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Steelhead

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:39 pm
by B-Hall
Okay guys, I have looked everywhere and never ever found an answer to this question. Why don't we ever hear of people catching steelhead in the salt? I have never even heard of them commercially taken in the salt. What's the deal?

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:25 am
by Gringo Pescador
B-Hall wrote:Okay guys, I have looked everywhere and never ever found an answer to this question. Why don't we ever hear of people catching steelhead in the salt? I have never even heard of them commercially taken in the salt. What's the deal?
Here you go B-Hall....

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx?id=271

:cheers:

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:22 am
by mav186
Good question and great answer...never even considered it before!
Thanks guys....Mav

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:53 am
by B-Hall
Sweet! But I am also wondering about boat catching etc in the salt. Could you go out of Westport or Neah Bay and specifically target Steelhead?

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 6:35 pm
by wolverine
Catching steelhead in the salt, from a boat, would totally be an incidental catch. I really doubt that anyone would deliberately target steelhead in saltwater from a boat. I've caught a lot from the beach, but in 37 years I've only caught 3 from a boat.

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:41 pm
by Matt
The reason you can't target them from a boat like you would salmon is because of the small run size. When you fish for salmon you are drawing from MILLIONS of fish to chose from, whereas when you fish for steel you are drawing from a much smaller pot. Also, I think steelhead like to kinda cruise the shoreline more and stick to structure so you won't often get them out in open water with salmon, although it does occur.

Most of the steel getting caught in the salt that I know of is from the shore, and some folks are very productive at it.

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 8:27 pm
by Bodofish
I've caught lots of metal when I was commercial fishing. Mmmmmmmmmm Nothing better than Steel out of the salt. The fat on the big ones is just like a fat King!

The reason you don't hear about it is, it's illegal for white fishermen to keep Steelhead as a commercial harvest.

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:38 am
by B-Hall
Interesting, thanks for the replies.

RE:Steelhead

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:58 pm
by BARCHASER10
I remember reading a book thirty years ago by Trey Combs called the Steelhead Trout. In the book he discussed the life cycle of Steelhead. As I remember the book, he said that Steelhead dont hang around the continental shelf like salmon, but head for the high seas well off shore and out of range of sports and salmon commercials.

Thats what I remember the book said anyway.