Floated the American yesterday for Steelhead.....

[Jed Peters]

And didn't catch any.

Hence, there are no fish in that river. Reports of steelhead are greatly exaggerated. I am going to go to the great lakes next year to catch some REAL steelhead.

[Mark Kranhold]

Great lakes steelhead are steelhead, but not real steelhead. Real steelhead come from the salt!:D

[JGB]

JD-

There ain't any steelhead in CA. Not in the A, the T, the K, the LS, the SFE, the R, the G, the other G, the S, the VD, the RC, ...so no need to go and fish those rivers either!

(Did I leave any out?)

Great Lake steelhead are where it's at! Take some friends too, and show them! I'll keep scouting those other rivers for you and if I find any steel I'll be sure and let you know - your friends too, I promise!

:D
JGB

[Jed Peters]

JGB:

I know there are no steelhead because if there were, I am such a good angler, I would have caught them.

--just sayin'.

[Frank Alessio]

Great Lakes Steelhead came from the West Coast....

[Jed Peters]

Great Lakes Steelhead came from the West Coast....

That's a total myth. I heard they came from the great steelhead run of Louisiana, where they used to spawn in the lower Mississippi tribs.

[Frank Alessio]

The Guy that wrote the book I read must of had quite an imagination... I especially enjoyed the part he made up about changing the day light photo period of the Skeena fish to trick them into becoming a Summer run...just goes to show you can not believe Books only the Internet....Don't ya just love it???

[Blueracer]

Now now Mark, Jed & Frank...do be careful, you don't want to start something like this:

http://speypages.com/speyclave/showthread.php?t=48641&page=6

[winxp_man]

Great lakes steelhead are steelhead, but not real steelhead. Real steelhead come from the salt!:D


+1000000000 :D


Wait till winter hits here. Then tell me that Great Lake steelhead are real steelhead. ;)

I got my Sage One 7wt spey rod ready for these fun fish. \\:D/

[winxp_man]

Steelhead=anadromous; anadromous=migrating from salt water to spawning in fresh.

What would lake Steelhead or Bows that migrate from fresh to fresh have as a scientific name?


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/anadromous

So now a rainbow that lives in Shasta Lake and goes up in the Upper Sac to spawn maybe are also Steelhead?


Boy o Boy so many questions :D

[jbird]

Actually the great lakes are an ocean for anadromous fish. They behave exactly the same as coastal fish. we have steelhead, chinook and coho salmon. All spend the same amount of time in the lakes as coastal fish do in the ocean, then return up rivers to spawn and die. The steelhead and anadromous brown trout do not die after spawning.

The steelhead have infact come from some prolific west coast rivers.. the Smith, Chetco and some BC fish are used for the gene pool.

The interesting thing here is there is practically no successful spawning (except the german browns) so the anadromous fishery is almost completely hatchery dependant.

[Frank Alessio]

Thank you Jbird...You are the Mythrebutter... New word.....

[winxp_man]

Actually the great lakes are an ocean for anadromous fish. They behave exactly the same as coastal fish. we have steelhead, chinook and coho salmon. All spend the same amount of time in the lakes as coastal fish do in the ocean, then return up rivers to spawn and die. The steelhead and anadromous brown trout do not die after spawning.

The steelhead have infact come from some prolific west coast rivers.. the Smith, Chetco and some BC fish are used for the gene pool.

The interesting thing here is there is practically no successful spawning (except the german browns) so the anadromous fishery is almost completely hatchery dependant.


So if a Rainbow goes through and lives in Shasta Lake and goes up the upper Sac to spawn it will then be a steelhead?

[Jed Peters]

The steelhead have infact come from some prolific west coast rivers.. the Smith, Chetco and some BC fish are used for the gene pool.

The interesting thing here is there is practically no successful spawning (except the german browns) so the anadromous fishery is almost completely hatchery dependant.

Dude! Sweet! We got our fish from the Eel strain, completely unrelated to this river too.... and ours aren't wild either!

ahahahahahahha

(But there are only a couple fish that come back, as I stand before, there are no fish in the american because if there were, I would have caught them yesterday.)

[winxp_man]

Dude! Sweet! We got our fish from the Eel strain, completely unrelated to this river too.... and ours aren't wild either!

ahahahahahahha

(But there are only a couple fish that come back, as I stand before, there are no fish in the american because if there were, I would have caught them yesterday.)


Are you serious about your statement here?

If you are then I will tell you that the Steelhead in the american are winter fish period. Wait until the good winter weather comes in then go out and catch some. The fish everyone is posting as mostly half pounders. All summer and early fall steelhead that dont come up in big numbers anymore. Bill Kiene (from what I remember) also stated the same statement.

[aaron]

Jay can you ship us some fish back for the American, we are severely lacking. Never a dull moment on the steelhead board although it's been pretty friendly around these parts lately (and thankfully!)

[winxp_man]

Jay can you ship us some fish back for the American, we are severely lacking. Never a dull moment on the steelhead board although it's been pretty friendly around these parts lately (and thankfully!)



I see what you did there Aaron :lol::lol::lol:

[Mike O]

By the definition of Great Lakes "steelhead", any trout which lives in the lakes and then spawns upstream are anadromous. Oh well, time to head over to the upper Owens River, the Upper Sacramento River, etc, for some Steelhead and SteelBrowns.

Puhleeeze

[winxp_man]

By the definition of Great Lakes "steelhead", any trout which lives in the lakes and then spawns upstream are anadromous. Oh well, time to head over to the upper Owens River, the Upper Sacramento River, etc, for some Steelhead and SteelBrowns.

Puhleeeze


So what we are doing here is taking out the line that defines what fish is what? Sounds good to me! :D No more fish wars!! Yayyyy =D>

[Jed Peters]

Are you serious about your statement here?


I catch all the fish. I am a fish magnet. I'm like the hatchery--they all eventually make it to me.

[winxp_man]

I actually tried fishing with magnets for steelhead when I first started fishing for these wonderful Unicorn like creatures :)

[JGB]

JGB:

I know there are no steelhead because if there were, I am such a good angler, I would have caught them.

--just sayin'.

When/if you drink, I bet you drink Dos Equis?


JGB

[Mark Kranhold]

I'd say throw that Dos Equis in his face to wake him up. Some people just don't know when to quit!

[Jed Peters]

I'd say throw that Dos Equis in his face to wake him up. Some people just don't know when to quit!

....and some have no sense of humor...

[Mark Kranhold]

Your sense of humor gets old! Just like on speypages.... You made a lot of good friends there Bud!

[Alosa]

I have to agree with some earlier statements made here about the true nature of anadromy. Because steelhead in the Great Lakes do not transition through a saltwater-freshwater interface, with all of the associated physiological changes, a more correct description of the migration between lakes and rivers for spawning would be the term: 'adfluvial'.

[Jed Peters]

Your sense of humor gets old! Just like on speypages.... You made a lot of good friends there Bud!

I don't go on a message board to make Internet friends.

And I love how a sense of humor on a message board can get old? In real life, my wife says my sarcasm gets "old", but I've never been told that on a fishing bulletin board!

[Jeff F]

Let's change the subject here and talk about REAL fun stuff!

How about the use of pegged eggs? Bobicators? Fishing on redds? And the all-timer.....posting pics of fish out of the water! Let's drown this freakin' board like we did the good 'ol NCFFB! :thumbsdown:

[EricO]

LOL. So you mean talking about the Professor we saw several years ago
fishing the redds with 5 different rods below Rossmoor? And telling us where
they were holding? Nice ethics.

It was hilarious to see him in the parking lot later...lecturing several people
on his greatness (in his own mind that is). ;)

Liking this amiable thread.

EO

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Some years ago we had some guys who would "sight cast" to spawning Steelhead on the redds up around Sailor Bar. They would hook dozens of fish every day in Jan/Feb. People would come in and say they thought these guys were the best steelhead fly fishers that ever lived........

Folks, that is the real world.

One fly fisher in a 1,000 thinks like us fans of the wild Steelhead.

There is no school for this so why would you expect anyone to know all this stuff.

We are in a very tiny small group of people so don't get so know it all about all this.

I don't get crazy when I see someone making a mistake, according to our rules of engagement, because they haven't got a clue......not one.

Being mean and combative is just plan crazy.....

We should put our energies into trying to fix more habitat for wild Steelhead.

99% of all anglers are only out there to have fun and get away from the job and family.



One more point, leave your ego outside with your horse.

That is mostly what goes on here when we have problems on the "salmon/steelhead" catagory......

..

[Jeff C.]

Well said Bill!

[Blueracer]

To not call a steelhead, a steelhead, because it did not originate in that location and never been in salt, is quite silly. Steelhead is not synonymous with anadromous. A potamodromous steelhead looks the same as an anadromous steelhead. It is their look that gives the name.

Quoting a few lines from the book "Steelhead Dreams". Page 15, "As a steelhead fly fisher, I have oberserved and pursued both Great Lakes and Pacific steelhead. I firmly believe that due to the less complicated physiological demands on potamodrous steelhead, they often have a unique predisposition. Since they forgo the metabloic complicatoin of the salt/freshwater transitions-which taxes the renal system regulating the amount of salts in the bloodstream each up and down river migration-Great Lakes fish seem to have greater mobility and urgency in migration, spawning, habitat preference and attitude when striking a fly."

The author currently runs this guide service. http://www.graydrake.com/ I'm not plugging just providing information on the source of the information within this book.

- Aaron was making a joke...BUT...steelhead do in fact reproduce naturally in various great lakes regions. What Bill said about focusing our energy on improving habitat and bringing back the numbers is so very true. It would be sad if fish management became so poor that one day the West needed to bring fish from the Midwest to restore numbers.

[Jed Peters]

Seriously though, who cares where a fish comes from? This is kinda crazy, when I make one off colored remark in jest, it starts a whole "steelhead great lakes vs. pacific ocean" debate.

People, these fish are pretty great regardless of what body of water they come from! And there aren't that many of them, and they're hard as hell to catch. For these people that think I wasn't totally joking...well, you just need to lighten up.

If you can't have a sense of humor and you're a steelhead angler....man, you got big problems.

[Tiger]

I'm with Bill, Jeff And the wife....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDxJE-PU3SM

I like this one.....

..................there are just tons of fun steelehad videos out there.

[Ed Wahl]

Jed you are one cool S.O.B. You fired off one innocent little crack and almost got the ole steelhead forum livid for the first time this year.

Well done sir.

I've given up on several waters in the past because after fishing them I caught nothing, therefore the waters were devoid of fish.
Years ago the American not only had no steelies, but no stripers or salmon either. Good thing somebody fixed that.

You know what, I've got an excessive sense of humor. So much so that I'd be willing to sell off a bit here and there to certain posters on the steelhead forum so that they may be able to enjoy a joke now and again.

Little moolah for me, little piece of mind for them, this could be something big.

You sourpuss's just send me a note and we'll talk about priceing out a sense of humor for you. It's good stuff too. Sarcasm, whimsey, sophmoric, slapstick, getting jokes, all the stuff you seem to miss out on now.

Did you catch that? It was sarcasm. One low low price and you'll totally understand it.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

You guys really do kill me.

Ed

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Too funny Ed....

Where is 'Oregon Salmon' when we need him?

[cyama]

That is a great quote Bill! "Leave your ego outside with your horse." Good stuff!;)

[weightforwardfilms]

Wow, to much tension. We all need to chill out a bit. Steelhead are in limited supply, but humor is not.

Having grown up in the Great Lakes chasing Steelhead, I know these fish well. Apparently, they are calling their freshwater only migration Potamodromous, as Blueracer stated earlier.
I would say that they are identical genetically, as their DNA is the same, and their life cycle is the same, except that they migrate within freshwater. The big difference, in my humble opinion, is that they never face the same challenges and dangers that real steelhead do. They are the apex predator in the Great Lakes, unlike in the Pacific. There are no sharks in open water, there is no gauntlet of seals waiting for them, just outside the river mouth. They are simply, a Rainbow Trout, that grows incredibly large and aggressive in a large body of freshwater. I'm still not sure if I consider them steelhead or not. Except when you hold a 12lb buck in your hands. For that brief period, they're undoubtably Steelhead.

But, they're not Pacific Steelhead, which face an arduous migration. For that reason, and for the fact that they're not native to the Great Lakes, makes me lean towards thinking of them as really bad-ass trout.

It took me many years of fishing here and there, to accept this.
Jeremy

[DAVID95670]

Seriously though, who cares where a fish comes from? This is kinda crazy, when I make one off colored remark in jest, it starts a whole "steelhead great lakes vs. pacific ocean" debate.

People, these fish are pretty great regardless of what body of water they come from! And there aren't that many of them, and they're hard as hell to catch. For these people that think I wasn't totally joking...well, you just need to lighten up.

If you can't have a sense of humor and you're a steelhead angler....man, you got big problems.

Jed, I agree with you. However these crazed arguments in this board have me convinced that there are more bloggers that simply hang out on their keyboards never fishing. I rarely see different people on the American river actually fishing. Yet there are these prolonged cerebral fornications on these topics ..... How about the good old half pounders? Seriously who cares?


Fyi I grew up in great lakes and their steelhead are enormous in comparison to pacific northwest

Whatever the hell they are, and we all acknowledged they were not true steelhead bc they do.t get to the ocean. Keyboard fishermen need to travel around maybe they might actuallyget out and catch a fish. Seems I never see these homer Simpson types posting photos of steelhead

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We get quit a bit of business from the Great Lakes Steelheaders on our online store.

I think they have done a good job on those fisheries over the past 20 years or so.

__________________________________________________ ____________________

We use to go to New Zealand and fish the big runs of Rainbow trout up those little rivers flowing into Lake Taupo in their fall on the North Island. Joe Shirshac took groups there for decades.

They planted Rainbow trout and Steelhead from California in Lake Taupo in 1898.

From Fishing International's web site:

"The original Taupo rainbow stocks came from Northern California steelhead stocks from the Russian River and Sonoma Creek just minutes from Fishing International's headquarters."

In another article it says that they planted Rainbow trout and Steelhead from California. They said the Rainbows were from the McCloud River and Lake Almanor.

.

[JGB]

JP - Thanx for the entertainment! Way too many knotted panties around here!

EW - +1

DVD95670 - "...cerebral fornications..." = good one! Makes me think of MSNBC.

Oops, NO politics!


JGB