Landed so many like this, this weekend, I have cramps in my arm!
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps1bc1d54f.jpg
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Landed so many like this, this weekend, I have cramps in my arm!
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps1bc1d54f.jpg
That's a nice problem to have. Congratulations, looks like a lot of fun. For my edification, is that a steelhead, an Atlantic salmon or something else. I don't think we have those in Georgia and know we didn't in Mississippi.
Great Lakes run rainbow, what the locals call a "steelhead", I would guess (grin). A real dandy one too.
Is that NY fishing?
I may have to travel east some time.
Whatfly,
Not to start a conflict but they are in fact Steelhead. Taken from our local waters on the west coast. I had a great time catching steelies up in Thunder Bay one year. Fantastic fishing. You know, we also gave the Great Lakes some of our local salmon, two or three different species. No one doesn't say they are salmon just because they didn't taste salt, so why steelies? Anyway, they are great fishing over there, in fact, if you really want to catch a number of steelhead go to the Great Lakes. There is a whole lot more catching than just casting which is what we mostly do on the west coast, cast and cast and cast and cast...... :)
All in fun.
Larry ---sagefisher---
LarryQuote:
Originally Posted by sagefisher
All rainbows East of the Rockies were transplants... There is no genetic difference between rainbows and steelhead. Rainbows require moving water to spawn so they move into rivers if available to spawn. There are lake-run rainbows all across the country and around the World.
Steelhead by original definition are rainbows that have tasted salt... Moving steelhead to where they cannot taste salt simply brings them back to the original definition of rainbows...
We are undecided whether they should be called rainheads or steelbows, but almost no one argues for steelhead! ;) Most just call them lake-run rainbows...
And some salmon do have diferent names for land-locked versions, ie kokanee...
art
Hap,
Like I said, All in fun.
But when that steelhead grabs your fly and takes off up river, doesn't matter if it tasted salt or not, to me, it is a steelhead and I enjoyed catching them in the rivers of Ontario.
Larry ---sagefisher---
Yes this is a Great Lake tributary Steelhead caught in western NY 4/12/14. We had a really tough winter here for fishing with record low temps and ice. Now it looks like the run is going to come and go all in a very short period. At that same pool, before I landed that hen, I hooked a wild buck that literally jumped in my face! Yes, they do run several pools up and down stream too.
Nice steelhead Wizard.
New York also gets a run of what we called lake run rainbows in addition to the steelhead like in the picture. The rainbows are more colored up and less silver, their body shape is more blocky and less sleek, and their fight is more bulldogging and less jumps and runs. When you catch a lake run rainbow and place it next to the Great lakes steelhead you can easily see the difference. I really don't have an argument on the definition of "steelhead", but I hope you westcoasters don't mind us borrowing your word. I hope one day to travel out west and catch a true native!!
thanks for posting wizard, bet that was fun chasing them up and down that little creek!
I hope you do, too... That will be enough to show you the error of your ways! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by tigfly
Yea, out here they call steelies a fish of a thousand casts but I think it is actually two thousand casts.
:)
Larry ---sagefisher---
I almost feel dirty looking back at some of the days I have had fishing for them... Remote rivers with difficult access, lots of fish, and little hesitation to strike. ;)
Tigfly, they are all lake run rainbows. Whether they run upstream from the Finger Lakes, or the Great Lakes, they are still lake run. There are no true Steelhead in NY as in ocean living fish. The stock for the Great lakes fish were from western steelhead, while the Finger Lake strain are domestic rainbow. Both are technically Lake runs. As for color, that comes from time spent in the stream and closeness to the actual spawn. Here are two more colorful fish from same stream much earlier in winter Dec/Jan. Bright silvery fish are usually fresh as in just having come into the stream within a matter of days.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...psee33d3be.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...psa9f88b0b.jpg
Since it seems to create a degree of controversy, perhaps it's unfortunate that the term steelhead was ever coined. In fact, the term's etymology is uncertain, it probably originated with commercial fishermen back in the day when the steelhead was still a commercial target. The steelhead has stronger, heavier bones, including its skull, than any of the other Pacific salmons and it was necessary to give it two or three whacks with the club as opposed to the one blow necessary to subdue other salmons.
As someone pointed out above, rainbow trout and steelhead are indistinguishable, even to the genetic level; resident rainbow trout can, and do, produce migratory offspring and migratory rainbows (steelhead) can, and do, produce resident offspring. Most rainbows exhibit some form of migratory behavior where it is possible; be it moving from a small stream down to a larger one, from a stream to a lake or, where accessible, to the ocean in order to feed and grow before returning to their natal streams to spawn.
As Roderick L. Haig-Brown wrote: "The rainbow is an individualist, a pioneer searching always wider scope; mere rivers confine him and he goes with the salmon into the breadth of the sea, to grow himself to the silvered nobility of the steelhead".
And just to throw a little more confusion to the game, in MN they introduced the Kamloops strain of rainbow. They took off and grew fast and did well in the lake but boy could you tell the difference between a looper and what we and most call the lake run rainbow STEELHEAD. It was a joke since I smoked a lot of fish years ago (yes, steelhead, lake trout, and salmon) that the loopers were already smoked when you caught them. They were the darkest rainbows I've ever seen, even being fresh from Lake Superior. All I know is back 30 years ago my friends and I haunted the Lake Superior North Shore streams and kept track of fish. Counts over a hundred in a good year's run were not unusual amongst us, and it was a really bad year if you didn't catch at least 50 fish over 3#s. Then, we'd make a trip to MI in the fall many years and tangle with 10-15# steelhead and coho salmon and 10-30# Chinook salmon. Yep, those were some great years but I'll not see them again because many of the best spots we fished are not privately controlled or accessed only by using ropes and being part billy goat.