Northwest Fishing Reports

Me and my buddy were fishing the skagit for summer steelies and we found a hole with a bunch of trout in it, where my friend hooked this weird looking cutt. He says its a westlope, any ideas of what this fish is? you can see the "cuts" in the picture, but the spots are only in the tail and the back whereas a typical cutt in western washington will have spots all over the place. A beautiful fish, he was released unharmed. I thought westslopes were only native to montana...

were you on the upper or lower skagit?

In the 1950s some places in Washington were planted with Montana Black Spot Trout. I haven't seen one in many, many years, but that's what they looked like.

Cutbow?

we were just above hamilton, we launched there then headed upstream. The montana black spot theory makes sense. I don't think it was a cutbow because cutbows usually have more spots. They look like a cutthroat with a pink stripe down their side and pink on the cheeks. I was also thinkin it could be a lahontan cutt? idk though.

Did it have those teeth on the back of the tongue?

Sea-run cutt. Look how chrome and shiny it is. River cutts have alot more colors

wintersteelhead wrote:Sea-run cutt. Look how chrome and shiny it is. River cutts have alot more colors

+1

I don`t do alot of trout fishing but that is a pretty fish.

wintersteelhead wrote:Sea-run cutt. Look how chrome and shiny it is. River cutts have alot more colors

searun cutts can indeed be very bright and shiny, but they have a lot more spots on all of their body.

Pretty fish but not a Lahontan. Not even close

That is indeed a fascinating specimen. Would have been a pleasure to catch something like that.

I googled westslope cutts and it looks like that could be what it was: