Cutbow

Photos

Click a photo to expand it for a closer look.

Identification

• Fertile hybrid between rainbow trout and cutthroat trout, unlike the sterile tiger trout or splake.
• Often shows a faint reddish-orange slash under the jaw like cutthroat trout, usually less vivid than on a pure cutthroat.
• White leading edges on the anal or dorsal fins can be a clue to hybrid origin in some populations.
• Identification from parent species by eye alone is notoriously unreliable; genetic testing is the only certain method.

Top lures

• Small inline spinner (spinner , gold/silver/brown): Cast and retrieved in streams and stocked reservoirs, standard tactics for trout-type hybrids.
• Small spoon (spoon , gold/copper): Cast-and-retrieve or trolled in lakes where cutbow are stocked alongside cutthroat and rainbow trout.
• Nymph or small streamer fly (fly , brown/olive/black): Drifted or stripped through the same runs and pools cutthroat and rainbow trout hold in.

Top baits

• Nightcrawler: Threaded on a bait hook and fished under a bobber or on bottom, the standard trout bait rig.
• PowerBait dough bait: Molded onto a treble hook and floated off bottom, the same rig used for stocked rainbow trout.

Line & tackle

• Rod power: Ultralight 5 to 6 foot spinning combo, Idaho's standard trout outfit; a medium power rod for fish over 20 inches or for trolling

Stocked behavior

Cutbow occur both as a natural hybrid where rainbow and cutthroat trout ranges overlap and as a sport fish some states stock directly. In other waters, cutbow arise on their own after decades of rainbow trout stocking into cutthroat water, and wild populations are a conservation concern where they displace native cutthroat through hybridization.

Common mistakes

• Calling any faintly jaw-slashed trout a pure cutthroat; a cutbow shows the same reddish slash, just weaker.
• Missing the fin clue; in some populations a white leading edge on the anal or dorsal fin points to rainbow hybridization.
• Assuming a hybrid is sterile; cutbow are fertile, and that hybridization has imperiled or wiped out many pure cutthroat populations.

Best time to fish Cutbow

Computed from every real stocking date on record, not a general seasonal guess.

Where it's stocked

Utah

• Fish Lake (7)
• Otter Creek Reservoir (2)
• Upper Enterprise Reservoir (2)
• Big Sand Wash Reservoir (1)
• Steinaker Reservoir (1)

Sources

• identification (accessed 2026-09-19)
• identification (accessed 2026-09-19)
• identification (accessed 2026-09-19)
• stocked_behaviour (accessed 2026-09-19)
• stocked_behaviour (accessed 2026-09-19)
• top_lures (accessed 2026-09-19)
• top_baits (accessed 2026-09-19)
• common_mistakes (accessed 2026-09-19)
• common_mistakes (accessed 2026-09-19)
• line_and_tackle (accessed 2026-09-19)