Jacks, at least in the case of salmon (chinook and coho), are always males, sexually mature, who return ahead of their normal year class. Sort of nature's way of assuring that there will be enough males to fertilize all of the eggs. I can remember, back in the pre-St. Helens days, catching lots of bright little eighteen-inch chinook jacks at the mouth of the Toutle; great sport and superb on the table. Among salmon there is no female equivalent and I don't think I recall ever hearing about such a thing (females that is) among steelhead. Haig-Brown wrote about catching "grilse" in the Campbell River that were apparently the equivalent of the Rogue River's half-pounder run; immature fish, male and female, running up into the river with the spawners. This same phenomenon occurs with sea-run cutthroat, sexually immature fish following spawners into the river and remaining there for a while before returning to salt water. There's also the possibility of resident rainbows, extremely sparse populations of which remain in many northwest streams. This might even be a greater likelihood in the Pilchuck which is closed to fishing except during the steelhead season. The only residualized smolts that I have run across have been in the Wenatchee, where there were some nice ones up to seventeen inches or so. I understand that even some salmon residualize in the Wenatchee and I can imagine them surveying the gantlet of dams they have to run to get to the ocean and thinking "Naaah!".

[This message has been edited by Preston Singletary (edited 04-17-2000).]