Talked with the hatchery man at Kalama Falls and he said they just shoot a new tag into the fish every time they come back to the hatchery, then they truck them back downstream. Colors of the tag don't really mean anything special, he said they shoot whatever color tag into the fish they have in front of them. I'm pretty sure these tags aren't put into smolts, though. Never seen anything like that. In fact it would probably impede their swimming ability. They do however shoot coded wire tags into juvenile salmon and steelhead smolts (go into the nose of fish and are invisible to the naked eye). You probably know about that-the fish checkers carry the wand (man them things are spendy) and scan people's catch to make sure it doesn't have the tags. My dad caught one last year with the coded wire tag and three the year before (spring salmon). Your fish was probably just one of those speeding bullet steelhead that headed up the river once, got tagged and released then headed up again. Still doesn't explain why the tag would be rusty though. Maybe Mr. Fishy snuck down to the Willamette for a visit in the [Bleeeeep!] before coming back up the Kalama.