Fly Fishing Cutbows | a Hybrid That’s the Best of Both Trout Worlds

Not quite a rainbow, not quite a cutthroat – but definitely fun to fish for.

A Rocky Mountain cutbow, caught on a dry fly. | Photo by Jasper taback

If you’ve had the chance to spend an extended amount of time fishing a single Rocky Mountain freestone river, you may have noticed an interesting pattern: trout tend to partition the river by species. Brown trout in the lower-elevation stretches with deep pools, rainbows in the riffly oxygenated sections, cutthroats up in cold, clear water, and brook trout in shaded tributary streams.

If you’ve got a section of river where you regularly find rainbows and one where you’ve hooked into cutties, take an hour and explore the water between them –  there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself a cutbow. 

Fly Fishing for Hybrid Trout

Cutbows are a result of crossbreeding between rainbow and cutthroat trout, species that occupy the same Rocky Mountain rivers and spawn in overlapping seasons.

How to Identify a Cutbow

They’re not hard to identify: if a fish has the distinctive pink stripe of a rainbow trout and any slash under its gills, that’s a cutbow. The slash can have some pretty serious color variation – ranging from bright orange to pink to deep red. 

Best of Both Parents

Cutbows inherit more than just markings from each parent. They also tend to inherit certain behavioral traits from each that make them a hell of a lot of fun to fish for.

Cutthroats are known for their aggressive feeding – cutbows have that. Rainbows have exceptionally long, spirited runs – cutbows get a little bit of that too. If you get a quick take and see a flash of color under the gills, but then feel the fight of a rainbow trout, guess what… 

This cutbow crushed a hopper. | Photo by Jasper Taback

Where to Find ‘Em

If you’re fishing a mid-elevation freestone river – anywhere from 5,000 to around 8,000 feet above sea level – you can expect to find a population of cutbows. They’ve had plenty of opportunity to hybridize naturally in these rivers, and stocking efforts have also picked up in recent years.

Look for them in the transition zones mentioned earlier, but don’t be surprised to find a few that have ranged down into rainbow territory or up into cutty territory. 

Consider It a Gift From the Fly Fishing Gods

I don’t know of too many trout anglers who dedicate river trips to catching cutbows. More often, one will be sprinkled into a day of mostly rainbows or mostly cutthroats. When it happens, take a moment to appreciate this pretty cool feat of nature. And take a picture – they’re particularly photogenic.