When does a fingerling become a smolt and a smolt become an adult? And how long (months,years)does it take for a smolt to make it's first trip to the ocean or does it hang around after it becomes an adult to make the trip?
On the average how many trips can a steely make from it's spawning grounds to the ocean?
Thanks.

You could write all day long on this question. Simply put after hatching and absorbing their yoke sacks and emerging from the gravel the fish are referred to as fry/fingerlings. They reside in the fresh water system (river/lake) until they get the urge to migrate to the marine environment. When they get the call to exit the fresh water for the marine they are referred to as smolts. Smolts undergo both physical and behavior transformations. Different species spend different periods of time in fresh water before smolting. Steelhead can spend 1-4 years but typically smolt as 2 year olds. Coho spend about 1-1/2 years before smolting. Chum and pinks smolt almost immediately after emerging from the gravel. Chinook get real complicated, as there are basically two types. Ocean type chinook are referred as “ninety day wonders” because they smolt in about three months, these are typically your fall run chinook. River type chinook can spend up to 1-1/2 years or more before smolting and are typically your summer or spring chinook. Sockeye is another whole story. Adults are mature fish returning to their system of origin to spawn.
As with anything else with fish nothing is etched in stone and there are variations to all of this depending on races within species and food availability for the fry prior to smolting.

I agree with Beezer, but would elaborate a little bit. While retaining part of his egg sac, a fry is referred to as an alevin. Up until smolting, salmonids are usually referred to as parr in reference to the dark "fingerprint" marks along their sides (parr marks), these occur in all species except the humpy. Smoltification is the process through which a salmon, steelhead or cutthroat becomes able to survive in saltwater. The production of a substance called guanine which helps enable the fish to handle changed saline levels also causes color changes, his parr marks and the protective coloration that served him in a freshwater environment disappear. The fish takes on the bright, silvery coloration that he will wear until he ripens to spawn. The term smolt is applied exclusively to the downstream migrant, still in the river, who has taken on this silvery coloration. Once in the salt chuck he becomes a juvenile or sub-adult and finally an adult.
Among steelhead, repeat spawners are relatively rare, usually hens, and their percentage numbers can vary considerably from river to river (the numbers I have at hand indicate 4 to 14 percent in Washington, depending on the river), so there's no single easy answer to your question.

[This message has been edited by Preston Singletary (edited 01-22-2001).]

i will throw my 2 cents in...when i was 17, i lived up on the upper clearwater in idaho and in the summer of 92' i caught a 17 hatchery smolt stealhead and i know of another guy catching a 16 incher jus days before..so it makes me wonder how many years they stick around for...**schitzo**