This last year Ive been catching a few resident rainbows on the Bogachiel river. These are rainbows from 14 to 20" very heavily spotted and very fat. Some spots on the eyes and fins. These fish most closely resemble Alaska Lepord rainbows but the spots arnt quite as thick on the body or fins. I never caught these fish before this year and have caught them in both the upper and lower river. They are not smolt, Sea run cutts or hybrids. They are definately rainbows. Unique looking ones at that. They arnt planted fish. They are just too perfect and dont look like any stocked rainbow ive seen before.

Are these hold over steelhead? They do not resemble steelhead at all.

Any info on these fish would be apreciated. The thing that seems odd to me is that this is the first year I have ever seen them. I have a picture of one about 14 or 15" I caught a couple weeks ago. if you whant to see it ill try and post it.

Are you catching these mostly in the spring?Don't have an answer for you but i used to have a picture of a fish from the other side of you that fits description.I have caught a couple more since that picture,always figured they were stealhead in one stage or another.They definatly stand out from the other fish though.

They are hold over steelhead smolts. Not all smolts go to sea after the first year. Hope you catch one on a return visit. Be gentle with the next generation of toads.

Hey Rich, I for one would like to see the pic

Rich,

I don't know, and I don't know any bios who know what these fish are. So my unscientific wild ass guess might be about as good as anyone's. Here goes:

You say you have been catching them this past year but not in previous years. I think that has to be taken into account - I'm assuming you were also fishing the Bogy in past years. You said they weren't smolt, sea runs, or hybrids. Tell me also that they were unmarked, but I'll assume that for the moment.

Hatchery summer steelhead smolts are released at the Calawah ponds, and adult summer runs return to both the Calawah and Bogy. Some of those fish escape the fishery and survive to spawn naturally. There were and may continue to be a few native summer runs in the system. Rivers that support natural summer steelhead production seem (my opinion) to have more resident rainbows than rivers that support only winter steelhead.

Last year was a dry one, and many river systems had poorer than usual spring smolt outmigration conditions. Successful smolt outmigration is known to correlate positively with spring river flow levels. In response to poor outmigration flows, more than the usual proportion of naturally produced summer steelhead smolts might have residualized in the river.

Flaw with this hypothesis: A residualized smolt could attain 14" but not 20". A 20" would have to be from the year before, at least. I know 20" resident rainbow do occur in steelhead rivers, but they are usually 5 years old to reach that size. Guess I can't explain the sudden presence of these RBs. Anyone else got an idea?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Some of my thoughts regarding such abberations although they may not be such: I believe there's some complexities in our coastal rainbow stocks that have been either ignored in the realm of "big picture" management/science or just haven't shown up on the screen yet. Year to year variability in abundance of a unique stock variation may have caused you to run into this possible variant if it does in fact exist. One of the basics of such discoveries of new stuuf mother nature has kept secret from us is the occurrence of scientist or persons of knowledge.
Never ceases to amaze me how the "she" does this to my foundations of knowledge, beliefs and assumptions every year.

Taking pictures, recording info on the time and place of catch, scale samples and such would go a long way towards the learning curve on these subjects.

Gooose

These guys look like Alaska Lepord Rainbows, they look nothing like a smolt or anything else around here for that matter, too many spots and shapped like a football. One thing that I left out is that it is rumored that the upper Bogachiel way way upper has a population of resident rainbows that grow to large size, up to 5 or 6 pounds. I have never been up high enough to go after these fish but know a couple guys that have. I showed the Pic to one of them and he said it looked just like the ones in the upper river. These fish supposidly live in the headwaters about 15 to 20 miles above the parkline. Thats a long ways to walk so very few people have ever gotten the chance to catch these fish. I gues its been a local secret for years. I dont see a problem with letting it out as I dont think many people whant to beat the brush 20 miles to go after these fish. Ill poat a pic soon

My thought is that some of these fish migrated down for some reason. Maybe over population and in search of food I dont know. Ill post the pic

Cant wait to see the pics Rich! These fish in the Upper Bogey sound like they are similar to the larger rainbows that inhabit the headwaters of the Quinault.

I would love to see the picture.I can't find the one I am thinking of.I think it is in storage.I caught it probably 15 years ago on the skoke,south fork.I really didn't see very many untill after those record rains we got a couple of winters ago.Those rains really seemed to stirr the fish up.I fish the canyon waters mostly.The spring after those big rains,my wife was catching dolly varden and brook trout on the south fork.I caught a couple more Of these big trout.They are 18 20 inches Look like kind of Like steelhead jacks?The one I got 15 years ago I cought on a worm I don't know.I have fished the skoke for probably 25 years,cought lots of trout and steelhead,but only a couple of these fish.

We're still waiting for the picture Rich, does this fish look similar? It attacked the plug pictured with a vengence while pulling plugs a few springs ago.


[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: FishNg1 ]

That one looks close, Mine had more spots and was brighter and more footbal shaped but they are similar. If I could figure out my software I would post it, Ill try and get it squared away tomorrow. Im having trouble downsizeing it.

Good question, Rich.
I caught one this year in July in the Quilleute. Definitely a rainbow, as opposed to steelhead, native, and about 14" - 15" long. Deep bodied, and strong. Since I was after steelhead, I took a look, re-launched him, and then wondered why did I do that?? It was definitely a legal keeper, and a nice one at that.
A few days later I saw a post, perhaps yours, about some dead trout in the lower Bogachiel, probably from a pond or some other source. So I figured there was a connection and gave it no further thought.
I'd be interested in the photo, too. My thought is that it was just a darned nice trout, and be happy with it.

I've seen a fish like yours one time. About 5 years ago on the upper snoqulime rv. Belive it was december, old timer next to me hooked it on bait. It fought very well for its size, around 20" or so. He stated he used to catch these quite often, but they were getting to be rare. He called it a native rainbow and I belived him, this fish was absolutly beautiful!!! The bow was mouth-hooked and I was happy to help the old timer release it unharmed. I couldnt help thinking how much this fish reminded me of the alaska rainbows I've seen on tv. Dark black spots all over it, with a dark pinkish-red stripe & gillplate, fins were large for its body size with razor sharp edges. Maybe years ago most of our river systems had these in stock, saddly you know the rest of the storey.........chrome

Rich G
Those fish are most likely resident rainbows. We see a few in all the North Puget Sound streams. The 14 to 20 inch fish are sexually mature and are 4 to 7 years old. Have seen fish that were as much as 10 years old (having spawned 5 or 6 times) and were the size of small steelhead. Tend to see more in areas that are lightly fished or that have restrictive regulations. For example with the catch and release regulations for all but hatchery steelhead on the North Fork Stillaguamish the rainbows are becoming more common. The spotting tends to vary form river to river as well as with the condition of the fish.

It is my belief that they are part of a steelhead/rainbow population complex. Where the rainbows are fairly common (for example the Cedar River) it is not unusual to see the rainbows spawning with steelhead; there appears to be genetic exchange between these two life history forms of O. mykiss.

Historically they were likely fairly common and may have provided a "safety net" for the species complex; escpecially in times of poor marine survival. While it is commonly believed that Western Washington streams are nutrient poor and can't support large resident fish historically the opposite was the case. There reason of course was the presence of abundant salmon whose carcasses, eggs and fry all supply the needed food base to support good growth.

In order to see more of these fish we need two things: functioning river systems and enlighted fisheries management. A healthy river system would supply the need habitats for both the trout and salmon. The fishing regulations needed include: large minimum size limits (or catch and release) and bait bans (especially during the summer). 30 to 35% hooking mortality per capture over 4 or 5 years severely limits the survival of these fish. The final piece in the management puzzle is achieving good escapements of salmon.

When you encounter one of these resident fish wish them well as they signal that there may be hope for their home - our fishing holes.