[Wilderness Made]

Had a great day steelhead fishing (caught five including this fish).

Caught what I think is a bow. If it is it's easily a personal best for me. I'm confused though because it doesn't really look like the resident trout from the river I was fishing, and also doesn't look like the resident Steelhead from the area. What do you think? The angle of the picture doesn't show the length but it was ~22-24" and fatty. Pretty sure with the colorings and the odd body shape it was a bow.

Resident Trout:

resident steelie:

The fish has almost a combo of the markings of both. It also was MUCH fatter than anything else I've caught which makes me believe it was a rainbow.

 

[junkie]

Looks like many of the redbands I catch over here, while the second bow looks more like the traditional coastal residents. I'm leaning toward small steel, but I could be wrong.

 

[The T.O. Show]

With most of it's spots above the lateral line, I'm guessing steelhead. Hard to say though...

 

[Robert Engleheart]

Location would help, don't need to be specific but coastal, interior, etc. That said, I agree with The TO Show.

 

[ZNUKE14]

I just sifted through some old pictures on my phone. I am going big resident trout.

Looking at the few Idaho steelhead I have caught compared to the bows, one thing that remains constant is freckles past the band at the base of the tail. All the resident bows I have caught have spots the entire base. All 7 steelhead I have hooked into, the spots do intersect but do not go below the lateral line.

I'd say call it your personal best bow. Either way, it is a great looking fish and you're making people jealous.

 

[Freestone]

Plain and simple, you will never know for sure. Everyone will have opinions of course...

I have caught plenty of steelhead that had spots below the lateral line and have caught rainbows (even in lakes) with no spots below the lateral line. It is not a definitive identifier.

And, I have caught plenty of steelhead that looked like the one in your photo but that were bigger. If this fish was caught inland (ie. anywhere in the Columbia system), those fish are in the process of sexually maturing in the fresh water and preparing for spawning. In doing so, they begin to color up. Even in late March, I have caught some really fat males and females.

Bottom line is that if there are steelhead in this system, WDFW would say a 20" + rainbow is a steelhead. However, since you didn't harvest it, you can call it whatever you want.

 

[Cruik]

I'd say resident bow on a feeling. If I had to describe why, though, I might say it's the greenish tinge the fish has. Seems that I notice that green tinge on fish from certain streams, and not on other streams. And never on steelhead. At least not that light-green body tinge. I notice it a lot on Cedar river bows.

Also, I think the fins are bigger and more prominent than a lot of 1 salt steelhead I've seen. The fish just looks healthy, like he's exactly where he's supposed to be, and not like a horned up, hunger-striking steelhead.

 

[eplanajr]

All some beauts..

 

[Gone’r]

Looks like a rainbow to me, but hard to say from one photo. They can be shockingly large in anadromous streams but there is some grey area as they have some really diverse behaviors a scale sample could tell an interesting story. My gut says a really healthy resident rainbow. Nice work.

 

[Tracker]

Atlantic Salmon

 

[FAQ!]

YES. (Bow and steelhead).

 

[Mountain Man]

Rainhead. Steelbow. Turk the Impaler. I'll go with "bigger than anything I've caught in a long, long time."

 

[freestoneangler]

Who cares... it's March 1, you're out fishing, and catching fish. I'm going with RB on the first two photos and SH on the last.

 

[Wilderness Made]

Thanks for all the replies. Jury is still out. My gut is still saying rainbow.
I realize there's no way to really know... Just wanted some more experienced anglers opinions.
I don't care one way or the other... It was fun to catch.. trying to gain some knowledge.

 

[Freestone]

Thanks for all the replies. Jury is still out. My gut is still saying rainbow.
I realize there's no way to really know... Just wanted some more experienced anglers opinions.
I don't care one way or the other... It was fun to catch.. trying to gain some knowledge.

Knowing if it was from the Columbia system (making it a summer run) or not (making it a winter run), would go a long way to guessing correctly.

So, was it a Columbia system fish?

 

[clarkman]

steelbow

regardless, gorgeous fish.

 

[Wilderness Made]

Knowing if it was from the Columbia system (making it a summer run) or not (making it a winter run), would go a long way to guessing correctly.

So, was it a Columbia system fish?

Yep - Columbia system fish. That last photo of the steelie was caught same day/location.

 

[Gard Nale]

What is a resident steelhead?

 

[Wilderness Made]

shutup yardsale

 

[Delete MeToo]

My best guess is the first two, residents. The last one steelhead.

To me, it seems like the heavily spotted, white tip on fin variety are almost always residents. A fresh steelhead is gun metal black back, clear fins, and purple tinge along lateral line, older steelhead have a few spots below lateral but not many.