Cutthroat Id

Look like sea-runs to me.

Bryce Levin said:

Look like sea-runs to me.

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Me too

looks like a searun or resident cutt to me. they will follow Salmon up and eat eggs and generally be awesome in rivers during September and October. westslopes often have way more red and gold. A lot of 6 inch fish are juvenile salmon in our west draining rivers, particularly close to salt or in an estuary. If it has parr marks best to leave alone...

wadin' boot said:

looks like a searun or resident cutt to me. they will follow Salmon up and eat eggs and generally be awesome in rivers during September and October. westslopes often have way more red and gold. A lot of 6 inch fish are juvenile salmon in our west draining rivers, particularly close to salt or in an estuary. If it has parr marks best to leave alone...

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Definitely Coastal Cutthroats, and nice ones. Nice pics. They could be searuns, although they look pretty chunky. Some of the searuns cutts in that size range that I encounter in my local waters are a bit leaner looking, and hard-bodied. But I see some fatties, too. Those could be searuns that have been eating well!

Sea-run cutthroat normally spawn in late winter/spring (In Washington, March is commonly the peak spawning month). In many streams with minimum summer flows of 70 cfs or more however, cutthroat will begin to return as early as mid-July and in increasing numbers through the late summer and fall. A distant analogy could be made to the summer-run steelhead which may enter freshwater months before spawning. Unlike the steelhead, however, the sea-run cutthroat will continue to feed actively during its sojourn into fresh water until near its spawning time in the spring.

Thanks for for sharing your expertise. That info is going to be gold in the coming months, and I very much appreciate it.