Fishing waaaaayyyy up in the Eel River in California and got into lots of resident trout, juvie steelies, and this fish. No dams to block passage and the area used to have summers but not for many years I understand.

Kinda looks like a little summer run to me. Any opinions from the peanut gallery?

Thanks,

Looks like a resident, given the time of year. Also looks like it might be a female given the caudal erosion.

resident.

Thanks Dr. Carcass and Evo!

The apparent dorsal caudal erosion is due to a fin clip for the genetic study.

Sex seems ambiguous to me based on phenotype.

resident. the tail isn't flat like a steelhat.

its just folded, Steelhead and Rainbows are the same species....

20" fish give or take? I would guess resident or a fish which had a very short stay in salt(half pounder/jack)

Eel River, couldn't say without examining scale samples. It could go either way.

Sg

Thanks for your input guys.

I will put up some of the apparent resident fish pics when I get them from "the camera"- they looked "trouty" though.

This fish looked different and seemed a little bit special compared to the other fish we sampled there. I guess O. mykiss on some basins are kind of like a box of chocolates.

Best,

Same size as the Rouge half pounders?

A larger fish would likely be more mature. Having spawned would change some of the physical appearance such as head shape. As noted above, though, scales may be the only way to know what that particular fish did/was.

One thing fish have taught me, and O. mykiss leads in this this, is that "all", "none", "every", or any other absolute statement will be shown to be wrong.