Cutthroat trout facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Cutthroat trout

Coastal cutthroat trout, Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii, the type subspecies
Conservation status
Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Salmoniformes
Family:	Salmonidae
Genus:	Oncorhynchus
Species:	O. clarkii
Binomial name
*Oncorhynchus clarkii* (Richardson, 1836)
Subspecies
Subspecies Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii O. c. alvordensis† O. c. behnkei O. c. bouvierii O. c. henshawi (threatened) O. c. humboldtensis O. c. lewisi O. c. macdonaldi† O. c. pleuriticus O. c. seleniris (threatened) O. c. stomias (threatened) O. c. utah O. c. virginalis

Range map of Cutthroat trout (Onchorynchus clarkii)
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Synonyms
Other scientific names Salmo clarkii (Richardson, 1836) Fario clarkii (Richardson, 1836) Parasalmo clarkii (Richardson, 1836) Salmo clarkii clarkii (Richardson, 1836) Salmo clarki (Richardson, 1836) Salmo clarki clarki (Richardson, 1836) Fario stellatus (Girard, 1856) Salmo stellatus (Girard, 1856) Salar lewisi (Girard, 1856) Salmo lewisi (Girard, 1856) Salmo clarki lewisi (Girard, 1856) Salmo clarkii lewisi (Girard, 1856) Salmo brevicauda (Suckley, 1861) Salmo pleuriticus (Cope, 1872) Salmo purpuratus bouvieri (Jordan & Gilbert, 1883) Salmo clarkii alpestris (Dymond, 1931) Salmo mykiss (non Walbaum, 1792) Salmo purpuratus (non Pallas, 1814)

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The cutthroat trout is a famous group of fish that belongs to the salmon family. These fish are native to the cold, clean waters of western North America. They swim in cold streams flowing into the Pacific Ocean, through the high Rocky Mountains, and across the great deserts of the Great Basin. Scientists put this fish in the genus Oncorhynchus. This means it belongs to the Pacific trout family, just like the famous rainbow trout. It is also a very popular gamefish for anglers who love fly fishing.

People call this fish the "cutthroat" because of bright red lines under its throat. These red marks look like little slashes right under its lower jaw. The scientific name of the fish is clarkii. It was named after the famous explorer William Clark, who led an adventure called the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Today, scientists group cutthroat trout into four main species: the Coastal, the Westslope, the Lahontan, and the Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout.

These amazing fish love to swim in clean, cold, well-oxygenated rivers. They prefer gravel stream bottoms and deep mountain lakes. Cutthroat trout spawn during the springtime. Sometimes they naturally mate with rainbow trout to produce a hybrid fish called a cutbow. Some types can even swim into the ocean and come back to rivers. Today, cutthroat trout face challenges like habitat loss and new fish invaders. Even so, many people work hard to protect them in fish hatcheries and clean mountain rivers.

All About the Cutthroat Trout

The bright red throat markings give this trout its famous name.

Cutthroat trout are famous for their amazing colors and patterns. Different kinds of cutthroat look completely unique depending on where they live.

Colors and Jaw Marks

A cutthroat trout can have back colors ranging from golden yellow to silvery gray or dark olive green. Most cutthroat trout have small black spots all over their bodies. What makes them truly special is the bright flash of color under their chin. Along the lower folds of their gill covers and jaws, they have bright red, pink, or orange lines. Outdoor writer Charles Hallock gave them their popular name in an 1884 article for The American Angler. Some Columbia River redband trout and coastal rainbow trout have pink marks too, but cutthroat trout are famous for them.

Inside their mouths, cutthroat trout have tiny teeth on the base of their tongues called basibranchial teeth. They also have a upper jawbone called a maxilla that extends past the back edge of their eye. These body clues help scientists tell cutthroat trout apart from their close cousins, the rainbow trout.

Size and Record Weights

Cutthroat trout come in many different sizes. Some full-grown trout living in tiny mountain streams only grow to 6 inches (15 cm) long. These small stream dwellers may weigh only 0.4 to 3.2 ounces (11 to 91 g). However, cutthroat trout living in large lakes can grow much bigger because they find more food. In good lake habitats, cutthroat trout can reach weights of 12 to 17 lb (5.4 to 7.7 kg).

The biggest type of all is the Lahontan cutthroat trout. These giant trout swim in big desert lakes. In healthy waters, they can grow up to 22 in (56 cm) long. The largest cutthroat trout ever caught weighed an unbelievable 41 lb (19 kg) and measured 39 in (99 cm) long! It was caught in Pyramid Lake in Nevada in December 1925.

Life Cycle and Baby Fish

Clean mountain streams with gravel bottoms are perfect places for cutthroat trout to spawn.

Cutthroat trout have an exciting life journey that begins in cold running water. They need very clean water with plenty of oxygen to survive and grow.

Spawning in the Spring

When springtime arrives, cutthroat trout get ready to lay their eggs. Spawning can begin as early as February in coastal rivers or as late as July in cold mountain peaks. The fish wait until the water temperature warms up to between 43 and 46 °F (6 and 8 °C).

The mother fish searches for clean river gravel in shallow streams. She uses her tail fin to dig a clean nest in the gravel called a redd. Depending on her size, a female cutthroat trout can lay between 200 and 4,400 eggs. A male trout then swims beside her to fertilize the eggs. When she is done laying her eggs, the female covers them gently with gravel to keep them safe from hungry predators.

From Tiny Eggs to Adult Fish

The eggs rest safely under the stones for about a month before they hatch. When the tiny babies hatch, they are called alevins or sac fry. These little fish have a yellow yolk sac attached to their bellies. They stay hidden under the gravel stones for two weeks while drinking up the rich food from their yolk sac.

Once they absorb their food sac, they wiggle out into the open water as little fry. The baby fry immediately start hunting for tiny swimming creatures called zooplankton. Over the next three to five years, the young trout grow bigger and stronger. Some stay in their home streams forever, while others journey down into deep lakes or even out to sea.

The Cutbow Mystery

Cutthroat trout are very closely related to rainbow trout. In nature, cutthroat trout and rainbow trout can mate together. Their babies are called cutbows! A cutbow is a healthy hybrid fish that looks like a mix of both parents. Cutbows usually have the shiny rainbow colors of a rainbow trout, but they keep the bright red throat slash of a cutthroat trout. Because cutbows look like both parents, scientists and anglers sometimes have a hard time identifying which fish they just caught! Cutthroat trout can also mate with the rare Gila trout and Apache trout in places where their home rivers meet.

Where Cutthroat Trout Live

Cutthroat trout are native across western North America.

Cutthroat trout have lived in North America for millions of years. They have the second-largest historic native home range of any trout on the continent, right behind the lake trout.

Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans

Cutthroat trout live all over the Pacific Northwest, from cold coastal streams in Alaska down through British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon into northern California. They live across the towering Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. You can find them in the dry Great Basin and through the Rocky Mountains into Alberta, Canada.

Some coastal cutthroat trout are semi-anadromous. This means they swim out into the salty Pacific Ocean for a few months during the summer to eat delicious ocean food. When autumn arrives, they swim back into fresh rivers to spend the winter and lay their eggs. Other cutthroat trout spend their entire lives in one cold mountain stream or cool lake.

Crossing the Great Mountains

Millions of years ago, great ice sheets and massive shifts in the earth shaped the land. During warm and cold periods between ice ages, giant rivers changed their paths. Long ago, ancient cutthroat trout crossed over the high Continental Divide!

Scientists believe that between 3 and 5 million years ago, fish swam from the Snake River over a mountain crossing called Two Ocean Pass. They entered the Yellowstone River and spread into the Missouri River, Arkansas River, and Platte River valleys. These eastern rivers eventually drain into the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean! Fish also crossed high passes like Marias Pass at Summit Lake to expand their territory. Because different groups were separated by high mountains for thousands of years, they slowly evolved into unique local families.

What Cutthroat Trout Eat

Cutthroat trout are skilled hunters that eat many different kinds of food. They are opportunistic feeders, meaning they happily eat whatever tasty treat drifts past them in the water.

Insects on the Water

Stream-living cutthroat trout love to eat insects. Under the water, they hunt the swimming larva and pupa forms of water bugs. Their favorites include:

Caddisflies that build tiny pebble homes
Flat-bodied stoneflies clinging to rocks
Delicate mayflies fluttering through the current
Little water dipterans and midges

When summer breezes blow across the water, land bugs fall into the river. Cutthroat trout quickly rise to the surface to snatch floating ants, crunchy beetles, jumping grasshoppers, and chirping crickets.

Big Meals for Big Fish

As cutthroat trout grow larger, they begin hunting bigger food. They eat fish eggs, freshwater crayfish, and other small fish. Cutthroat trout that travel into the ocean eat tiny ocean swimmers like shrimp, squid, and small krill. They also hunt small fish including sculpins, sand lance, and baby salmon fry.

In mountain lakes, cutthroat trout must be careful, because other big predators hunt them too! In some northern waters, cutthroat trout become food for the giant bull trout, a fierce fish-eating cousin that loves to catch smaller trout.

Meet the Four Main Species

A chart showing how different cutthroat trout developed over time.

Scientists originally thought all cutthroat trout were one single species called Oncorhynchus clarkii. However, modern genetic and body shape studies showed that cutthroat trout belong to four distinct species. Together, these species include at least 25 different family lineages!

The Coastal Cutthroat Trout

The Coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) lives along the foggy Pacific coast from Alaska down into California. It is famous for its ability to swim out into the salty ocean to hunt. It is the only cutthroat trout that lived alongside coastal rainbow trout for millions of years. A special group called the Lake Crescent cutthroat trout lives only in deep Lake Crescent in Washington State.

The Westslope Cutthroat Trout

The Westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus lewisi) lives in mountain rivers across Montana, Idaho, Washington, and parts of Canada. Explorer Meriwether Lewis first saw this fish near the Great Falls of the Missouri River in 1805. Different river valleys have their own special kinds of Westslope trout, including the Coeur d'Alene, St. Joe, and Salmon River cutthroats.

The Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

The Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus henshawi) is native to the dry Great Basin of Nevada, eastern California, and Oregon. Ten million years ago, a massive inland sea covered this region. When the giant ancient lakes dried up, these tough fish learned to live in streams and lakes with high minerals and salt.

This group includes several interesting fish:

The Paiute cutthroat trout, which lives high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It has very few spots!
The Humboldt cutthroat trout, which swims in the long Humboldt River.
The Alvord cutthroat trout, which once lived in Alvord Lake in Oregon, but is now sadly extinct.

The Rocky Mountain Cutthroat Trout

The Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus virginalis) lives throughout the rugged Rocky Mountains and the Southwest. This large family group includes many famous trout:

The Rio Grande cutthroat trout is the southernmost cutthroat. Spanish explorer Francisco de Coronado saw them in the Pecos River in 1541!
The Yellowstone cutthroat trout lives in famous places like Yellowstone Lake.
The Bonneville cutthroat trout evolved in the massive prehistoric Lake Bonneville, an ancient giant lake that covered Utah during the ice age.
The Colorado River cutthroat trout swims in cold mountain tributaries of the Colorado River and Gunnison River.
The Greenback cutthroat trout lives in Colorado streams. Scientists worked hard to rescue this rare fish after finding a pure population living in tiny Bear Creek.
The Yellowfin cutthroat trout was a bright golden fish from Colorado's Twin Lakes that grew to over ten pounds, but became extinct after non-native trout took over its home.

History and Discovery

A beautiful westslope cutthroat trout swimming in a Montana river.

Cutthroat trout have a long and interesting history with the people who explored North America.

The First Encounters

Native Americans fished for cutthroat trout for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. The first European explorer to write about them was Francisco de Coronado in 1541. While searching New Mexico near Santa Fe, New Mexico, his men spotted beautiful trout in the Pecos River.

Centuries later, in 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed the continent. William Clark carefully drew and described the spotted fish his crew caught in the Missouri River. Later, in 1836, naturalist John Richardson studied a cutthroat trout from the lower Columbia River near a native Multnomah village. He officially named the fish Salmo clarkii in honor of William Clark.

Changing the Scientific Name

For over a hundred years, scientists grouped cutthroat trout with Atlantic fish like the brown trout and Atlantic salmon in the group named Salmo. But in 1989, scientists used advanced DNA testing and body measurements to study their evolutionary family tree. They discovered that cutthroat trout and rainbow trout are actually closer cousins to Pacific salmon! Scientists moved all cutthroat trout into the Pacific group called Oncorhynchus.

Protecting Cutthroat Trout

Workers releasing cutthroat trout into Pyramid Lake to rebuild fish numbers.

Cutthroat trout are tough survivors, but human changes to their environment have put several types in danger.

Why Cutthroat Trout Face Trouble

In the past, cutthroat trout populations suffered from overfishing and logging that harmed riverbanks. When riverbanks lose their green trees and plants, loose dirt washes into the water. This dirty water harms fish nests. Building towns, mining minerals, and farm animals grazing too close to riverbanks also damage trout homes.

Another big danger comes from new fish brought in by humans. Non-native brook trout, brown trout, and lake whitefish eat baby cutthroat trout and take over the best hiding spots. When rainbow trout are introduced to cutthroat waters, the two kinds mate. Over time, pure cutthroat trout disappear because they turn into hybrid cutbows. In addition, cutthroat trout are very vulnerable to a tiny parasite that causes whirling disease.

The Mystery of Yellowstone Lake

In Yellowstone National Park, cutthroat trout faced a major crisis. During the 1960s, too many people kept fish from Yellowstone Lake. Park leaders quickly created catch and release fishing rules so anglers would put caught fish back alive. The trout began to bounce back!

However, in 1994, park rangers discovered an unwelcome visitor in the lake: non-native lake trout. Lake trout are giant predators that swim in deep water and gobble up baby cutthroat trout. By the year 2000, Yellowstone cutthroat numbers had dropped by 90 percent! Biologists launched an aggressive removal program, removing more than a million lake trout from the lake to give cutthroat trout a fighting chance to recover.

Fish Hatcheries to the Rescue

To help wild cutthroat trout, conservation teams use hatcheries. These are special fish nurseries where scientists carefully fertilize eggs, hatch tiny fry, and raise healthy young fish. When the fish are strong enough, workers release them into mountain streams and lakes.

Special hatcheries help save rare cutthroat trout:

The Lahontan National Fish Hatchery raises 400,000 young trout each year for desert lakes like Walker Lake and Fallen Leaf Lake.
The Jackson National Fish Hatchery in Wyoming raises fine-spotted cutthroat trout.
The Leadville National Fish Hatchery in Colorado helps restore greenback cutthroat trout.
The Bozeman Fish Technology Center in Montana works to protect rare Westslope cutthroat trout.

Angling and Fishing Fun

Anglers fish from ladders in shallow desert lake waters to cast to giant Lahontan cutthroat.

Catching a cutthroat trout is an exciting outdoor adventure! Anglers travel from all over the world to cast for these feisty fish.

Fishing with Flies

Because cutthroat trout love to eat insects, they are very popular with fly anglers. Fly anglers use lightweight fishing rods and artificial "flies" made from feathers, yarn, and animal fur. These colorful lures float on top of the water to look like grasshoppers or mayflies. In fast rivers and mountain streams, cutthroat trout dash up from the river bottom and splash out of the water to grab the floating fake bug!

Anglers also love fishing for coastal cutthroat trout in the cold, saltwater inlets of Puget Sound in Washington. Anglers walk along rocky beaches or float in drift boats to catch sea-run trout cruising close to the shore. In Alaska, local families also catch cutthroat trout through managed subsistence fishing to feed their communities.

Fishing from Ladders at Pyramid Lake

One of the most unique fishing adventures in the world happens at Pyramid Lake in Nevada. This desert lake is managed by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. It is the home of the world's biggest cutthroat trout.

The shoreline of the lake is very shallow for a long distance before the bottom drops off into deep blue water. Big trout cruise right along this underwater drop-off. To reach the deep water, anglers carry stepladders out into the cold lake! They set up their ladders in 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 m) of water, climb up to stand above the chilly waves, and cast their fishing lines. Anglers standing on ladders routinely catch giant cutthroat trout weighing more than 10 lb (4.5 kg)!