Quote Originally Posted by Paul Arnold View Post
...Yet I can't help pondering the question of whether a steelhead is a steelhead from time of hatch onward. ...~Paul
... starting with the fact that there are no resident rainbows in this system. If the trouts that spawned this little guy are steelhead, that makes him a steelhead. For me, it is that simple.

This little trout is headed to the Pacific. All I can do is wish him bon voyage and a safe return. Same for all the other little steelhead and chinook salmon in the system right now.

On the point of no resident rainbows in the system, consider the following, in addition to the position of the Idaho Fish and Game folks, who do know what they are talking about.

First, the Lochsa supports a very healthy population of West Slope cutthroat and bull trout, along with whitefish and the seasonal adult steelhead. West Slope cutts, as a species, don't normally get larger than about 18". This one went 19 and 1/2 inches -



The bull trout in the system also get quite large. Well over 20".

If there were a resident population of rainbows, they would easily grow larger than the West Slopes, and it would be routine to catch rainbows in the mid to upper teens inches and relatively common to catch them in excess of 20".

Fishing the Lochsa and several of it's tributaries a total of about 170 days over the past four years, I have caught ZERO rainbow trout over about 10". The only larger, mid teen inches rainbow looking fishies were clearly cutthroat / steelhead hybrids, which do seem to represent a small resident population of "cuttsteels."

The only time there are any pure rainbow looking fish in the system ( other than full grown adult steelhead ) is early to mid summer, while the current steelhead hatch is coming down from the tributaries and before they clear the area on their way to the ocean. From March through June and then September through November, it is virtually a "cutthroat only" fishery, at least for trout. And that would be true for December through February, also, except the river is typically almost completely frozen over and buried under up to several feet of snow for most of that time.

For example - in early February this year.



( Note that there is a resident population of river otters. )

John