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Cutthroat Trout Information
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Thank you for visiting Cutthroat Trout Information. We try to provide you with the most complete information we can about fish and fishing. We update our sources constantly. Please scroll down to learn more.

Coastal Cutthroat Trout -(Oncorhynchus clarkii )
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Appearance
Juveniles are 1 to 6 inches long and silver or yellowish, with about ten oval parr marks overlaid with small black spots. Some juveniles will have a faint red or pink along the lateral line and on the gill covers.

Adult coloration varies widely. Freshwater fish living in bog ponds are 6 to 16 inches long and golden yellow with dark spots on the body, dorsal and caudal fins and have a vivid red slash mark under the jaw (hence the name cutthroat). Free-swimming residents in large landlocked lakes can exceed 24 inches long, are uniformly silver with black spots, rosy gill covers and only a faint slash mark.

Sea-run cutthroat are smaller, seldom more than 18 inches long. They are bluish-silver with dark or olive backs and less conspicuous black spots-the characteristic slash is a faint yellow. Lack of a distinct slash mark in sea-run and resident forms has led anglers to confuse the fish with rainbow trout. Cutthroat can be positively identified by the presence of minute teeth between the gills behind the base of the tongue.

Range
Cutthroat Trout can migrate to salt water or remain in fresh water streams and lakes. They are the most common species in coastal range of lower Southeast Alaska to Prince William Sound. The freshwater form lives in a wide variety of habitats from small headwater tributaries and bog ponds to large lakes and rivers. Sea-run Cutthroat are mostly found south of Fredrick Sound. In some watersheds, like the Taku River, the two forms exist together.

Life History:
Resident and sea-run coastal cutthroat trout have similar early life histories. Adults spawn in small isolated headwater streams from late April to early June and the young cutthroat emerge from the gravel in July. Selection of isolated spawning areas allows less contact with predatory steelhead and coho salmon. Later the young occupy beaver ponds, sloughs, or lakes. Sea-run juveniles will go downstream to estuaries where they live for the summer, then migrate back upstream with the onset of winter floods.

Sea-run cutthroat live three to four years in fresh water and migrate to sea during May when they are about 8 inches long. Time at sea varies from a few days to over a hundred days before they return to their natal stream. During migration they follow the shoreline and do not cross open bodies of water. They seldom venture farther than 30 to 45 miles away and return to their home stream where they mature during the winter. Homing is very precise; Cutthroat can return to the same tributary stream where they emerged and reared.

Cutthroat trout mature at 5 to 7 years and live to be 9 to 10 years old. Survival through the winter and return to salt water is about 40 percent. Only about 60 percent of the migrants are sexually mature which limit s their reproductive potential.

When they reach about 14 inches "Resident Cutthroat" will pursue and eat other fish. Cutthroat that adapt this feeding strategy can grow from 24 to 28 inches, weigh 8 pounds and live to be over 12 years old. These trophy-class cutthroat are always found in large landlocked lakes with populations of kokanee (landlocked sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)).

Sport fishing
Cutthroat trout are aggressive feeders and will hit almost any lure, spinner, or fly.

Sea-run cutthroat can be taken in fresh water during migration in the spring or during the fall. They stay in deep pools and must be fished close to the bottom to ensure a hit.

Resident cutthroat can be caught with spinners, or spoons fished deep in pools or along lake shorelines where there is abundant submerged debris. Dry or wet flies fished off inlet streams work well. A muddler minnow on a fast sinking line fished along shores with submerged cover is a sure bet. Trophy-class Cutthroat are best caught by trolling off steep shorelines of landlocked lakes.

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