole! HeHeHe
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[Xman]

its nobodies fishin hole now its being worked on. i knew someone would recognized that place haha.
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[Xman]

i guess i just have a hard time believing rainbows develop slashes on their jaws being pure strain rainbows. perhaps i havent been out enough to see them. i just have never seen one before so its of course hard to imagine if you havent seen it before. i almost never judge a fish by its spots though. thats a poor way to identify in my opinion, i definitely agree with that.
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[BrianID]

TudeDude,
I don't claim to be an expert either and agree with most of what you said but would disagree with your statement “Natural hybridizing of cutts and rainbows is not too common” and I think an orange slash under a rainbows gills is a very good indication that it isn’t a pure strain rainbow. I personally believe that most wild rainbows found in waters native to cutthroats are really cutbows or at least have some cutthroat in their genes. In Eastern Idaho I would say that it is almost without exception that every wild rainbow has some cutthroat genes.
The rainbows that the Idaho F&G plant are often pure strain rainbows but I believe that some cutthroat genes can be found in what hatchery’s call pure strain rainbows. The hatchery strains have also be genetically engineered over the years so they are not very similar to the original rainbow. One good example is the most common strain the Idaho F&G plant the "Hayspur Rainbow Triploid" (these rainbows have a darker appearance, numerous average sized spots and have a grayish color to their belly). Often these "Hayspur Rainbow Triploid" will not even have a hint of an orange slash under their gills, but sometimes I will fish a place that has been recently stocked and almost all of them will have a slight orange slash even though the F&G still lists them as being pure strain rainbows.
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[BrianID]

TubeDude,
I think we are all on the same page. I was just adding my opinion and hope that those who read it understand it is just an opinion and not a fact. I even consider the cutbows and rainbows similar enough that for my own fishing records I classify them as the same fish.
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[doggonefishin]

Very interesting series of threads, thank you for the pictures and discussion. One additional aspect that can muddy trout identification some is cutthroat-cuttthroat subspecies hybridization. My favorite river to fish in the 80's was the upper Provo above Woodland. It had a strong yellowstone cutt fishery at the time. The DWR decided to plant a fairly large number of Snake river cutts in there. They were fun to catch and seemed to do well up there, but about three years later, a fair number of the cutts were looking quite strange as the two subspecies cross-bred. They were obviously cutts but had interesting characteristics of each parent strain. The upper Provo also had a modest degree of natural rainbow reproduction complicating the gene pool further. One never knew what the fish would look like when you reeled it in. Anyway, thanks for an enjoyable set of threads.
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