Summerruns spawn in late January- early Feb. after the winterruns . They enter the rivers in the spring and trickle in through Sept. -Oct. They spend a average of 9- 10 months in the river prior to spawning. Winterruns spend a average of 3weeks to a month in the rivers and enter the rivers usually mid to late Nov and generally peak late Dec.- mid Jan. Summerruns are beautiful fish when they first come in but by late Sept. are starting to get thier spawning colors and lose alot of thier body fat , most seasoned steelheaders can regonize the differance between the two. Winters darken quick because they don't store body fat and come in ready to spawn and look bigger because of being full of eggs and sperm sacs, but the quality of the meat has been drained to pass on the nutriants to the eggs & sperm sacs. This is true as far as hatchery fish go but the native fish arrive a little later in Jan -March and spawn March through April . a good way to tell a summer from a winter is to look in thier mouth and see if there is Cocopods (a small parasite that attaches to the roof of the mouth that look a little like a sea lice ) these only attach themselfs when the water in the rivers are much warmer in the summer when the winterruns enter the river the water temp has dropped and the parasites are not active .