Had some thought and rivertalk about this one. In the mid-West they sometimes consider lake run Rainbows, Steelhead. Here in Central Oregon on the Deschutes we get some big bows that come up the arms of the reservoirs and have no chance of making it to the sea. They are similar to steelhead and as they can get really big, shiny as chrome and fight like hell, but to me a Steelhead has to hit the ocean! I think the regulations in Oregon say something about over 21" they are considered a steelhead in rivers. In the mid-West do they still call lake runners Steelhead?
This may stir up some controversy, but hey? Do they possess the same gene? Do they have to hit the salt? ect…
Some trout species are split between those that have the DNA for heading to the Oceans or Large Freshwater Regions, as part of their life cycle, while other trout of the same species, remain in the the same stream or river where they were born. Sea going Brown Trout are commonly called Sea Trout, Sea going Rainbows are commonly called Steelheads, while the Sea going Brook Trout (I include them even though they are not truely Trout related to directly to the Salmon Family) are called Coasters. I really do not know anything more on the subject.
I think the act of going out in to the larger bodies of water (for rainbows) is called smolting. The juvenile fish adapt to salt water if they move in to the ocean. The other thing that occurs as they smolt and while they are in the lake or ocean is they loose the rainbow colors and become silver on the sides and steel gray on the top and on the head. That is why the rainbow variety is called steelhead. I’ve been studying up for my first steelhead trip this fall or winter here in Indiana or over in Ohio. So I’m no expert.
there are plenty of rainbow in idaho over 20" that aren’t steelhead and if they are to be considered as steelhead then every angler would need a steelhead permit. if you mean to be counted as a steelhead when completing a steelhead card in waters that support steelhead habitation then the fish need to be 20" or more. steelhead in the west are anadromous, migrate from fresh water to salt water then return to fresh water for spawning. i suppose indigenous rainbows could be called land locked steelhead much the same as the land locked salmon of the north east usa. the moniker steelhead could well be from fishermen that found the jaw bone of steelhead to be more boney than most other species and very difficult to hook and hold. other pseudonyms iron head, iron jaw.
There are no genetic differences between steelhead and rainbows. They are the same fish. From the spawn of an ocean going steelhead could come a fish that stays resident in the river, never going to the sea and on the other side of the coin from the spawn of a resident rainbow some may decide to head to the ocean. What is the difference?
I guess it comes down to you call them whatever makes you happy. All have their place, but usually don’t mix well.
From the people I know and fish with, I think there are three general types of folks who would want the fish labeled different ways.
“Real” Steelheaders = guys who swing wet/spey/dee flies to real steelhead that came from the ocean and live in Pacific Ocean drainage rivers. One fish a week is great. Tradition means a lot to these folks. Wouldn’t be caught dead calling a lake run rainbow a steelhead. Won’t consider a fish a steelhead unless it’s wild. Otherwise it’s an ocean run rainbow. Usually pretty hardcore and misunderstood by other anglers who don’t share their passion. Probably wearing a Filson or Barbour or some other waxed cotton wading jacket with some wool underneath. Will change out of these clothes at their parking spot along the river before they go out for dinner.
“Extreme” Steelheaders = anglers that think they live on the edge (usually the edge of a great lake and consider themselves HARDCORE ). Extreme sports type of mentality that bleeds into their fishing mentality. Use phrases like “that’s ballin” “dude” “sick” “fo shizzle” etc. Do whatever it takes to catch big numbers of steelhead, because that’s what matters > how many you catch. Probably have a picture of every fish they’ve caught (probably carry these around as proof.) These folks use beads as flies, among other things many fly fishers or state fish commissions wouldn’t consider a fly. Goretex, fleece and hi-tech gear are a must to be successful. That waxed cotton stuff and wool is just too heavy and outdated to wear. They’ll wear their fishing clothing into the restaurant after the fishing is done so folks will know they were steelhead fishing when they see them. Large arbor reels. They don’t have any idea what an 8 weight fly line is, because they only refer to lines by weight in grains. Fly boxes full of the newest cutting edge fly patterns and probably none of the old standards because those have been seen by fish before and aren’t any good anymore. Listening to their ipod or mp3 player while they fish. Tube flies. Every rainbow caught is a steelhead. Smaller ones are just smolts. Have never smelled a steelhead river, let alone fished one. Probably don’t know their flyfishing history and will just reply with a blank stare when you talk about it. Just don’t understand the “real” steelheaders.
And then there’s the rest of us who just don’t care that much and like to catch fish on flies and have a bit of each of the above in us. We’ll call it a steelhead when we fish with our extreme steelheading friends and call it a lake run rainbow when we fish with the real steelheaders. We’ll have a blast catching them, no matter what they’re called.
Well I am heading down to Turangi tonight to fish for Lake run Rainbows, so I guess I can call them Steelhead and feel like I am at the edge Dude!
All the best.
Mike
what i should have said is…not all 20" trout in idaho are considered to be steelhead for the purpose of counting a limit of steelhead during steelhead season.
Actually smoltification is the process of the fish adapting to salt water. By my definition, a Rainbow that has undergone smoltification has earned the title Steelhead. A Rainbow that migrates to a freshwater lake (no matter how big) and returns to a tributary to spawn doesn’t qualify. But I don’t really care what anyone else calls them. Great Lakes Steelhead is fine with me.
CAlifornia considers any rainbow over 16" in anadromous waters to be a steelhead. You cannot keep them unless the adipose fin is clipped, and they are legal on that water. This is total BS, as there are pleny of resident fish which go that big and bigger, but, whaddyagonnado?
The ONLY way to tell that I know of is to study the scales under a microscope.
Here is another one for you. We are on Vancouver Island and we go after what we call Sea Run Cut Throat. They must fall into the mix somewhere as well.
As your friend and neighbor to the south, there are is no such fish as a sea run cutthroat. :twisted: They’re just cutthroat that are silver torpedoes covered with sea lice. We don’t really want the rest of the world to know about them, do we?
In New York, they stocked both steelhead and domestic rainbows, so we had both. The state stopped stocking the bows (a few years back), so now it’s only the steelies that are stocked. We do however, have natural repro on some streams, so i’m sure we’ve ended up with a mixed gene pool. In answer to your question, up here, if they run the tribs, people just call 'em steelhead.
[LEFT]
Sorry for the confusion
Directly from the Id F&G[/LEFT]
[FONT=Arial-BoldMT][SIZE=5][FONT=Arial-BoldMT][SIZE=5][COLOR=#25418f][LEFT]What Is A Steelhead?[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Helvetica][SIZE=2][LEFT]Steelhead are rainbow trout longer than 20 inches in length in the Snake River drainage below Hells Canyon[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Helvetica][SIZE=2][LEFT]Dam, the Salmon River drainage (excluding lakes and the Pahsimeroi and Lemhi rivers), and the Clearwater River
drainage (excluding that portion above Dworshak Dam [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Helvetica][SIZE=2]and lakes). Rainbow trout longer than 20 inches in length
with the adipose fin clipped (as evidenced by a healed scar) are defined as steelhead in the Snake River from[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Helvetica][SIZE=2][LEFT]Hells Canyon Dam upstream to Oxbow Dam, and in the Boise River from its mouth upstream to Barber Dam, and
in the Payette River from its mouth upstream to Black Canyon Dam, during steelhead seasons.[/LEFT]
[/SIZE][/FONT]
Regulations that say “over X inches are CONSIDERED steelhead” are BS. What they mean is “the only way for us to KNOW if they are actual stealhead is to take a sample, and the average fisherman obviously isn’t equipped to do this”.
Take a stream that is connected to the ocean. Rainbow A and Rainbow B have 1000 off spring. Offspring 34 is lazy and stays in the river. Its sibling offspring 56 heads to the ocean and stays in the ocean for 2 years before returning to the river. To the best of my knowledge Fisheries biologists cannot explain why 56 heads to the ocean (and becomes a steelhead) and 34 stays where it is (and stays a resident rainbow). As far as biologists know, 34 could of decided to go to the ocean and be a stealhead and 56 could of stayed. It is all whatever the heck the fish decide, and it is not determined.
And to reterate, regulations that say any rainbow over 16 inches or over 20 inches does not mean that those fish are ACTUALLY steelhead, they just mean “LEGALLY speaking, and for purposed of the regulations, any rainbow over X inches is to be considered a steelhead”, because to actually determine if the fish is a steelhead would require taking a tissue sample, which is not something the average fisherman can do.
Thought this may start a fire storm under some people’s Green “Butt” Skunks. Thought I’d throw out this topic to see what people think. A bit controversial, Eh!! I still say it has to hit the Saltwater to become a “Steelhead” regardless of size. Sorry mid-Westerners the Great Lakes are freshwater, call them Lake runners or whatever, but I don’t think Steelhead is appropriate. I also don’t know where these “Regulations of size” are derived from? Biologists? Politicians?
Plus, Sea Run Cuts are fun as well, and tissue samples of “Steelhead” can be found on the BBQ in the back yard (with a clipped fin, of course).
The origin of the term “steelhead” is still something of a mystery. Some of the earliest sources indicate that the name was applied by commercial fishermen (back when there was still a large commercial harvest) because the steelhead’s generally heavier and stronger bone structure (including its skull) required two or three whacks with the fish club to apply the coup de grace; other members of the genus Oncorhynchus required only one. Of course the steely, blue-gray color of a fresh-run steelhead’s back and head may have contributed to the popularity of the term.
The twenty-inch rule (in Washington) is an (admittedly lame) effort to differentiate between large resident rainbows and steelhead and, as such, has no particularly rational basis. A twenty-inch resident rainbow in most of Washington’s anadromous rivers, while potentially possible, is very unlikely. It does provide endless fodder for fishing forums in the form of: “Was the twenty-inch rainbow I caught on the Yakima River (where such a possibility does exist) a steelhead or a resident rainbow?”
A-a-ah, sea-run cutthroat; the fish I love the best. I fish for them from the beaches of Puget Sound but my favorite time and place is in the late summer and fall when they move into the rivers. Undoubtedly the best “trout fishing” that western Washington can provide. Here are a couple of my favorite patterns and a couple of fish pix.
The patterns are, from left to right ; Mike Kinney’s Reverse Spider, Knudson Spider and a Blue winged olive dun.
You should give them a try in the spring during the outmigration. On the lower Skagit in early spring we have what has become locally known as the alder fly hatch which as far as I know there is no “alder fly” and it is not an aquatic insect. Still whatever is taking place it involves small dark flies which fall from the overhanging branches of alders and other vegetation along the banks of the lower river. Hungry cutthroat will key in on these little dark flies and the dry fly fishing can be extraordinary when timed right. Almost any dark colored dry fly in an appropriate size, say 12 or 14 will get you some decent action.
and consider themselves HARDCORE ). Extreme sports type of mentality that bleeds into their fishing mentality. Use phrases like “that’s ballin” “dude” “sick” “fo shizzle” etc. Do whatever it takes to catch big numbers of steelhead, because that’s what matters > how many you catch. Probably have a picture of every fish they’ve caught (probably carry these around as proof.) These folks use beads as flies, among other things many fly fishers or state fish commissions wouldn’t consider a fly. Goretex, fleece and hi-tech gear are a must to be successful. That waxed cotton stuff and wool is just too heavy and outdated to wear. They’ll wear their fishing clothing into the restaurant after the fishing is done so folks will know they were steelhead fishing when they see them. Large arbor reels. They don’t have any idea what an 8 weight fly line is, because they only refer to lines by weight in grains. Fly boxes full of the newest cutting edge fly patterns and probably none of the old standards because those have been seen by fish before and aren’t any good anymore. Listening to their ipod or mp3 player while they fish. Tube flies. Every rainbow caught is a steelhead. Smaller ones are just smolts. Have never smelled a steelhead river, let alone fished one. Probably don’t know their flyfishing history and will just reply with a blank stare when you talk about it. Just don’t understand the “real” steelheaders.
