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
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MuleyMadness
Well done, that's one fish I've never caught.
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a_bow_nut
That's a nice fish.

How do you tell the difference between a steelhead and a rainbow?
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Springville Shooter
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
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