I realize fish eggs are a valuable source of protein in any river system, and that there are going to be predators any time there in abundance. I have a few questions regarding steelhead spawning habits. How exactly do the steelhead manage to keep their eggs in their redds, is it just because they've dug a depression below the main river current or do they cover the eggs with clean gravel? Do the dollys arrive in any particular river before the steelhead or follow them in the hopes of picking off a free lunch? One more question: do the dollys spawn in the main river later than the steelhead or move up into the smaller feeder creeks after loading up? I assume after spawning some dollys or bull trout remain in the river to feed on the fry............c/22

When I was a kid, I remember watching huge Dollies move out of the upper Carbon River and into the smaller creeks to spawn...was great fishing on light tackle

Steelhead, like all salmonids, cover their redds. A single female will dig a series of nests, each one upstream of the last so that the action of digging covers the previous nest with the dislodged gravel. Anadromous Dolly Varden enter the rivers in the late summer to spawn, their peak spawning month is September. Like all other salmonids (including cutthroat and young steelhead and coho), Dolly Varden eat salmon eggs, almost always those that have been washed out of the nest during the nest-digging and spawning activities.

Chrome/22-
After the female steelhead selects her spawning site she prepares the area by turning on her side and "fanning" the area. The hydraulic pressure from her tail fanning and the stream current causes the rocks roll downstream (the fish does not actually dig with her tail). This results in a pit that typically is 6 to 10 inches deep. Once a pit is formed the actually spawning takes place. The female positions herself over the pit with a male along side. She will squirt out several hundred eggs which the males fertilizes. The female will then move just upstream to construct another pit and in the process bury the first batch of eggs. After the female drops the eggs into the pit they will tumble down into the spaces in the gravel below - this results in the eggs being buried 6 to 14 inches below the stream bed. The process is repeated a number of times until all her eggs have been placed in the gravel. Our wild steelhead typcially have 5 to 6,000 eggs.

The Dolly Varden/bull trout are fall spawners that typcally spawn between mid-September to mid-November in Western Washington; a little earlier on the east side of the Cascades. They spawning in the upper reaches of most watersheds in water that is colder than that used by most salmon.

Tight lines
Smalma

Thanks for clearing that up for me.....c/22

Hi Chrome: I wouldent worry about the few eggs the dollies get the real predator is the Grizzly. About five years ago every redd on the Atnarko R, a spawning stream tributary to the Bella Coola R , was torn open by grizzlies .We sat and watched them working the river bottom but wernt prepared to go down and drive the bears off. just a coward at heart.