To get things straight at the start, John, I want you to be knows as the guy who caught a steelhead on tenkara. If anyone deserves that honor, it is you, and I accept that the Brushy Fork Creek trout in your hand is indeed a steelhead.

Yet I can't help pondering the question of whether a steelhead is a steelhead from time of hatch onward. For as long as I can recall such things, I've heard and read steelheads described as "a sea-run rainbow trout." The word sea is defined in its broad sense, of course, to include large bodies of fresh water, such as the Great Lakes.

But is a little hand-sized rainbow a sea-run fish? Should it be called a steelhead? I turned to the Peterson Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of North America and Mexico and discovered that there are six subspecies of rainbow trout listed. Of those six, the Coastal Rainbow Trout (subspecies irideus) and the Columbia Rainbow Trout (subspecies gairdnarii) each come in two forms, a stream-resident form and a sea-run (anadromous) form. In describing the two subspecies, Peterson refers to the anadromous form of the Coastal (Peterson's brackets) as ["Steelhead"] and to the Columbia (Peterson's brackets) as ["Redband Steelhead]. Peterson also notes that there in another subspecies, the Great Basin Rainbow trout (subspecies Newberri) that, in some locales in Oregon, are "nearly identical" to Coumbia Rainbow Trout.

Thus, from a scientific point of view, it would seem that certain species and forms of rainbow trout are hatched with anadromous tendencies and capabilities. But the question remains: Can these anadromous trout be considered "steelheads" before they run to sea? From a biological classification standpoint, probably Yes. But from an angling standpoint? I don't know the answer. Should the name of a fish depend on its life experiences? Does a rainbow need to serve a tour of duty at sea before it can be called a rainbow? It's good question, but the answer is beyond me.

It could be that the rules of some steelhead fishing contests defines what fish can be considered as qualifying fish. But probably not, because the winner is bound to have gone to sea. Unless, of course, the angler is required to fish with a tanago rod; in that case, the littlest fish might be deemed the winner. Micro-Steelheading we might call it.

~Paul