Blue Rainbow

I caught this rainbow in Wallins Creek, a trib to the Cumberland River in Harlan KY. The Cumberland was high and very fast flowing due to recent rain, so I moved upstream in a smaller trib and netted several rainbows (not what I was hoping for) but this one had such a bright blue that I had to keep it. I know the color will probably fade so I tried to photo it before that happened....again, I need a photo tank. I couldn't get him to come out from under the rocks last night. But, I just couldn't believe how radiant blue this rainbow was/is. Here's a few photos. I wish I could have captured the bright blue first dorsal and those blue cheeks.

Speaking from my own somewhat inexperienced outlook... don't think that's a rainbow. At least none of the rainbows I've caught have white bands on their dorsal fins, and I've caught plenty.

Looks more like the headwater/orangethroat variants I found off of crooked creek, one of them is exhibiting that white horizontal band down the center of the body (also a somewhat un-rainbow trait). The ones I originally thought were rainbows...

Edited by JohnO, 02 December 2008 - 03:04 PM.

I take it back - actually, two of my rainbows are exhibiting a bit of a white line on the dorsal. Still, that white line down the body looks funny.