HIstory

• Before the Pacific coast of North America was ever settled by Spain or the United States, the native American populations of the area enjoyed harvesting steelhead trout. Finding a place in their culture and spirituality as well as their stomachs, steelhead trout nourished native populations for an unknown length of time. According to NWcouncil.org, steelhead populations as well as other anadromous fish such as salmon returned to the Columbia river each year in numbers as high as 16 million before 1850. Unfortunately, modern day steelhead populations are rapidly dwindling and the Columbia river now sees less than 2 million steelhead and salmon return each year.
  
  

Considerations

• Unfortunately, the steelhead trout is quickly becoming an endangered species all along the west coast of the United States. While other coastal areas in Canada and Alaska are not having such a negative impact on fish habitats yet, the trend is evident in California, where steelhead are a threatened species and in the Willamette River Basin, where they are endangered. Over development, a loss of natural habitat for spawning and the adverse effects of fish hatcheries have all contributed to a decrease in steelhead populations over the past century.
  
  

Identification

• Steelhead trout are technically the same species as rainbow trout, but their oceangoing lifestyle as well as their later return to fresh water to spawn, set them apart. Both fish are identifiable by the olive black to blue green shading on top that fades to white on the belly, but the steelhead variety has a silvery sheen that overlays any coloring. In addition, the steelhead trout is more slender than the fatter rainbow trout variety. Steelhead trout have been spread to other areas of the United States as far as the great lake states and even New York, but they can be identified the same way. Steelhead trout populations simply need salt water access, which they find in the great lakes as well as lake Ontario north of New York.
  
  

Types of Steelhead Fishing

• Steelhead trout are caught by regular cast fishing with a spinner or a wiggler, but they are also notorious for biting on fly fishing lines just as much or more. The use of fly fishing to catch a steelhead trout is popular because of the dynamic and physical nature of the fish, which can jump impressively to strike at fly fishing flies. Either way, the steelhead is notable for the variety of methods that can be used to catch it. Although aggressive and energetic, the steelhead is not considered a hard fish to catch.
  
  

Warning

• Although steelhead fishing has become a popular sport among people trying to get back to nature, it may be necessary to limit steelhead fishing within the original habitat where they evolved in the first place. The North American tributaries along the Pacific west coast must be protected and maintained in order to increase the wild steelhead populations before there is nothing left but artificial trout populations harvested from fish hatcheries.