Steelhead

Identification

Bright chrome flanks with a heavily spotted back and tail, and a white mouth and gums. Fish that have been in the river a while colour up to a pronounced pink or red lateral stripe. The heavily spotted tail and pink stripe separate them from brown trout, which carry red spots ringed in pale halos and no stripe.

Habitat & Range

Rear in tributary streams, mature in the open lake or ocean, and return to spawn over gravel in those same tributaries. In the Great Lakes the lake substitutes for the ocean.

Native to the Pacific rim of North America and Asia; established throughout the Great Lakes, where they are maintained by a mix of stocking and natural reproduction.

Diet & Feeding

Aquatic insects and fry when young; alewife, smelt and other baitfish in open water. In the river they take egg patterns, nymphs and streamers largely out of aggression and opportunism.

Spawning & Reproduction

Steelhead survive spawning — unlike coho and chinook, which die — and may return several times, though most spawn only once or twice. Timing is set by strain, not by the calendar: on Lake Michigan, Skamania spawn from mid-December through mid-March while Ganaraska peak in April and early May. On Lake Erie, fish enter from September and October and spawn in March and April.