I was fishing the mouth of the Green where it meets the Toutle. This dude on the opposite side of the river nailed a CHROME steelhead that took him down river. Not knowing it was a native we yelled out to him NICE STEELHEAD several times. We were jealous. We saw him land it about 100 yards down river. He placed his fingers in its gills and walked it back to the spot he caught it. He yelled over to me " can you keep WILD FISH" I told him no and that the fish he had was a Steelhead. He told me he thought it was a "Silver". Anyways, he tried to revive it for a few minutes then he slipped it back into the river,. I watched it float belly up as the current took it away. People need to know not only the regs but what fish they are cathing. This really pisses me off!!!

Your right people need to know the regs before they hit the river .

should of thrown a rock or two and bonked him, what a stupid fu*K*ing excuse for a fisherman...if that what ya wanna call him..

From 100 yards how can you tell the difference between a steelhead and a silver?

They are talking about the mouth of the green on the toutle, not the mouth of the toutle on the cowlitz. But, my thoughts exactly. I caught a chrome bright silver last week that looked almost like a steelhead. I had a hard time telling the difference and I've caught alot of both. The way I figured it out was my fish had a slight hook to the nose and it was a hen. We released a fish earlier that we were not sure about and I've released fish on 2 other occasions that I presume were silvers, but was not sure and did not want to handle a fish for an extended period of time that may be released.

Now back to the topic, Its hard to say if it was a steelhead or not from across the river, but that really is irrelevant, because it is wild coho release and this guy should have known the rules or at the very least handled the fish with care until he found out. I'd give the guy a break though if I mishandled a fish that I had to release and it didn't make it. I would not only feel bad about it. I would learn from it.
I saw a guy at the mouth of the Toutle 2 weeks ago land a dark 35-40# king. His buddy drug it up onto the ash/sand with the hook of his cane through its gills never touched the fish. Then they admired it in the sand for what seemed like five minutes before picking it up and attempting to revive and release it. I saw them push it off and did not see it float away but I cannot see how it could have survived.

I haven't been fishing salmon out here very long, but I know that a LOT of the fisherpeople don't know the regulations.

I saw several people on the toutle take fish out of the water that they released. Almost everyone was snagging the fish...on purpose.

I watched a girl on the hoh a couple weeks back catch a pink that she drug on the bank and ripped the hook out of the fish causing the gils to bleed then she put it back in the water. It sunk and sat on bottom in front of her for 5 minutes, then when it floated by me and my son I had my son take it out and gut it - we stamped our catch record....then...then her boyfriend crossed the river and looked at the fish...grabbed his 2-way radio and went back to the other side...a few minutes later he called his girlie and told her to tell me to throw my fish in the bushes cause the gamie was coming and it was a dolly varden....I looked at the fish again and told her that she wasn't supposed to take a released fish out of the water and that it was a pink....and that I would just wait to see what the gamie said....he said it was a pink too.

I have asked several people what the regs were and everyone one of them said they "weren't sure"....I released all our fish (not many at that) until I made darn sure what the rules were....

I have also seen people using trebles where single hooks only are allowed.

the state requiers hunter safty class for all new hunters under a certian age. so why not fishing courses to? if we can teach the youth the rights and wrongs before dad teachs them the art of snagging or thet the regs book is a waste of time to read.

we will have a little better future to look forward to. or at lest the fish will.

not to mention how hard it would be for dad to brake the law with jr. asking him why he get to do it when it's not legal.

oh well, just a thought

I stated that this guy brought the fish back holding it by the gills to the hole that he caught it!!!! Not only does this guy need to read the regs but some of you need to learn how to read! He was right across the river from us and he held it up to show us. I could clearly see that it was a Steelhead and the adipose fin. The regs clearly state RELEASE all wild fish Coho and Steelhead so I see no excuse. Before my friends go to a river we always check the regs. The fishing regs seem to change yearly depending on how big the fiah returns are.

i would like to add that, i could tell a steelhead from a silver anyday..steelie has the "so many spots on the tail you cant miss it" where as the coho has spots butusually up at the top, maybe 5-10 if that..having worked on a fish tender and fishing steelies for many years, i could tell the differance justat a glance..

Berkley

Thanks, I to can tell right away between a Steelhead or Silver. I have been fishing for 15 years and have no trouble identifying the difference.

Fishaddict, I'm not saying you were wrong. I was just stating that a chrome bright silver can look alot like a chrome bright steelhead, and that at some distance it may be hard to tell. The point of me bringing it up was that last week I caught a bright silver that at first I thought was a steelhead. A problem that had come up a couple times before, and I was hoping someone could give some distinguishing characteristics to more easily tell the difference. I'll agree most of the time is very easy to tell the difference, but I've caught a couple hundred of each and in these instances I had a hard time telling the difference.

Berkley, thanks for the reply about spots on the tail. I'll keep that in mind.

I found a picture of one of the fish and maybe this will help you understand where I am coming from.
Thanks

PP uploader

Tell me what you think, steelhead or silver?

Very difficult to tell, especially from the tilted angle.

My guess: Female coho

Here's why: As best as I could count, there were 13 rays in the anal fin. A characteristic of salmon. 14 or more and it's a trout. (in this case a steelhead)

I couldn't see into the mouth completely, but a steelhead has an all white mouth. Coho has black with white on the gumline where the teeth are set. I'd also be a bit more sure if I could see the tail better.

The scale loss where you're gripping it. I'm not exactly sure, but it's been my experience that chrome bright salmon lose their scales more easily than a bright steelhead.

All of this is best-guess on my part of course, and if it turns out that it really was a steelhead, well... it just goes to show how much I think I know.

5-lb coho hen...

I can understand your anger at the guys stupidity Fishaddict, I just wish we could see even a smidgen of this kind of anger at gillnets that kill hundreds (if not thousands) of beautiful native steelhead. One fish=bad, thousands=criminal (in my book).....

MC

And my vote on that pic is also of a silver... I can always tell the difference in freshwater, but in the salt a steelhead can be hard to distinguish from a silver......

4Salt,

You are very knowledgeable and your information about how to tell a steelhead from a salmon is helpful and appreciated.

As to the number of rays on the anal fin, however, you have it backards.

In the words of Frank Haw, a highly respected biologist and expert in fish anatomy:

"Pacific Salmon can be seperated from trout by counting the soft rays on the anal fin. A count of the unbranched bases of the anal fin rays will be less than 12 for trout and char and 12 or more for Pacific Salmon."

11 or less = trout or char
12 or more = pacific salmon

As you mentioned trout and char are essentially white inside their mouths while salmon have dark pigmentation.

Thanks for the help Plunker! I think it was you who caught my error the last time too. One of these day I'll get it right!

so with all this steelie talk, who wants to go fishing..then we can count rays and fins, inspect all we want..