Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

while in frank's this past saturday, i caught what looked like a gorgeous rainbow trout—about 18 inches or so—on a rattlebait. it had the green back with the spots and the irridescent pink sides characteristic of a rainbow. i should have taken a picture of it before releasing it but didn't think of it at the time. is it a steelhead or what?

sounds like a stealhead, why did you release.. i would have ate that badboy

Yes there are steele head in the delta. I caught one back in 2003 that went almost 3lbs. It was the first cast of the morning I twitched my dropshot once and it hit it like a 9lb hammer and just took off. I thought it was a big LM but I got it up and I was dissapointed. I was so dissapointed that I took it home with me as a punishment

yes those are steelies.
I would urge us to release ALL of the steelhead we catch in the delta.
They are really far and few between. They are running up through the delta into the foothill streams in an attempt to spawn.

with 80% of their spawning grounds gone due to dams its best to take pictures and let them go.

The hatechery steelhead will have the adapost fin cliped off.

only about 7% of all fishermen in Ca ever catch a wild steelhead.
if you get one with the adapost fin you should go enter the lottery that day.

if you are interested in steelhead make a trip to the smith river from jan-march with feb being prime time.
The steelhead there average 10 pounds. 15-20 pounders are common. The fish reach speeds of 27 feet per second when hooked. certainly the strongest fighting freshwater fish period.

Smith river is the last free flowing river with zero dams left in the state of Ca. The beatuy of the river is worth the trip alone.


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jimmy87 wrote:yes those are steelies.
I would urge us to release ALL of the steelhead we catch in the delta.
They are really far and few between. They are running up through the delta into the foothill streams in an attempt to spawn.

with 80% of their spawning grounds gone due to dams its best to take pictures and let them go.

The hatechery steelhead will have the adapost fin cliped off.

only about 7% of all fishermen in Ca ever catch a wild steelhead.
if you get one with the adapost fin you should go enter the lottery that day.

if you are interested in steelhead make a trip to the smith river from jan-march with feb being prime time.
The steelhead there average 10 pounds. 15-20 pounders are common. The fish reach speeds of 27 feet per second when hooked. certainly the strongest fighting freshwater fish period.

Smith river is the last free flowing river with zero dams left in the state of Ca. The beatuy of the river is worth the trip alone.


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THE MIDDLE FORM AND SOUTH FORK OF THE EEL ALSO ARE DAM FREE .

jimmy87 wrote:yes those are steelies.
I would urge us to release ALL of the steelhead we catch in the delta.
They are really far and few between. They are running up through the delta into the foothill streams in an attempt to spawn.

with 80% of their spawning grounds gone due to dams its best to take pictures and let them go.

The hatechery steelhead will have the adapost fin cliped off.

only about 7% of all fishermen in Ca ever catch a wild steelhead.
if you get one with the adapost fin you should go enter the lottery that day.

if you are interested in steelhead make a trip to the smith river from jan-march with feb being prime time.
The steelhead there average 10 pounds. 15-20 pounders are common. The fish reach speeds of 27 feet per second when hooked. certainly the strongest fighting freshwater fish period.

Smith river is the last free flowing river with zero dams left in the state of Ca. The beatuy of the river is worth the trip alone.


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Good post Jimmy

eel river has dams on it.
capehorn damn on the southfork created lake pilsbury.
Use to be a good area for steelhead until the sqaw fish took over.

farther down the south fork from legget to garberville is a good run.

not sure about the middle fork.

Greg_Cornish wrote:

jimmy87 wrote:yes those are steelies.
I would urge us to release ALL of the steelhead we catch in the delta.
They are really far and few between. They are running up through the delta into the foothill streams in an attempt to spawn.

with 80% of their spawning grounds gone due to dams its best to take pictures and let them go.

The hatechery steelhead will have the adapost fin cliped off.

only about 7% of all fishermen in Ca ever catch a wild steelhead.
if you get one with the adapost fin you should go enter the lottery that day.

if you are interested in steelhead make a trip to the smith river from jan-march with feb being prime time.
The steelhead there average 10 pounds. 15-20 pounders are common. The fish reach speeds of 27 feet per second when hooked. certainly the strongest fighting freshwater fish period.

Smith river is the last free flowing river with zero dams left in the state of Ca. The beatuy of the river is worth the trip alone.


I

Good post Jimmy

you fish for steelhead?
I am an ex steelhead fishing nut. the distance and short season just is not enough fishing for me. Thats why I have become hardcore black bass.

Release em in a hot pan of garlic and butter......

Mmmmmmmmmmmm Trout.

Is it even legal to keep any steelhead anymore? I know the rivers around me are zero take. Catch and release only. Might want to check the regs before you go throwing one in the well. The regs seems to change every year. I believe you also need to have a barbless hook. If you have one on board and are fishing a barbed hook you might also get a ticket. Depending on the regs of course.

Speaking of steelhead,I am on my way out the door in a few minutes to go for steelhead myself.Will be looking for some "Clearwater River" fish today.Some of those girls get over 20lbs.My biggest so far is 18.8lbs.Nice thing about Tri-Citys is we have the Columbia and Snake Rivers right here in our backyards.

Isn't a steelhead just a rainbow that went to sea?

drew wrote:Isn't a steelhead just a rainbow that went to sea?

Yep.

thanks, everyone, for the help.

Slippy wrote:sounds like a stealhead, why did you release.. i would have ate that badboy

slippy, i released it because i wasn't sure of the regs and didn't want to run afoul of the law. good thing too because i just read the regs for steelhead and the bag limit is zero for the valley district.

And you also have to have barbless hooks. If you would have kept it you would have broke two laws.

I do not think you can keep "wild" steelhead in any Ca rivers expcept one way up north.
Most all the rivers are catch and release only be it wild or hatchery fish.
On the American river in sac you can keep hatchery fish. I think only ONE.
You can take steelies from the mad river as well. They have a pretty good hatchery program there however it was cut in half afew years back. (as if we dont pay enough in tax to run a stupid hatchery)


All rivers south of the san lorenzo river in Santa Cruz are permantaly closed to fishing.


I did not know there was regs for the delta being steelhead are not a target there.
interesting.

Be careful keeping a Delta caught steelhead...You can get in big trouble for that one.

jimmy87 wrote:

All rivers south of the san lorenzo river in Santa Cruz are permantaly closed to fishing.

Is this new this year? Does that include the San Lorenzo? I need to check the regs for this year. Last year rivers south of and including the SL were definitely open to fishing.

Good call, it's important we remember to apply preservation in our waterways these days. Plus all fish in the delta especially have health advisory warnings advised by the EPA due to the level of mercury in the fish. Don't eat that stuff.. :/

Here's a picture of a steelhead my Partner caught on a Rat-L-Trap at 14 Mile Solough in Stockton, CA. After a couple of pics it was safely released.

There may be more than people think. I caught one last month up there. I will see if I can download the pic. Ate a swimbait in Franks. At first I thought I had a striper from the fast run. Up came the steelie.

As per DFG regulations a steelhead trout is any rainbow trout that can make it from the body of water you caught it in to the sea regardless if the fish has ever done so, because it is impossible to tell. I know this because my dad and I went out trout fishing and two DFG officers were patrolling this river we were fishing. You MUST have a steelhead card and different sections of each river have different regulations. All steelhead must be caught on artificial lures with no barb hooks and mashing the barb down does not count as they told me if they can take a q-tip and run it along the hook and any fibers catch it is considered barbed. Now the officers were very nice and did not fine us for not having the card and told us they realize it is confusing to someone who does not know and if fish are releasable able they usually let those who have fish off with a warning, but they also said if the fish are dead their hands are tied and they must issue a fine. I want to say it was about $500 dollars for the first offense per fish and they can confiscate your gear. I could be wrong on that dollar figure though.

I say better safe than sorry and let the fish go if you accidentally catch one. Let a largie eat em!

you can tell a steelie by its big tail.
Nice looking fish in that picuture.

It is bright. from a distance they look like big kastmasters.