Recently ran into a few rainbows that had that steelhead look vs the more heavily spotted resident rainbow markings. These fish were spotted on their upper half, with a faint pink stripe, and chrome lower halves. Both hens in this case, around 16”.

Was wondering if the half-pounders you hear about in Northern California/southern Oregon are also up here in decent numbers? What was interesting about these fish was that their bellies seemed to feel “full” as they didn’t have that eel-like shape of a post spawn fish.

Could these be summer run steelhead whose anadromy didn’t extend far beyond the local saltwater, or just resident rainbow that aren’t heavily spotted?

Feel free to PM me, and I can shoot you some pics through text or email.

I've caught what I believe are resident rainbows in a number of different Washington systems.
They just look different then steelhead, with more color and spots. I've also caught what I believe to be jack steelhead that look different then the fish I'd consider resident rainbows. Some where super bright and caught in the winter.
I don't believe we have populations of half pounders which are more common to southern Oregon and Northern California.

This article is a bit dated and Oregon based, but a good read and why those resident rainbow are important to steelhead populations.
SF

https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2...ead-populations

I have caught the same fish in OP rivers many years ago while fishing for summer steelhead. Definitely rainbows. Was also catching a lot of Dolly Varden. Maybe they were there going after King eggs?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Jack steelhead the same a half pounders? Just makes me wonder what the life history of these fish is. Would love to provide some photos if anyone is curious, but maybe the resident rainbows in this river simply aren’t heavily spotted.

You could call half pounders jacks. The jacks I was referring to caught here were larger, in the 18-20" range. Anything over 20" is of course considered a steelhead, even those some of those are actually resident rainbows.
My buddy in California likes to fish for the half pounders and catches a number of them each year in the 10-16" range. I can't recall catching any that small here myself that I'd consider steelhead, but it likely happens.
Probably semantics as to what they are called, jacks or half pounders.
SF

So do half pounders return as adult Steelhead, or like Jacks, early returners with less time in the salt ?

Maybe the smaller rezzy Rainbows encountered are just Steelhead that refuse to leave the River’s drainage because they find better survival opportunities in the system vs the salt ? Using our local River as an example here, it seems we see this phenomenon of “the in-River Rainbow “ increase every few years or so as the Rainbow stay resident , then a few years where they seem to disappear again.

Do you think some of the resident rainbows get taken out under the general stream fishing regs? If I recall correctly, WDFW is going to update their wild trout harvest policy or something to that extent.

My understanding is the half pounders spend less time in the salt, like 3-4 months.
SF

[/quote]

Do you think some of the resident rainbows get taken out under the general stream fishing regs? If I recall correctly, WDFW is going to update their wild trout harvest policy or something to that extent.

My understanding is the half pounders spend less time in the salt, like 3-4 months.
SF [/quote]

From my perspective having fished here on and off for a gazillion years,(30 or more), they get cleaned out most every season once the word gets out.

The opener here is mostly focused on hitting late winter run Steelhead (kelts), praying for a nearly non existent Summer Run Steelhead, followed by the rumor of big Rainbows, and the chance of a nice big Cutthroat still in the creek.

IMO, and argued for many years, all Rainbow under 20in should be released, and I’d love to have all the trout protected to give the big wild Cutthroat a break. So my rules would be -

All Trouts - catch and release

single barbless

no bait

Boats for transportation only...

And all hatchery Steelhead encountered over 20 inch retained, and all Wilds released.

And keep the summer run hatchery program running........

My understand is that "half pounders" are typically found in abundance in the streams of northern California and South Oregon. The steelhead of that region are different from those found in northern Oregon and Washington. Those northern populations in their marine migrations range far in the north Pacific. The steelhead in that Southern Oregon and northern California do their ocean feeding in the "Humboldt" upwelling just of the coast.

It appears that the half pounders are able to migrate from that nearby feeding grounds back to the rivers to spend the winter as immature fish. They return to the salt the following late winter/early spring to feed and reach maturity. This is the same type of behavior that is seen with North Sound sea-run cutthroat and bull trout.

Thus the traditional half pounder are immature fish at that stage of their life. On those northern rivers similar sized fish are encountered. They can be a mixture of resident rainbow, smaller than normal one salt summer steelhead or a Jack (typically winter fish).

Based on ages from seabeckraised's fish it sounds like they are resident rainbows that have reached maturity. I have been fortunate to examine scales from a variety of O. mykiss from a number of river systems that included the resident life history. Those fish typically mature at age 4 and in larger rivers were typically 14/15 inches long at first maturity. Of the anadromous river resident rainbows whose scale I have examined some lived to at least 10 years of age and a maximum length of 24/25 inches.

Some of the historical reports pre 1900 or early 1900s indicate that such fish at one time were fairly common on Washington anadromous waters. To 20 Gauge's point current (the last century) management of our anadromous stream's salmonids actively select against that resident rainbow life history in many waters rarely seen.

Curt

Fortunately for these fish, if they are in fact resident, if they occupy 1-2 river miles for the duration of their lives, they’d see almost no pressure. I’d wager the vast majority of pressure they do receive would be CnR with safe handling practices.

Amazing how many little honey holes still exist with a little effort required to access them.

I document every rainbow and cutthroat I catch locally each year, with hopes of encountering the same fish over multiple years. Would help paint a more clear picture of their life histories for sure.