Cutthroat trout
Cutthroat trout in BC lakes
Two quite different fish under one name. The coastal cutthroat of the islands and the wet coast, and the westslope cutthroat of the Kootenays and the Elk, which is a mountain fish living a different life.
Telling it apart
The red or orange slash under the lower jaw, which is the name and the clue. Beyond that, heavy black spotting that concentrates toward the tail, and a body that is more olive and less silver than a rainbow. The slash can fade on a bright fish from clear water, so look at the spotting too: a rainbow's is finer and more evenly spread.
Where it is
Coastal cutthroat on Vancouver Island and the mainland coast, often in small tannic lakes that would be poor rainbow water. Westslope cutthroat in the southeast. The regional table below splits them, because a page that pooled them would be describing two fisheries as one.
The Province does not file this fish under one name. These are its own labels, with the lakes carrying each, and every one of them is counted on this page. A lake can carry more than one of these, so the rows add up to more than the 421 lakes on this page.
- Cutthroat Trout260
- Coastal Cutthroat Trout128
- Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout54
- Westslope Cutthroat Trout45
- Cutthroat/Rainbow cross15
- Cutthroat Trout (Anadromous)15
- Westslope Cutthroat1
| Region | Lakes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Vancouver Island | 169 | 40% |
| Lower Mainland | 86 | 20% |
| Kootenays | 69 | 16% |
| Skeena | 46 | 11% |
| Thompson-Nicola | 26 | 6% |
| Okanagan | 12 | 3% |
| Cariboo | 9 | 2% |
| Omineca | 2 | 0% |
| Peace | 2 | 0% |
How to fish for it
A coastal cutthroat in a small lake is an opportunist and the most willing fish on this list: a dragonfly nymph, a leech, a small attractor pattern near structure. They hold tight to cover and to shade. Westslope cutthroat in a mountain lake rise to a dry fly more freely than any other trout here, and the fishing is sight fishing to visible fish along a shoreline. Both are more active in cold water than a rainbow, which makes them the early and late season answer.
| Lake | Biggest on record | What the record says |
|---|---|---|
| Powell Lake | 10 lb | Powell River Outdoors says Powell Lake cutthroat can reach the 6 to 10 lb range. |
| Amor Lake | 7.7 lb | The owner's sheet reports: Cutthroat trout 20-40 cm (up to 7.7 lb) |
| Brewster Lake | 7.7 lb | The owner's sheet reports: Rainbow and cutthroat trout up to 7.7 lb |
| Brannen Lake | 6.6 lb | Cutthroat and rainbows of up to 6.6 lb, says the BC Adventure Brannen page. |
| Gray Lake | 6.6 lb | The owner's sheet reports: Cutthroat trout 6.6 lb (3 kg) |
| Stewart Lake | 6.6 lb | Cutthroat reaching 3 kg, about 6.6 lb, per gohiking.ca and BRMB Maps. |
| Gates Lake | 6.5 lb | Cutthroat and rainbows grow to 6.5 lb per a Pemberton Fish Finder ice report. |
| Comox Lake | 6 lb | Vancouver Island |
| Cowichan Lake | 6 lb | Vancouver Island |
| Cowichan Lake (Including Bear Lake) | 6 lb | Vancouver Island |
| Great Central Lake | 6 lb | Vancouver Island |
| Lakelse Lake | 6 lb | Skeena |
Of the lakes on this page, 5 are catch and release water. That is a signal rather than a rule: what you may keep is in the Province's Synopsis, and the licence page explains where to read it.
Lakes to start with
Each of these has a page with its depth, its fish, the rule text we hold for it and a seven day forecast, and each is here because of the record beside it rather than because of its reputation.
- Brannen Lake 6.6 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Comox Lake 6 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Cowichan Lake 6 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Great Central Lake 6 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Nitinat Lake 6 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Buttle Lake 5 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Cameron Lake 5 lb on record, Vancouver Island
- Cultus Lake 5 lb on record, Lower Mainland
What these numbers are, and are not
The lake counts on this page come from the Province's fish observation records, plus angling reports where we hold them. An observation record says a fish was seen in that water on some date, and those dates run from this year back to the middle of the last century. A lake can appear here and no longer hold the fish, and a lake can hold it and never have been surveyed. Every lake page prints the year behind its own list, which is the honest version of this page's count.
The weights are reported figures, from guidebooks, from the Province and from anglers, gathered as each lake was researched. They are not official records and we do not claim they are.
Open the map: 1,843 BC lakes, each with a seven day forecast
Where to go next
- Every species in the atlas, with the lake count behind each.
- The trout and char of BC lakes, which tells all of them apart in one read.
- The licence and the rules, before you keep anything.