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Great Lakes steelhead question

10K views 92 replies 31 participants last post by  martyg 
#1 ·
I'll be travelling to southern Ontario for Christmas this year (family near Toronto) and have booked a guided walk and wade trip in a creek well known for Great Lakes steelhead. Now, I've fished for steelhead before on hte OP and even hooked up with one on the swing last March using my 8wt single handed rod and a short Skagit Spey line with a 15 foot sinking tip. However, the guide in Ontario suggested that there won't be much room for swinging flies, and that we'll mostly be dead drifting nymphs and using indicators.

I just ordered a RIO GOLD line for my ECHO Carbon 6wt (thanks for the input fellas :) ), and I wanted to get some feedback from you guys about the suitability of that setup for what is intended. Will I be alright with that setup (I mean the line, not the rod...I have full confidence in the rod), or should I consider a different line? Presumably the RIO Gold is versatile enough for the required mending etc. behind an indicator. If I come across a section that IS suitable for swinging I think I ought to be ok to simply throw on an egg sucking leech (or other suitable swinging fly) and have at it. Opinions?
 
#36 ·
They are landlocked steelhead. Just like landlocked Atlantics are still Atlantics these fish are stelhead. They are however landlocked. They behave like steelhead and look like steelhead, they don't have access to the Pacific though.

BTW- there are "rainbows" in the GL as well. They don't generally grow at the same rate as the steelhead. They certainly are different even if the genus and species is the same.

Landlocked steelhead.

Go Sox,
cds
 
#38 ·
They're Rainbow Salmons

It actually amazes me how little most of you know about the very diverse fisheries over there, but yet know enough to make wild assumptions and argue with each other. It also amazes me that you've all chosen to hijack this guy's thread asking for info, and turn it into an argument of rainbows vs. steelhead
 
#39 ·
They're Rainbow Salmons

It actually amazes me how little most of you know about the very diverse fisheries over there, but yet know enough to make wild assumptions and argue with each other. It also amazes me that you've all chosen to hijack this guy's thread asking for info, and turn it into an argument of rainbows vs. steelhead
It is not amazing. It is, however, fun.

FYI: The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea-run rainbow trout (anadromous) usually returning to freshwater to spawn after two to three years at sea; rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species. The fish are often called salmon trout.[1] Several other fish in the salmonid family are called trout; some are anadromous like salmon, whereas others are resident in freshwater only.[
 
#40 ·
Even if we do know what they are, what's with ". . . anadromidity . . .?"

Now that's fukin' dipshit make up your own words right there. I suppose he meant anadromy, if he knows what he's talking about.

Mr. Phister,

The only people making wild assumptions are those who don't know what they're talking about. Not that uncommon on internet forums actually.
 
#46 ·
i am not familiar with the ontario tribs, but the great lakes fishery can be a lot of fun. i spent 4 months one winter fishing the erie and ontario tribs and had a great time. never saw any wonderblob fish, and swung up a ton of nice fish. i have my opinion on whether they are truly steelhead, but it doesn't matter what we on the west coast say because they are going to continue to be called steelhead by those in the great lakes regardless.

it is a different experience to know that if the river is fishable you are for certain gonna hook some fish on the swing... i'm never certain here so it was a nice change of pace for someone whose only experience had been in the pacific northwest.

have fun and it might not be as cold as you think.
 
#47 ·
All kidding aside...well most of it anyway...Nobody knows for sure where or exactly when the term 'Steelhead' originated. Northern California is the most likely suspect but proving where slang terms originate is tough.

They are Rainbow Trout. Some head down river and some don't. Do they know what is down there when they take off? No. They just go. There was a time when people thought these monsters were in the river all the time and in late June when they stopped catching them the streams were considered "fished out" But science marches on and now we know what the real story is.

Go to middle America and catch 'em. From what I understand their runs are doing better than ours. Maybe salt is part of the problem.
 
#48 ·
Go to middle America and catch 'em. From what I understand their runs are doing better than ours. Maybe salt is part of the problem.
We do have the advantage of almost no commercial by-catch or tribal netting. I'd like to see better returns of Atlantics in the Ontario tribs, but the pacific salmon, steelhead, and browns have done so much better with their returns.
 
#50 ·
It would be difficult to garner the enthusiasm from the fisherman out here to abandon the pacific fish in hopes of helping atlantics regain what was once theirs. Unlike some of you, who can still remember when your rivers were flush with native wild fish, the atlantics here have been gone so long that nobody is alive that fished for them when they were here in abundance.

I'd love to see if grayling could be sucessfully reintroduced in the GL with our now zebra musseled clear water.
 
#51 ·
What impressed me the most when looking into the great lakes fish was the return rate. some 30% return rate compared to our - what 3% ?
wouldn't it be nice to have that kind of return rate here in the pacific northwest. Yes I know why we don't have that kind of return rate just stating a fact that makes me think great lakes fisherman are "SPOILED" AND LOVING EVERY YEAR OF IT! You can call them what ever you want - I still respect that fishery a lot.

And yes old man at first (as far as I know) they used the best steelhead species in the world (IMO) the skamania strain steelhead, the best fighting steel of them all. don't know what they use now.
 
#59 ·
I think it is a matter of opinion and bias if you want to call them Steelhead or not. The great lakes are actually classified as in land seas. Simliar to the Caspian and Aral, and lake Bycal in Russia. They are higher in mineral content than the tribs that dump into them. The point to the matter is that these Steelhead that are in the great lakes could find their way to Saltwater if they had a source. Similar to how the Atlantic Salmon used to run up the St. Lawerence into lake Ontario and spawn in the tribs prior to dams. A lot of them never made it back to salt and stay in Ontario for life. Same thought process with the King and Coho salmon popluations. I have fished for and caught steelhead in the Pac NW and the Great lakes. The only difference is what they feed on in the ocean and in the great lakes. It is different. Same difference with the Brown Trout. No reason to get ugly folks. They are all equally as fun to deliver that perfect presentation to. If you want a great river to fish. Try the Grand River in Southern Ontario.
Water Smile Sky Outdoor recreation Fish
 
#62 ·
Having grown up in the Great Lakes I see the difference in the two "Steelhead / Rainbow" fish and locales is that there are a lot more of them in the Great Lakes. Policy makers in that region have a spine, ran the numbers and realized a long time ago that sport fishermen were a significant contributor to small town economies - so they groomed the resource with that intent in mind.

I want to see Taimen introduced to our salmon rivers - because sea run Taimen ROCK(!!!) and Smallmouth to the Bogie.
 
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