steelhead sizes

[msmith14]

Hi, just a quick question about steelhead. From my experience it seems like the average size of a steelhead depends on the trib. it is in. For example the trib. I fish 95% of the time is a small trib. behind my house. I fish it every weekend and during the week when I get a chance. the average size steelhead I catch there is between 18 to 22 inches and you rarely catch a fish over 24 inches. but when I go to a stream like Maxwell Creek witch is only about 15 miles away the size of the fish seems to get much bigger. Dose any one know the reason for this?

Thanks.

 

[LyNcH]

Are you sure they are not rainbow trout you are catching?

If the steelhead are in the Lake and come into to eat salmon eggs and hang out until they spawn, trickle in during the winter to eventually spawn, they are usually of decent size. I have fished several tribs and find the average size to be equal to that in the Salmon River. In fact my largest steelhead to date was caught in a not too large trib.

 

[golden beetle]

Are you sure they are not rainbow trout you are catching?

If the steelhead are in the Lake and come into to eat Salmon eggs and then spawn, they are usually of decent size. I have fished several tribs and find the average size to be equal to that in the Salmon River. In fact my largest steelhead to date was caught in a not too large trib.

I think you are politely suggesting that msmith14 might be mistaken.

He may be catching some very impressive bows.

And not small steelies.

You did that very politely, Lynch.

Politeness?

That is the NEFF way.

 

[msmith14]

I thought all the rainbows that come into the tribs in the fall and spring to spawn than go back to the lake are considered steelies. Don't rainbows stay in the streams all year long?

 

[flyI4]

I believe there are different strains of rainbows, where some are referred to as domestic rainbows and others are considered steelhead, but both species typically stay in the lake and then migrate up in the fall. In my experience, the domestic rainbows are much more red in the gillplate and not typicall as long(20-24'' is what I've mostly encountered), whereas the steelhead are chrome in the early season, and progressively become a purple kind of color by the winter with some being a little more silver than others. Just my experience other streams may be different

 

[theartoflee]

MS

Size of fish do vary by stream or trib with a big factor contributing to the size of the steelhead being what lake they run from, how large the lake is, and what other species such as salmon reside in the lake. For example The "X" creek a tributary of Lake Erie steelhead average 24 inches with a 26 inch steelhead being big. That is not to say that you will not catch ones over thirty inches, but we are speaking about the average. Where as on Ontario Tributary "Y" an average steelhead might be 27inches with a 30+ inch steelhead being much more common then on "X".

Lake Erie has a reputation of putting out larger numbers of steelhead but smaller size fish on average because there is an almost non existent run of salmon. Hence a larger food source to support a larger number of steelhead.

A good book to check out is Jerry and Rick Kustich "Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead" he lists the average size of steelhead for some of the tributaries.

 

[Wbranch]

Theartoflee wrote; "Size of fish do vary by stream or trib with a big factor contributing to the size of the steelhead being what lake they run from, how large the lake is, and what other species such as salmon reside in the lake."

I agree 100% with his hypothosis. I used to fish a river in NYS where it was pretty common to be catching steelhead in the 10# - 13# range and not entirely uncommon to catch 14# - 16# fish. I no longer fish Lake Ontario but have fished various streams in western <ACRONYM title="New York">NY</ACRONYM> and PA Erie tribs and have caught a couple hundred fish and only about half a dozen were honest 10# fish with most being 23" - 27" fish.