Cutthroat trout ID Help

[trikebent]

Newbie question. I caught what I think was a cutthroat trout or a hybrid of some kind. The fish was caught in the Hoover Wilderness, at the foot of Dorthy pass, West Walker river, 8 miles up stream from Leavitt Meadows. The fish had a pale belly, with red around the belly fins, but no red up near the gills. Sorry, no picture guys. The sides were spotted, brown to golden, no parr marks, and did not look like a rainbow. The fish took a small Elkhair caddis as dark was falling & mosquitoes threated to carry me off. I'll post a descripion of the entire trip later.

[Digger]

there are Cutthroat in that area, but with that description, it's more likely a wild brown or brook.

[Jeff F.]

Which lake did you get the fish in??? One of the "Old Lady" Lakes (Helen, Stella, Cora, Dorothy, etc.)???

I doubt there are cutts in any of those lakes. Bows and brookies for the most part. Further back, Tower and Grizzly Lk have goldens, but it sounds to me like you didn't go that far.

And one more ? for ya......you said it's only 8 miles to where you were? I've been up that West Walker trail many times, and 8 miles would put you at maybe Fremont Lk, Long Lks, Chain of Lakes, or maybe even Cinko Lk. But the Old Lady lakes are much further back.....like 15 miles or so from the Leavitt trailhead. Or did you come in via Leavitt Lake???

[sacreno]

trikebent,
This may help you a bit. I'm sure there are better sites but this should give you an idea about the species you caught.

http://stevenojai.tripod.com/fishdist.htm

Steve

[trikebent]

Jeff,
I was on the West Walker river between Upper and Lower Piute Meadow, about 6 miles up from Roosevelt /Lane Lake, near were Cascade creek come in to the Walker. Elevation was about 8000 ft. We hadn't yet climbed up to Dorthy. (we did the next day)
I've only caught Rainbows up to this point. The descriptions I've heard of Brown & Brooke trout didn't include any red on the belly, but like I said, I'm new to fly fishing.