Ok, so the other day I'm floating down the river and I get to the take out and there are 2 guys. One guy is holding the prettiest steelhead that I've ever seen, blue on the back and silver down the sides. This fish is unbelievably beautiful. The second guy holds a stringer of fish, most of them nice, but had obviously been in the water for awhile. So...how do you tell if a fish is a late summer fish or a winter fish?

This time of year, if there is a hint of red on it, it's likely a summer. Winters will be gunmetal over chrome, with silver streaks into the tail.

Besides appearance, winter fish will be totally ripe and ready to spawn meaning egg/milt sacks will be full. Summer fish will be roughly half ripe meaning eggs/milt will be a little over half mature. Summer fish spawn late winter/early spring, whereas winter hatchery fish will be pretty much ready to spawn on arrival.

There's nothing prettier than a fresh winter steel

There are some rivers, the Gold for example, where fresh fish arrive every month of the year. I often wonderd what to call a wild fish that arrives in Nov. or one that arrives in May. Becsue this is a 100% C&R fishery there is no way to see how mature the sex organs are.

The fish arriving now still wouldn't be spawning until early next spring though right? Wouldn't their eggs be in the same shape as a summer fish?

Without cutting open a fish, are there any other distinguishing factors? Coloration differences between summer/winter fish?

Look in their mouth, if they have what looks like to be little bugs in their mouth (I forget what they're called) it's definitely a summer run. If their mouth is clean, it's most likely a winter fish.

Hmmm....Good Question. I'd have to say that if the fish has red on it and is green on the back this time of the year through December it is a summer run. But this brings up another question. Durring February-April when the steelhead spawn and are in their spawning colors, which are the winter runs and wich are the summer runs? Both spawn at the same time right? So wouldn't they all be the same color?

Surecatch: This is not part of the topic but, it says your from "West Duvall." Where exactly are you talking about because I used to live there a couple years ago and the only thing west of there is the valley, unless you live in the valley or the hills accrosed from the town.

In general, a summer-run's caudal peduncle will be longer then that of a winter-run's.

The best way to descrive the caudal peducnle, I believe, is to describe it as that skinny portion of the fish between the anal and adipose fin and the tail.

A winter-run will be shorter in that area in proportion to the rest of its body when compared to a summer-run.

Twig,

When I read the topic line I wanted so bad to say that the summer fish all have a tan, and the winter fish are kinda' pale. At this time of year, that isn't far off. And others gave you good technical responses.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I caught a summer steelhead last weekend that had a big red stripe. Six months from now in May, the summer runs will be bright, dark green on top with silver sides, white belly, and a hint of pink on the cheeks. Right now, in November, the fresh winter runs will look this way and have silver sides, dark back, and rosy cheeks.

Look at the following link for pics.

www.netbyte.net/steelheadman

Arent winter fish usually larger than a summer fish?

Winters aren't always bigger than summers.. Their is a strain of B run steelhead that enter the Columbia that on average are monsters. They go all way back to the Snake, Clearwater, Salmon, etc. The biggest on record is 35lbs 1 oz. The state record for WA is 32 lbs 12 oz out of the EF of the Lewis in SW WA. But there has been plenty of rumors of winter fish in the mid 30's on the OP.

But to define the difference, it's just run timing and maturity level when they return to the river.
Keith

Larger? More red? Ok, if that's the case, here's your Fisheries Test Du Jour. Here are 5 fish. Besides all being steelhead, which one's are winter or summer fish? Oh, all of these fish were caught this year and some even this week.

(Granted, you COULD cheat by checking all of my web sites. All the fish are there.)

Fish 1



Fish 2



Fish 3



Fish 4



Fish 5

Dates of catch would help with the ID.

If you were asking me, Dan, than no, no dates for you! That'd be too easy to ID these fish. It's a test.

Some were caught in May, and some were caught in November. One was even caught in July.

Seeing how winter fish don't come in in May (Ok, they do) and July, that wouldn't be very fair, now would it?

The REAL question I would be asking (salmog, smalma?) is if caudal peduncle length is an indicator of a winter/summer run, what environmental factors dictate caudal peduncle length? Also, genetically speaking, isn't a summer and winter fish the same fish? Why would the peduncle length change?

Do winter fish have shorter caudal peduncles, and in general, stockier bodies, for that "short" and "quick" burst of speed needed to shoot up the river, spawn, and head back out, all in a freshet or two?

Or, do summer fish have longer caudal peduncles, and in general, longer, leaner bodies, for that long, enduring, stay in the river? If they arrive in May and hang around until November, endurance is a factor.

Even as a Fisheries Graduate, I have some hunches, but no real answers.

Any working bios out there care to help on this one? Interesting stuff.

Kinda like asking our salmon gurus over at the UW what a "Columbia River Summer King" is. No one has a real answer.

Parker,

Too fun! Funny how they don't teach the important stuff in college, like how to ID winters and summers, eh?

I'm not aware that caudal peduncle length is correlated to winter/summer race ID. The most "general" indicator I'm aware of is sexual maturity at time of freshwater entry. The next most "general" is body morphology, where winter runs are usually heavier for a given length than summer runs, but there are so many exceptions that I don't place a lot of weight on it.

So my "unscientific, wild ass guess" is: 1 - S, 2 - W, 3 - S, 4 - W, 5 - S.

If I do badly enough on this test, I'll buy a copy of Dave Vedder's book about fishing with jigs, since I'm about the only one who didn't know kings would whack 'em.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

My answer is "C".....on all of them.

What? "C" isn't one of the choices?

Well, fargin' A then.............I dunno.

When in doubt, always answer "C".

I'll give out the results at the end of the week.

1-s 2-s 3-w 4-w 5-s 1- seems to be one of those fish some classify as a swinter

1.s
2.w
3.s
4.w
5.s

Dates of catch might be just as misleasding as they'd be helpful.

#2 is pretty clearly a wild winter run buck to me, but wild bucks with that coloration can be caught up into June.

#1 looks like a summer run to me, but it looks like the summer runs I catch out of the Sky and Stilly systems in October/November.

Anyway, those are my "guesses", and I'm stickin' to 'em.

Fish on...

Todd.