Just What is a Steelhead?

[maodiver]

Didn't want to highjack another post (Just What is Fly fishing?)

On the aforementioned thread there is a picture of a NICE trout taken byCO Flyfisher from the Niagara River. It got me to wondering:

What makes a steelhead a steelhead, instead of a lake rainbow running upstream? Here in CA, I grew up believing that a Steelie was a fish which went to sea, through the surf, therefore gaining a "head of steel" to get there and back. Any other rainbow was a rainbow.

Do the Great Lakes rainbows go up the St. Lawrence (or other) streams to the sea? If not, what makes a Steelhead?

Is there a minimum size to the lake? If you catch the fish in said lake, is it considered a steelhead? If I catch a 'bow in Lake Tahoe, Lake Superior, or Lake ________ is it considered a steelhead?

A minimum size to the fish? In California, a rainbow of 16" or greater, in a stream which is open to sea access (anadromous stream) no matter how far (or how many joinings with other waters) from the ocean, is considered a Steelhead. Silly, I know, but there it is.

I saw that the other thread about what is FFing stayed civil, and have seen other discussions of the same topic devolve into angst. I am hoping for the same, because I want to know what other people think.

Thanks
Mike

[nighthawk]

Having grown up in a Great Lakes state I like to tell people that have never been to see one of them to go there, stand in the surf on the shore of one and tell me why these are called lakes. I believe were it not for the fact that these are immense bodies of fresh water they would indeed be called seas as they almost incomprehensible in size and scope as well as being fed by streams and rivers just like the world's seas. Steelies in the lakes run from the Great Lake body, up the tributaries and back every year to spawn. Correct me if I am wrong someone but I also believe that Steel Head are a non native species transplanted by man. I don't know if the Steelies run the Saint Lawrence Seaway but I believe that at one time Atlantic Salmon did run up to Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls. Could be wrong about that too.

Lake Tahoe is a large, beautiful lake but it is a drop in the bucket when compared to even the smallest Great Lake.

Largest lakes in the U.S.A.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...1202333AAFlmju

Great question. No reason it should get out of hand either.

[jeremy.badgett]

having grown up in North Idaho and fished there for steelhead that made the journey from those upper tributaries out to sea and back and now being in the north country of New York and fishing for the rainbows and "steelhead" here I also found the name thing odd. But I will say that the rainbows (steelhead) that come out of Lake Ontario have a different disposition and fight different than large rainbows elsewhere in the area that do not have access to the lake. also I don't think that any where in upstate New York you can find any rainbow that will match sizes with the fish coming out of the lakes. so I believe that an argument could be made that those lake run rainbows be called steelhead. I will admit I still struggle with them being called steelhead because they do not actually go to the ocean but after fishing for trout here I will honestly say they do deserve a distinction from there siblings that do not reside in the lakes. I don't know which way to go!

[fishbum]

In the late 1800s steelhead from the McCloud River were stocked in the great lakes. There have been several introductions since with steelhead from other west coast rivers. The strain of steelhead we now have in the great lakes are a mix of all of these early west coast steelhead. Just because you take the fish away from salt water does not mean the fish has genetically changed. You can trace the DNA of our fish directly to the steelhead in the Pacific Ocean. The same goes for the king salmon and the pink salmon that are in the great lakes. We also have Atlantic salmon that can be traced to strains in the Atlantic Ocean.

Come to the great lakes and catch one of our steelhead and then tell me they are not steelhead.

[tigfly]

I thought the difference is that lake run rainbows, in general, return to spawn their very first season in the lake or ocean and that steelhead (again in general) spend at least two seasons in the lake or ocean before returning to spawn.

[ridgeliner]

Do you give a fish a name because of its DNA or because of the way it lives? It's like the question "what is fly fishing". You will never get everyone to agree on an answer. Let's agree to disagree.

[Jayatwork]

To me a Steelhead is a Rainbow that has undergone smoltification (transition to saltwater) and returns to freshwater to spawn. That is not a slight to big lake-run Rainbows. I would love to catch a Great Lakes Steelh... err I mean Rainbow someday.

[DaveMac]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout (anadromous) usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species. The fish is sometimes called a salmon trout.

[Jed]

I think of steelie as something that has run from fresh water to salt and then back again, but that is my definition. As it is not a schientific term it is open to all interpretations so your definition is as good as mine (maybe better).

jed

[sagefisher]

On the west coast, we have Rainbow trout that live their whole lives in the rivers, no matter how big they get, they are always in the river. Then we have Steelhead trout, yes a form of Rainbow, but they evolved into spawning in the rivers then running for the saltwater where they usually spend most of their lives, year after year returning to spawn then run. There are some Steelhead that will come into the rivers in the fall, winter in the river, then spawn in the spring and zip back out to the saltwater. Genetics and evolution and ice ages made those determinations.

The Steelhead in the Great Lakes are steelies from the west coast and they act just like their brothers and sisters out west. They spend most of their lives in those huge oceans of fresh water, the Great Lakes, and make their runs up stream at ice out to spawn. I have caught far more steelhead that came from Lake Superior than I have ever caught up here in the northwest. And, that was just from one week long trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The steelhead of the Great Lakes do not go to the Atlantic Ocean. There really are no steelhead in the Atlantic (with a possible exception way down in Argentina). But, they are steelhead, not rainbow trout.

The same holds true for the three or so species of salmon that we have sent over from the west coast and planted in the Great Lakes. Just because those salmon don't hit the saltwater, it does not mean they are not salmon and they make their annual runs in the spring or fall (depending upon the species) just like they do out west.

That is kind of funny in a way. I never hear people say that the Great Lakes salmon are not salmon, but I do hear a lot of steelheaders out west who think that the Great Lakes steelies are not real steelhead. To them I say make a trip to the Great Lakes and catch yourself 10 to 40 steelhead in a day and tell me they are not steelies and that the steelhead fishing isn't the greatest in the Great Lakes. If I want to catch steelies, that is where I go.

Larry ---sagefisher---