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Resident Rainbow or Steelhead?

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Resident Rainbow or Steelhead? (Poll)

2K views 24 replies 22 participants last post by  SilverFly 
#1 · (Edited)
The context: Westside river, caught last night (June 12 2021).

The fish in question:

IMG_6564.jpg


The fish was taped at 22". I'm thinking it's a jack *small* winter run steelhead, but I thought it would be fun to ask the peanut gallery.

Cast your vote!
 
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#12 ·
Looks steelhead-y to me. This is a stupid reason but I would expect the fins to be bigger on a resident rainbow ancient enough to make it to 22" in the anadromous zone of a freestone western WA river.

As an aside, I think 22" is a pretty rare length for a winter steelhead. Pretty common for a 1-salt summer, but weird for a winter, which I feel like typically come back as a 24-28ish inch 1.5 salt or rarely, a 18-19" .5 salt. So for the sake of being different, I'll vote post-spawn 1-salt summerrun.

I wouldn't think a 22" steelhead would be called a jack, would it?
 
#15 ·
I wouldn't think a 22" steelhead would be called a jack, would it?
Not a jack, just a small winter run male steelhead. I've caught a few, but not many, male winter steelhead that were 20 - 24" in length. Just a couple winters ago I caught a female winter run that was 19 or 20", which was a first for me.
 
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