Wow, this one's been going well...sorry I've missed it and hope I don't screw it up!

Here's an additional piece of information to add to the stack...I hope I remember it correctly.

It seems that I've read that the Kamchatka steelhead/rainbow population is divided into three parts; river, estuarine, and anadromous. The "river" portion would be "resident" rainbows, the "estuarine" would be similar to residents, only would live in the tidewaters, and "anadromous", of course, use all three.

Here's the interesting part...all three are genetically indistinguishable. As ocean conditions change and reduce the anadromous runs, the estuarine and resident populations contribute to bringing the anadromous numbers up. What I mean to say is that residents spawn and produce anadromous fish.

It doesn't only happen that way, but all ways. If any of the three types falls out of balance with the other two, then the other two contribute to the slacker type.

Now..if I've got that right, then that makes our prior "trout" seasons, with horrendous limits and high mortality on released fish, seem pretty bad. As resident populations are depleted by harvest, some of the productivity of our steelhead is used to prop them up. The residents keep going down, and steelhead keep using some of their productivity to help. Then, when marine conditions are such that our steelhead runs are on the decline, there's no resident population to draw on to help keep the anadromous run going.

This scenario, of course, is only possible IF I remember the Kamchatka info correctly, and if it applies to our fish if I do remember correctly.

Smalma?

Fish on...

Todd.

BTW, on an interesting side note, I caught a fish today on the Sauk that was a perfect chrome wild steelhead hen, except for the fact that it was about sixteen inches long. It was clearly a steelhead...I'm wondering if it was a one salt "jack" (early returner) or a fish that stayed a bit longer than it should have (late leaver). Also, I've heard of a few other of these being caught this year...any thoughts?