Is it steelhead or rainbow trout?

[p.t.]

Last summer I and my son went to Snohomish River for a few times, and caught a few little rainbow trout aroun 8" or so. My son, who is eager to believe he's caught a new species that he's never had, insisted that they are steelhead. I believe they are just rainbow trout, so I did a little research. But I never found a satisfactory answer, even Wikipedia. Evey source I checked says "steelhead are ocean-run rainbow trout." But my question is:

Is it called steelhead only when the behavior of ocean-running starts (by phase of life)? Or is it called steelhead as soon as it's born (by birth)?

If it's by phase, then because we don't know where it's headed when we catch one, how can we tell if the fish we caught is a steelhead or just RBT? If it's by birth, then are there any physical appearance differences that can tell them apart?

Thank you.

[curado]

were they missing the adipose fin. they were probly mixed rainbows and jack steelhead .

[swedefish4life1]

STEELHEAD SMOLT:/ Junoirs the river has many at times and almost zero nate bows anymore
Better for ocean coming cutts late in the summer

[Jake Dogfish]

Is a Caterpillar a Butterfly?
Rainbow trout have the potential to become steelhead under the right conditions. Its semantics call it whatever you want.
Just let them go.

[Anglinarcher]

Is a Caterpillar a Butterfly?
Rainbow trout have the potential to become steelhead under the right conditions. Its semantics call it whatever you want.
Just let them go.

This pretty much sums it up. In fact, the hatchery rainbows planted in every single lake in the state, have the potential to run to the ocean in the right conditions, and become steelhead.

The Cutthroats and the Browns also have the potential, but I don't think that happens nearly as often. Nevertheless, at least with Browns, it can and does happen and the worlds largest Browns run up a stream in Southern Africa - Ocean Run Browns planted by European Settlers many years ago.

[swedefish4life1]

Not correct but you guys can have this one:-# a true Rainbow trout will never be a Steelhead if you dump it 2,000 miles in the ocean:-$ PERIOD and a butterfly use a soft net they have soft wings and little backs:-$

[Jake Dogfish]

Yes we are wrong Swede and you are always right. I don't know what I was thinking even responding to this thread.

[swedefish4life1]

Call wdf:-$ they can educate you on this :study:

[Hal]

Make sure you talk to the same genius' at Fish and Game that did the math on the Sprague lake Walleye count too...

[Smalma]

Rainbow trout and steelhead are the same species (O. mykiss) that are exhibiting different life histories.

Rainbow trout can have several life histories (life styles). When the majority of their growth takes place in streams that life history called fluvial, when that rearing takes place in lakes that life history is called adfluvial, and when that rearing takes in marine waters it is called anadromous.

It is the anadromous life history of rainbow trout that we call "steelhead". There is a great plasticity between those various life histories with each life history capable of spawning with the others and the juveniles from any of those mating can potential take on another life history. In other words the fish we normally call rainbow trout can spawn with what we call "steelhead". In some of western Washington waters as much as 20% of the "steelhead" smolts leaving the river to go to sea had a parent that had not been to sea. Further resident rainbows (even those above anadromous barriers) are capable of producing young fish that will smolt and go to sea (becoming "steelhead") and there is the potential of juveniles from spawning "steelhead" remaining in the freshwater becoming what we might call rainbows.

To the question at hand regarding the fish in the Snohomish. Those juvenile rainbows that were being caught in the Snohomish are just that rainbow trout. The next spring it is likely that the majority that have survived will undergo the smolting process and go to sea to become "steelhead". However it is also likely that some would not go through the smolting process and spend the rest of their lives in freshwater as rainbows.

Further to complicate things even further those resident rainbows in our streams can become a sizeable trout. Even in the so called nutrient poor waters of Western Washington resident rainbows can achieve lengths of more than 20 inches (in some cases the size of small "steelhead" ). Because this all can be confusing and without careful study it is difficult to tell when a rainbow is a resident trout or a steelhead the State was taken the step of saying that any O. mykiss caught in an anadromous water will be considered to be a "steelhead" even though it is known that there is a small probability that it has a non-andromous life history.

Tight lines
Curt

[Dustin07]

Not correct but you guys can have this one:-# a true Rainbow trout will never be a Steelhead if you dump it 2,000 miles in the ocean:-$ PERIOD and a butterfly use a soft net they have soft wings and little backs:-$

do butterflies get stamps of women on their backs?

[p.t.]

Thanks, everybody. Special thanks to Smalma, your reply was absolutely insightful and to-the-point. I learned a lot. I'll forward your reply to my son, whose knowlege about animals is always better than mine, but not this time. :-)

So I guess this is like the differences between, say, Americans and Canadians. In essence, they are all Homo Sapiens. But depending on where they live, they can be called Americans or Canadians, and there is some plasticity to it too. Also, it has nothing to do where their parents come from. :-)

Thanks a lot!

[Desertcreek]

Not correct but you guys can have this one:-# a true Rainbow trout will never be a Steelhead if you dump it 2,000 miles in the ocean:-$ PERIOD and a butterfly use a soft net they have soft wings and little backs:-$

do butterflies get stamps of women on their backs?

Dustin,
That may possibly be the funniest quick witted statement I have read on this site. No offense to anyone but you guys aren't typically that humorous.

[fish4brains]

Not correct but you guys can have this one:-# a true Rainbow trout will never be a Steelhead if you dump it 2,000 miles in the ocean:-$ PERIOD and a butterfly use a soft net they have soft wings and little backs:-$

do butterflies get stamps of women on their backs?

Dustin:
You just made me spit beer all over my computer, That is freakin hilarious!!!

[swedefish4life1]

I tramp stamp all my butterflys:-$ personally Swedeishpower1 that is of legend! :thumleft: :viking:

[Anglinarcher]

Rainbow trout and steelhead are the same species (O. mykiss) that are exhibiting different life histories.

Rainbow trout can have several life histories (life styles). When the majority of their growth takes place in streams that life history called fluvial, when that rearing takes place in lakes that life history is called adfluvial, and when that rearing takes in marine waters it is called anadromous.

It is the anadromous life history of rainbow trout that we call "steelhead". There is a great plasticity between those various life histories with each life history capable of spawning with the others and the juveniles from any of those mating can potential take on another life history. In other words the fish we normally call rainbow trout can spawn with what we call "steelhead". In some of western Washington waters as much as 20% of the "steelhead" smolts leaving the river to go to sea had a parent that had not been to sea. Further resident rainbows (even those above anadromous barriers) are capable of producing young fish that will smolt and go to sea (becoming "steelhead") and there is the potential of juveniles from spawning "steelhead" remaining in the freshwater becoming what we might call rainbows.

To the question at hand regarding the fish in the Snohomish. Those juvenile rainbows that were being caught in the Snohomish are just that rainbow trout. The next spring it is likely that the majority that have survived will undergo the smolting process and go to sea to become "steelhead". However it is also likely that some would not go through the smolting process and spend the rest of their lives in freshwater as rainbows.

Further to complicate things even further those resident rainbows in our streams can become a sizeable trout. Even in the so called nutrient poor waters of Western Washington resident rainbows can achieve lengths of more than 20 inches (in some cases the size of small "steelhead" ). Because this all can be confusing and without careful study it is difficult to tell when a rainbow is a resident trout or a steelhead the State was taken the step of saying that any O. mykiss caught in an anadromous water will be considered to be a "steelhead" even though it is known that there is a small probability that it has a non-andromous life history.

Tight lines
Curt

Thanks, I suppose my answer was just far to short. You hit the nail right on the head.