greenback or cutbow?

i caught a beautiful 12 inch fish last night that i was almost positive was a colorado greenback cutthroat (click here for a cool article about this remarkable species brought back from the brink of extinction). what made it even cooler is that i caught it in town. it's mostly a high country fish, but they stock them in the yampa occasionally. they don't do terribly well in warmer water, which was why i was super happy to see it.

but, upon further review of pictures this morning, i think it might have been a cutbow. yep, you guessed it - greenback cutthroat and rainbow trout intermingle, get their groove on, and what results are hybrid cutbows. the slashed red throat is still there, but the coloration on the body is more like a rainbow.

either way, it still means that greenback cutthroat are surviving in the yampa. very cool.

in other news, christine and craigers are here all the way from chambana. damn glad to have 'em. they got in late last night, and we stayed up even later talking about the quality of hbo programming, the ridiculous proliferation of reality shows and craig's addiction to them, and really just life in general.

have a wonderful weekend.