Hey Smalma -

What can you tell me about the post spawn freshwater activities of steelhead??

How long do they spend in the river before they return to the salt?

I've got to believe that they will continue to grow after they return to the salt, returning to the river somewhat larger than before.

What is the survival or return percentage of these fish?

How many times can a steelhead spawn?

Thanks in advance...

StlhdH20,

I know you're asking Smalma, but I hope you don't mind if I share some of the information that WSC bios have compiled over the last year.

No matter how many times a fish returns, it will be about the same size as it was upon its first return (males are somewhat the exception, but see below).

The average repeat spawner percentage is around 13% or so. Virtually all of them are females. I've heard a few reasons why, but the one that makes the most sense is that the males hang in the river longer than do the females, defending the redds, or so I've heard. The females pretty much scoot right on out.

Another interesting tidbit about this is that even though a hen will be about the same size upon a second return, they produce considerably more eggs the second time around, something like 8000 eggs rather than 6500. If this is extrapolated out over 13% of the run being repeat spawners and females, this means that those 13% repeaters are responsible for somewhere around 25% of the eggs for that season. Since these repeat spawners are the same size as first time spawners, you can't tell if a fish you've caught is on it's first or second run. If one of those repeaters is harvested, it removes a much higher amount of eggs/smolts from the next generation.

I'll post the studies themselves, if you're interested. Let me know...

Fish on...

Todd.

You better go to the Reg 6 office and ask them, Some of your largest steelhead entered the systen as 1 salt fish, Dinks or as some want to call them Jacks, Never spawning, Just checking things out, Then they go back out and might not return for 4 years and these are large fish, So bonking little nates as stating they are poor to the gene pool is foolish thought as is bonking any nate. Fish that enter and spawn and return to the salt might not return to the sytem for 1-3 years after there original spawn and these fish that skip a year will also increase in size the ones that return the following year will be roughly the same size as that all energy goes into reproduction. Alot can be seen in the scale samples as to the age, the years it has returned to the river. And some of the largest fish sampled came back as one or two salt fish there first trip back. So slip the little ones back and let your hog grow.....

Did you ever wonder why it is that we know so little (relatively speaking) about the steelhead life cycle? Try finding out what they're up to out in big blue, and the info gets even sparser. I find this stuff very interesting.......could anybody provide links to current info? Thanks.......

Thanks for posting Todd, I'd be interested in checking out some of that research...

The fish I was observing were hatchery fish. They were everywhere and feeding aggressively, I believe that they were from somewhere about two or three days upriver, the high water was flushing them out. They were from what I could tell exclusively hens. My observations seem to support that research.

I am curious now about the big bucks of the OP...When we see one of these magnificent beasts its likely to be their only successful spawn? I'd have to see some pretty conclusive data to believe that.

I am reevaluating my position (again) on killing hatchery snakes...I used to bonk them mercilessly and smoke the bejeesus out of the them (still bad) because they were hatchery fish, but I've been releasing them lately because they are nasty and I am not the bloodthirsty type.

Its all pretty confusing really because there is so much conflicting data. In my heart I believe the native fish on my home river are perhaps the most genetically distinct in the state of Washington and even the chance of hatchery genes comingling with the native genes scares me. What is the thoughtful angler to do?

Todd the info I have says that nearly all males die in the river after their first spawning run as a result of mating with multiple females. They expend all of their energy in their endeavours. They don't spend anytime defending redds except when there is a female on it ready to spawn. Also I have some literature on hatchery males that might be interesting. I can send you copies of what I have if you want?

Links are always good, if the info is available on the internet...

Gooose: They're more like people than we thought, ay? Be careful out there you young testosterone OD'd guys; you may wind up getting bonked!

I often see spawned steelhead in some of the canyon water in june and they are always males hanging onto life by a thread...a couple have been BIG.

Stlhdh2o -

The male and female steelhead behave differently following spawning. Typically the females dig its redd (sometimes several) over the course of a day or two. She is attended by one or males with much fighting between the various males with the larger generally becoming the dominate one. Immediately after spawning the female drops downstream into slower water. It is here that she begins the recovery process. How long she remains in the river is influenced by water conditions - under low water they may remain in those slow holes for weeks where they bright to near sea-bright condition and may begin feeding some. That explains why they are so catchable and illustrates the different between trout/spawnout and steelhead fishing. In their recovery their ovaries shrink down to about thumb size and contain next years eggs (if you look at the eggs from an unspawned females closely you will see small pale dots among the eggs - those are next years eggs). With a silver condition, small eggs they are often confused with summer-runs (of course there is little or no fat). With high water conditions the females are flushed quickly out of the system and do their recovery in the salt. That why you tend to see more spawnouts during low water conditions.

The males behave differently in that following spawning the continue to look for additional spawning opportunities. Some remain in the system until all spawning is done. That is why those June fish are mostly males and why in the late spring/early summer the dead steelhead you see are nearly all males. Occassional the males hanging out in the small tribs to spawn may get trapped by low flows and can't or will not level the creek. Those are the odd spawnout that is see in the late summer/fall after a rain. I have seen winter spawnouts in the Skagit system as late as late October.

Survival of the spawnouts vary between river systems and depends on the conditions after spawning. High water springs seem to flush the fish out quickly leading to higher survivals. The % of the returning fish that have previously spawn in local waters vary from 2 to 25%. In some populations at the extreme ends of the species range the majority of the population may have spawned before.

Our winter fish spawn every year once they reach sexual maturity. They fish don't grow much between spawning. A pre-spawn female might weight 8# before spawning and only about 5# after spawning. Much of the feeding following spawning will go to recoverying that lost weight. That is why repeat spawners are only slightly larger than they were the first time. Interestingly the repeat spawning females have more eggs than the first time spawners. For example on the Sauk the first time spawning 2-salt females (8 to 10#) had about 5,000 eggs/females, the 3-salts (12 to 18#) had about 6,500 eggs/females and the repeat spawners (9-14#) had 8,000 to 12,000 eggs/female.

While most fish only spawn once occassional individual fish may spawn as many as 4 or 5 times.

Hope I could the name right this time and this helps.

Tight lines
Smalma

StlhdH20,

Here are those studies:

Busby, P.J., et al., Status review of west coast steelhead from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and California. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-NWFSC-27, 1996.

Smith, B.D., and B.R. Ward. Trends in wild adult steelhead abundance for coastal regions of British Columbia support the variable marine survival hypothesis. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 57:271-284, 2000.

B.R. Ward. Declivity in steelhead recruitment at the Keogh RIver over the last decade. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 57: 298-306, 2000.

These studies, along with other information from WDFW and other management agencies are compiled and analyzed also in the Biological and Economic Benefits of Wild Steelhead Release, written by Wild Steelhead Coalition biologists and others, which is available via the WSC webpage.

Fish on...

Todd.

Thanks guys...I certainly should have asked a more pointed question in my original post...

Smalma -

You got the name right and you helped, thank you.