sea run cuttbows?

[patches]

well my thery is this..
That in my creek we have only a small persentage of the steelhead left. and we have a strong sea run cutthroat run. where the gaps in the steelhead run are. what stops a 6-7 lb female cutthroat from spawning with a 5lb male steelhead? and what stops a 6 lb steelhead doe ,from hooking up with a 6 lb sea run cutthroat male? well normaly it would be a large steelhead fending of his/her mate. but what about when there is no mate? the runs of steelhead have never been this low sence the evolved into searun rainbows 10000's of years ago.now with a the runs as low as they are fish may have to cross bread just to continue.I have some rainbows in my creek I think are just that. sea run cuttbows. they started showing up a 9 years ago, some get to 5 lbs.some have the faint hint of a slash showing there family ansestry of the sea run cutthroat , but are definitly a rainbow. these fish average 1-2 lbs and fight very hard. they jump repetidly untill they come free , or you land them.we have cought these fish all the way up to the spawning grounds of the steelhead, cutthroat and coho.and all they way down to the estuary and even a few in the chuck!.....full salt water. my question would be do they go to sea? shure a few have , they may have died. they may go farther out than the sea run cutthroat do, more like the steelhead. so how far do the go from the river? i have also cought a 3 lb male spwning with a steelhead in april before 2 times ,2 diffeant years . what would there babys do? what a cool fish . i talk with mt friends that work as bioes in the lower main land office of moe. i am trying to get them some more D.N.A samples of these fish. i have a few already . it would be intereasting to document all of this because it truely is evolution at its finest.my two fish, breading to make a new spieces ........the sea run cuttbow!

.............patches-D

[flyfishforfun]

Rainbows and cuttys diverged from a common ancestor about 2 million years ago. The coastal cutty evolved about 1 million years ago. But, the local populations are recent- being present only since the last glacial period, less than 15,000 years ago.

A U.S Report found evidence of hybridization in 30% of 97 coastal cutty populations.

On a Vancouver Island study, 29 of 30 streams had evidence of hybridization, with an average of 20% of fish showing cross evidence.

Hybridization is often associated with disturbances caused by humans- dams, river modifications, reduction of stocks, overstocking etc. but it also occurs naturally at times.

All facts from:
the Freshwater Fishes of B.C.
McPhail

Coastal cutties have been in existance for a million years, and its going to take humans a few hundred years to reduce their numbers possibly to a point of no return. Tragic.

That sounds like a cool little experiment that you have in your back yard! Good work sending samples to the MoE- not much is known about these guys at this point, so any more info is always good. Let us know any results you get!

[SalaR]

The Nitinat River and other rivers in that region have some of the nicest Cut/Bows I have seen. This past August my fishing partner landed a Cut/Bow in the 5 lb range...very bright and spectacular. I landed One on the Upper Stamp last December(2007) in about the same size range...although I suspect it is a hybridization from Great Central Lake and not Sea Run.