What you are seeing are two classes of fish. The smaller is a 2-salt fish from the 2002 class, the larger a 3-salt from the 2001 class. The 3-salt fish could be on its second spawning run.

10 lbs for a 3-salt is fairly large on average for that age of fish. A 4-salt would probably be considerably larger than that, so I would guess that 3-salt is about right.

As far as release timing - I'm not sure I understand. I don't think that holding steelhead smolts longer before release affects future run timing, but I really don't know. Blackmouth are Chinook salmon held longer until allowed to smolt, but I don't know what happens if you were to hold steelhead longer. Steelhead smolts spend a few weeks to months in the river before heading out anyway.

Steve