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Oncorhynchus
mykiss
JOSEPH
TOMELLERI GRAPHIC
TEXT BY ROSS PURNELL
A native adult steelhead is one of the rare jewels of the natural
world. Hatched in the gravel of the Pacific Northwest, it survived
winter ice and famine, a gauntlet of predators, and an endless assault
by man who has dammed rivers, taken the water for irrigation, and
logged the forests, leaving naked rivers choking on debris in barren
landscapes. The steelhead grew large in the North Pacific, evading
seals, killer whales, larger fish, and the nets of the commercial
fishing fleets to return to its natal river to spawn.
To the fly fisher, this
miracle of survival is made even more poignant by a steelhead's
instinctive strike, and frantic fight for survival. After all
those miles, and all those obstacles, he's accidentally given
himself up to a small hook and bits of fur and feathers. It goes
without saying that all wild steelhead should be released to propagate
the species. These giant, sea-faring rainbow trout are more than
just the ultimate freshwater gamefish. They are a literal coal
mine canary, indicating just how far we've gone toward destroying
our coastal rivers.
Steelhead lifecycles and
habits are closely related to the Pacific Salmon except for that
fact that they don't die after they spawn. After the fry emerge
from the gravel of their natal streams, young steelhead live in
freshwater for 1-3 years as parr--often living and feeding in
the same places as similarly sized rainbow trout. Juvenile steelhead
often look exactly like resident rainbow trout, but their instinctual
drives are different, and steelhead smolts drop downstream where
they grow large in the fertile waters of the North Pacific.
Mature steelhead
return to their home streams to spawn after 1-5 years in the ocean,
and each river system seems to produce fish with different lifecycles
and characteristics. For instance, Klamath River steelhead--often
called "half-pounders"--forage in the coastal waters
and estuaries of California and Oregon and most commonly return
to freshwater after only one year in the salt.
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Steelhead spend most of their adult lives in the ocean, but
return to their native streams to spawn. Summer-run steelhead
(like the Kispiox River female pictured above) will take dry flies.
Winter steelhead are most often caught with sinking-tip lines
and weighted flies. In the Great Lakes area, transplanted steelhead
grow large in freshwater, and run up small lakes tributaries to
spawn. |
On other rivers, like British
Columbia's Kispiox River, steelhead commonly spend three or four
years in the North Pacific, ranging as far from home as the Aleutian
Islands and Russia's Kamchatka Penninsula. Kispiox fish usually
come back to spawn as jumbo trout, with 30-pound specimens caught
every year, but Mother Nature hates to put all her eggs in one
basket, and steelhead of varying sizes and ages can be found with
every run of spawning fish. On the Klamath, 10-pound steelhead
and larger are seen every year, and while not the norm, 20-inch
steelhead sometimes share the same pools with 20-pound leviathans
on the Kispiox.
Because each strain of fish
exhibits different spawning habits, steelhead can be found in
some rivers of the Pacific Northwest every month of the year.
"Summer-run" steelhead enter freshwater from June-October
and spend the winter in freshwater, resting in slow pools, waiting
for the spring thaw and their March-April spawning rituals. Because
of the huge energy reserves these fish have stored, and their
sometimes trout-like behaviors, summer-run fish caught in the
days and weeks after they leave the ocean are the most sought-after
of all steelhead. Although they do not actively feed in most cases,
they will instinctively crush a skating dry dry, or take a wet
fly swung through the depths of a pool.
Winter-run steelhead enter
the rivers much closer to their actual spawning time, but are
still chrome bright when they first come in from the ocean. Because
of cold water tempertures, winter run fish will not take dry flies,
and wet flies must be presented deep and slow, so the fish doesn't
have to move far to take the fly.
While juvenile steelhead
are nearly identical in every respect to resident rainbow trout,
mature steelhead are easily distingiushed by their size. In almost
every respect, they look like an overgrown rainbow trout, with
chrome flanks, and olive backs peppered with dark spots. Their
tails are square and spotted. As they mature in fresh water, they
begin to take on characteristics of a spawning adult. Females
will develop a broad, pink stain on their gill plates and a bit
of a "rainbow stripe." Males become much more dramatic-looking
as they approach the spawn, developing a hooked kype, and turning
a dark red reminiscent of some of their Pacific salmon cousins.
Like Pacific salmon, native
steelhead populations have been decimated, and many races are
already exctinct. Mining, logging, and hydroelectric industries
have either destroyed or marginalized much of their habitat through
the Pacific Northwest. Almost everywhere you can fish for them,
you will be chasing the "remants" of a once-prolific
steelhead run. Only in the undammned rivers of northern British
Columbia and southeast Alaska can you find wild steelhead runs
even approaching their histocial productivity, and these populations
are threatening by bad logging practices, and commercial overfishing.
Steelhead are also stocked
in many tributaries to the Great Lakes. The fish migrate to the
lakes instead of saltwater, and return to the streams when it
is time to spawn. While these fisheries are far from natural,
they are often prolific, and may be your best chance to tangle
with large steelhead on a consistent basis.
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