Picked up a nice Steelie on the way home from work.
- Springville Shooter
- Monster
- Posts: 1073
- Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:49 pm
- Location: Building America
Picked up a nice Steelie on the way home from work.
Had a work meeting up north near Missoula, so I threw in the poles and stopped by my old favorite steelhead spots on the way home. The run is very low this year and almost nobody was fishing. After a long dry spell, the fish started hitting and I hooked into this big female. She abused my reel for about 15 minutes before getting tired enough for a snapshot. at just short of 3 feet, she made my day for sure. ---------SS
- Attachments
-
- IMG_0847impres.jpg (41.82 KiB) Viewed 14574 times
"Only accurate rifles are interesting"-----Col. Townsend Whelen
- MuleyMadness
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9997
- Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2002 9:34 pm
- Location: St. George, UT
- Contact:
Re: Picked up a nice Steelie on the way home from work.
Well done, that's one fish I've never caught.
Re: Picked up a nice Steelie on the way home from work.
That's a nice fish.
How do you tell the difference between a steelhead and a rainbow?
How do you tell the difference between a steelhead and a rainbow?
Live to hunt, hunt to live.
Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell
the difference.
Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell
the difference.
- Springville Shooter
- Monster
- Posts: 1073
- Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:49 pm
- Location: Building America
Re: Picked up a nice Steelie on the way home from work.
It's hard to tell except for presence of runs where fish are concentrated. Steelhead are basically rainbows that are genetically inclined to migrate to the ocean where that live, feed, and mostly grow for 2-4 years before returning to their native streams to spawn. Unlike salmon, they actually live through the process and can actually cycle again. Unfotunately, there are often too many obstacles, especially in the Columbia basin for them to successfully return to the ocean as adults. I would say that coloring- a little darker with less spots, size-generally at least 20" long and 4-5 lbs up to 40+" and 20+lbs, and shape- long and slender due to long migrations without feeding help to identify these fish as the ocean going variety versus their freshwater counterparts. Just a side note.......there is no other fish that fights better pound for pound in my opinion. ----------SS
"Only accurate rifles are interesting"-----Col. Townsend Whelen