# Is this a Yellowstone or Bonneville Cutt?



## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

So can you tell me the difference between and Bonneville Cutt and a Bear Lake Cutt?

Here are a few pics of different looking Cutts.

*Update - Is the 2nd pic a Bonneville or Yellowstone cutt?
A Strawberry Bear Lake Cutt. 









A Smith and Morehouse Cutt. Is this a Bonneville Cutt or Yellowstone Cutt?


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

*Re: Difference between Bear Lake and Bonneville Cutts?*

Its on page 49 in the fishing guidebook.


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

*Re: Difference between Bear Lake and Bonneville Cutts?*



Chaser said:


> Its on page 49 in the fishing guidebook.


Yeah, I know the proc very well chaser but it isn't very specific. I cannot tell if the 2nd pictured is a juvinille cutt of the bear lake varity (I see par marks) or if it is Bonneville cutt so the question remains un-answered. My twin and I are in competition for whose has nailed the most varity of species. I am winning by two species and I would love to add another to my bucket list.


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

*Re: Difference between Bear Lake and Bonneville Cutts?*

I have found that different strains of cutthroat can be difficult to distinguish from one another, especially when the fish are younger. Maybe these will help.
[attachment=3:1hh9fesp]Bear Lake.jpg[/attachment:1hh9fesp]
[attachment=2:1hh9fesp]Bonneville.jpg[/attachment:1hh9fesp]
[attachment=1:1hh9fesp]Colorado.jpg[/attachment:1hh9fesp]
[attachment=0:1hh9fesp]Yellowstone.jpg[/attachment:1hh9fesp]


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*Re: Is this a Bear Lake or Bonneville Cutt?*

The top pic is a Bear Lake Cutt.

The second pic is a Bonneville or Yellowstone;. It has too much color on the gill plates to be a Bear Lake Cutthroat.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

*Re: Is this a Bear Lake or Bonneville Cutt?*

Well, how much do you want to know?

First off, a Bear Lake cutthroat is still classified as a subtype of Bonneville cutthroat. So your Strawberry cutt is *both*. 
http://dwrcdc.nr.utah.gov/rsgis2/Search ... m=oncoclut

If you really want to dig into the subject, read through this paper.

http://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/cacs7.pdf

Bonneville cutts are broken down into 5 distinct subgroups. 1) Bear lake, 2) Bear river 3) main/central basin 4) Southern basin and 5) West desert. Analysis has shown that Bear lake cutts have markers that also show some relationship to Yellowstones as well. Not surprising due to geography. Nevertheless, the Bear lake fish are still classified as "Bonnevilles". Pg. 16 and 22 in the paper.

As for the second fish, it is either a Bonneville cutt or a cutt that has some hybrid traits between Bonnevilles and Yellowstones. (which used to be stocked some many years ago) I doubt that Bear lake strain fish were ever planted up there.


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## tye dye twins (Mar 8, 2011)

*Re: Is this a Bear Lake or Bonneville Cutt?*



Catherder said:


> As for the second fish, it is either a Bonneville cutt or a cutt that has some hybrid traits between Bonnevilles and Yellowstones. (which used to be stocked some many years ago) I doubt that Bear lake strain fish were ever planted up there.


Really? They planted hybrids up at Smith and Morehouse?

I have encountered a few bear lake strains at S&M, which were much like the 1st pic.

The 2nd cutt pic was very different than the other Cutts I have caught in my life. I posted it on BFT as well and nobody has touched it with a 10 foot pole (or rod).


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

There's such a huge range of colors among all the cutthroat that you'd really have to do some testing to know for sure, although @ S&M, I'm not sure why they'd ever stock BL cutts. More than likely a regular Bonnie or cross between Bonnie and Yellowstone, which may have been planted there in the past. (By that, I mean the planted Bonnies may have crossed with existing Yellowstones in the lake.)

Whether they're male or female will also play a big role in their appearance. The females tend to be shiny and silvery more so than the males, which will usually have much deeper colors all over.

Some Bonnies I've caught were practically purple and gold, as have been some Yellowstones.

The BL cutts I've caught typically have a broken spot pattern, despite the illustrated description above. They're not distinctly round and sometimes two or more spots can be connected, blurring them together. They also have white bellies that can have spots on them as well. The deep orange fins are usually a good giveaway, but sometimes that's not always the case either.

I'll have to post some pics on this thread later, showing the wide range of looks.

I guess my point is that, unless you know what they're stocking in the water, it can be really tough to tell them apart.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

*Re: Is this a Bear Lake or Bonneville Cutt?*



tye dye twins said:


> Really? They planted hybrids up at Smith and Morehouse?


No. They planted both bonneville and yellowstone cutts, which easily hybridize with each other resulting in hybrids in the lake.

the only way to really know which strain of cutthroat you are catching is to look at the lake you caught it from, then look at the stocking records to see which type of cutthroat is being stocked in said lake. You can sometimes guess just by knowing which drainage you are in (bonneville, colorado river), but not always.

If you really want to get technical, and confused: Bear Lake strain bonnevilles could arguably be classified as a Snake River cutthroat -- and very well could be more closely related to Snake Rivers cutts than Bonneville cutts:



American Fisheries Society; Idaho Chapter said:


> Mitochondrial DNA was obtained from cutthroat trout collected from 48 sites in Yellowstone Lake, Bear Lake, and streams in the Snake, Beaver-Camas and Bear watersheds. Of 15 haplotypes observed throughout the range of the sub-species, one haplotype was present in 32 of the 48 sites and nine of the 15 haplotypes were observed at frequencies of 5% or greater. The mitochondrial DNA results showed a high degree of diversity in Yellowstone cutthroat trout across the upper Snake basin. The geographic discontinuities in the distribution of haplotypes indicated that many of the drainages have been isolated from one another for a long period of time. The mtDNA results are consistent with the geologic history. The Bonneville cutthroat clade diverged from the Yellowstone clade by about 1.5% to 1.8%, but *the Bear Lake and Bear River fish clustered in the Yellowstone clade. Geologic history shows that the Bear River was a tributary to the Snake River until about 500,000 years ago, at which time its course changed to flow into the Bonneville basin.* Furthermore, haplotypes from both clades were found in the Portneuf River, consistent with exchange between the Bonneville and Portneuf drainages as a result of the Bonneville flood about 14,000 years ago.


http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOC ... 047783.pdf

(I could show you a stream in southern utah with pure strain bonneville cutthroat, that drains into the colorado river drainage. Again, geological events changed the course of the stream, thus isolating this population)

Trying to identify subspecies of cutthroat by simply looking at them can be a very difficult task.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

tye dye twins said:


> Really? They planted hybrids up at Smith and Morehouse?


Not stocked. All cutt strains easily interbreed with each other ,with fertile offspring, and the cutt you caught could have been produced via natural reproduction from ancestors that "hybridized" generations ago. Conversely, it could also be a pure Bonneville.

RE


tye dye twins said:


> I have encountered a few bear lake strains at S&M, which were much like the 1st pic.
> 
> The 2nd cutt pic was very different than the other Cutts I have caught in my life. I posted it on BFT as well and nobody has touched it with a 10 foot pole (or rod).





LOAH said:


> I guess my point is that, unless you know what they're stocking in the water, it can be really tough to tell them apart.


Any fish living in a clear river environment is going to look much more colorful than a fish pulled out of a big lake. In a river or small alpine lake, a (main) Bonneville, a Bear lake strain, and even a Yellowstone will look fairly similar. No offense, but LOAH is right. You are not going to tell at a glance that a given fish is a "Bear lake" cutt just by a quick glance. But neither can I or frankly anyone else on here. If you open up the fish and count the pyloric cecae, then maybe. I am fairly sure that they haven't planted bear lake cutts in a smallish lake like S&M. They use those for specific management needs and the DWR doesn't want to have much, if any hybridization in the strains they manage.

The Colorado River Cutt *can* be differentiated at a glace because of their red bellies. Bonnevilles and Yellowstones do not have this.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

RE"If you really want to get technical, and confused: Bear Lake strain bonnevilles could arguably be classified as a Snake River cutthroat -- and very well could be more closely related to Snake Rivers cutts than Bonneville cutts:

American Fisheries Society; Idaho Chapter wrote:Mitochondrial DNA was obtained from cutthroat trout collected from 48 sites in Yellowstone Lake, Bear Lake, and streams in the Snake, Beaver-Camas and Bear watersheds. Of 15 haplotypes observed throughout the range of the sub-species, one haplotype was present in 32 of the 48 sites and nine of the 15 haplotypes were observed at frequencies of 5% or greater. The mitochondrial DNA results showed a high degree of diversity in Yellowstone cutthroat trout across the upper Snake basin. The geographic discontinuities in the distribution of haplotypes indicated that many of the drainages have been isolated from one another for a long period of time. The mtDNA results are consistent with the geologic history. The Bonneville cutthroat clade diverged from the Yellowstone clade by about 1.5% to 1.8%, but the Bear Lake and Bear River fish clustered in the Yellowstone clade. Geologic history shows that the Bear River was a tributary to the Snake River until about 500,000 years ago, at which time its course changed to flow into the Bonneville basin. Furthermore, haplotypes from both clades were found in the Portneuf River, consistent with exchange between the Bonneville and Portneuf drainages as a result of the Bonneville flood about 14,000 years ago.




Do you think they will ever make up their minds?  It certainly gives the fisheries biologists something to argue about at their meetings.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

Catherder said:


> Do you think they will ever make up their minds?  It certainly gives the fisheries biologists something to argue about at their meetings.


Nope. I don't.

But, it sure makes things interesting when you start taking into account geological events that occurred 500,000 years ago!

Cutthroat are AMAZING!


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

The geologic makeup of where they're found, plus chemical balances in the water also affect the appearance of fish. Check out this article on deep red Bonnies from the Deep Creek Mtns.

http://www.redrockadventure.com/adventu ... throat.htm

I'd love to go and check some of those out in the springtime.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

The first one is clearly a Bear Lake Cutt.

The second one has some yellowstone in him, probably quite a bit, and the rest is a bonneville. The spots are concentrated towards the back, which tells me there is a lot of yellowstone in him. But, there are too many spots below the lateral line, IMO, to be a pure yellowstone. Yellowstones have also not been stocked in Utah in quite a while. The odds that he would be a pure yellowstone are remote. There are a few pure strains left in Utah, but they are hard to find.

I don't see any spots on his head or gill plate. That means he probably doesn't have much, if any, rainbow in him. 

I think Utah has more species of cutthroat than any other state in the union. They are beautiful fish in all their varieties.


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