TR: Steelin'

[neckdeep]

We have the same regs in ID. So, Cmcrawfo, what is the midwestern angler's aversion to simply calling them lake run bows? I lived in Chicago for ten years. Everyone I met was rather clear on the fact that we lived next to a very big lake, not the ocean. We have lakes here too. Here in idaho, American Falls reservoir produces huge trout that run up into the Snake river; an angler got a 21 pound bow a few years back but nobody around here called it a steelhead because its pretty obvious the dang thing didn't swim up over Shoshone Falls. That was a lake run rainbow up into the Snake to spawn. Was it also a steelhead? It is under the midwestern definition, isn't it? Thats an odd result, huh? On a lot of our lakes, we have kokanee runs into the creeks. We call them kokanee because we also have sockeye and need a term to distinguish between the sea runs and lake runs. We also distinguish between chinook running in the Columbia Basin and "land locked chinook" that come from lakes. I suppose if you don't need to distinguish between a lake run and sea run fish, you can call it whatever you want. It don't make a lake an ocean, imho.

[topwater]

It doesn't make catching a big fish more or less worthy so Topwater really needs to settle the fuck down when the local fish biologist points out a lake run bow isn't really a sea run fish.

we all know the difference between great lake and pacific fish. one doesn't need to be a biologist to know the differences. i agree that great lakes rainbows aren't steelhead, but it really doesn't fucking matter because that is what they are called regionally. no amount of internet discussion is going to change that, and most mentions of it on great stoke threads are an attempt to be a prick (like akpm's).

from my experience, the people that get most up in arms about calling great lakes fish steelhead are not that experienced or skilled at west coast steelheading.

[skifishbum]

I lived in Chicago for ten years. Everyone I met was rather clear on the fact that we lived next to a very big lake, not the ocean..

skaminia?


don't mind the monkey boy from ak he gets butthurt and salty anytime someone doesn't watermark their photos that are twice as good as his.

[snapt]

We have the same regs in ID. So, Cmcrawfo, what is the midwestern angler's aversion to simply calling them lake run bows? I lived in Chicago for ten years. Everyone I met was rather clear on the fact that we lived next to a very big lake, not the ocean. We have lakes here too. Here in idaho, American Falls reservoir produces huge trout that run up into the Snake river; an angler got a 21 pound bow a few years back but nobody around here called it a steelhead because its pretty obvious the dang thing didn't swim up over Shoshone Falls. That was a lake run rainbow up into the Snake to spawn. Was it also a steelhead? It is under the midwestern definition, isn't it? Thats an odd result, huh? On a lot of our lakes, we have kokanee runs into the creeks. We call them kokanee because we also have sockeye and need a term to distinguish between the sea runs and lake runs. We also distinguish between chinook running in the Columbia Basin and "land locked chinook" that come from lakes. I suppose if you don't need to distinguish between a lake run and sea run fish, you can call it whatever you want. It don't make a lake an ocean, imho.

I swung flies in the snake here in town all fall on light 2 handers for big trout and it was a hell of a lot more fun than catching hatchery boots in the Salmon.

[cascade pinner]

We have the same regs in ID. So, Cmcrawfo, what is the midwestern angler's aversion to simply calling them lake run bows? I lived in Chicago for ten years. Everyone I met was rather clear on the fact that we lived next to a very big lake, not the ocean. We have lakes here too. Here in idaho, American Falls reservoir produces huge trout that run up into the Snake river; an angler got a 21 pound bow a few years back but nobody around here called it a steelhead because its pretty obvious the dang thing didn't swim up over Shoshone Falls. That was a lake run rainbow up into the Snake to spawn. Was it also a steelhead? It is under the midwestern definition, isn't it? Thats an odd result, huh? On a lot of our lakes, we have kokanee runs into the creeks. We call them kokanee because we also have sockeye and need a term to distinguish between the sea runs and lake runs. We also distinguish between chinook running in the Columbia Basin and "land locked chinook" that come from lakes. I suppose if you don't need to distinguish between a lake run and sea run fish, you can call it whatever you want. It don't make a lake an ocean, imho.

WTF are you talking about? Same Q for your other posts in this thread....

Genetics resulting from natural selection determines the life history patterns in a given population of Oncorhynchus mykiss. Plain and simple. The reason that people call the strains of O. mykiss that have been stocked in the Great Lakes "steelhead" is because they originated from.....steelhead. Same as if you stocked Lahontan cutts in Lake Ontario, they would be Lahontan cutts, now living in LO. There are lots of strains of rainbow trout....some have been "domesticated" for various traits through selective breeding that are stocked in tributaries of the great lakes and stay in the tribs as residents. Because steelhead strains evolved the genetic predisposition to out-migrate to greener pastures....most of the progeny hatched (wild) or stocked in great lakes tribs find their way downstream to the lake. Within any given redd.....various percentages of the offspring may show a variety of different life history patterns....in most steelhead populations a large percentage of the offspring bail, but a small percentage will usually remain as residents.

The idea that anadromy defines a "steelhead" is wrong. Steelhead stocked into an area without access to an ocean, but downstream find a lake instead, simply means they now exhibit an adfluvial life history. But its still a steelhead....

AKPM the resident fish biologist? Haha...his inability to resist obvious bias suggests seasonal technician to me....but whatever

Sweet pics.....some of the best steelhead fishing in the country is in the Great Lakes....nice work guys

[Underoos]

Do you not see the irony of posting in a debate about GL steelhead/notsteelhead with "pinner" in your handle? I chuckled.

Aside, excellent points.

I prefer to think of it in terms of tackle. If it was caught waking a dry it's a steelhead. If it came to a bead it's a hatchery rainblow, adipose or not.

[cascade pinner]

Do you not see the irony of posting in a debate about GL steelhead/notsteelhead with "pinner" in your handle? I chuckled.

Aside, excellent points.

I prefer to think of it in terms of tackle. If it was caught waking a dry it's a steelhead. If it came to a bead it's a hatchery rainblow, adipose or not.

haha...yeah Cascade Center Pinner?

A thingamabobber guy I'm not....

Wet or dry, pretty much just stick with the muddler anymore....

[Underoos]

And since I accused (congratulated, really) TC of being filthy, I feel it is only right to post this fish that I catched recently. It is not a steelhead, for reasons that I mentioned earlier.

[Sagamoron]

Like clockwork, the fall steelhead arguement.. Its almost as predictable as the Recreational/Commercial Stripped Bass Battles in the Northeast Fishing Forums