When do they consider them Steelhead?

[maodiver]

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.

[John Forish]

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.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

John,

As your friend and neighbor to the south, there are is no such fish as a sea run cutthroat. 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?

REE

PS. You got any favorite SRC flies?

[pspaint]

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.

[24mileboy]

Sorry for the confusion
Directly from the Id F&G

What Is A Steelhead?

Steelhead are rainbow trout longer than 20 inches in length in the Snake River drainage below Hells Canyon

Dam, the Salmon River drainage (excluding lakes and the Pahsimeroi and Lemhi rivers), and the Clearwater River
drainage (excluding that portion above Dworshak Dam

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

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.

[Kerry Stratton]

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.

There are no genetic differences between rainbow trout and steelhead trout. They are the same; Oncorhynchus mykiss

[salt_flytyer]

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...

Attachment 5694 Attachment 5695Attachment 5696Attachment 5697

We also get some big Browns too
Attachment 5698

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.

[luckie88]

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).

[Preston Singletary]

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.

[Kerry Stratton]

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.

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.