190 The Pacific Salmon 



bait, as well as pieces of salmon cut into nar- 

 row strips. 



It has been stated that the steelhead does not 

 ascend the Sacramento as far as the Me Cloud, 

 but we saw one there in 1 884. It was recognized 

 as a rarity by the men engaged in taking salmon 

 eggs for the government hatchery and was saved 

 for identification. 



The mere fact that the steelhead belongs tech- 

 nically to the trouts and not to the salmons 

 should not affect its reputation as a game fish. 

 It is probably as gamey a fish as the Atlantic 

 salmon, and it is large-sized and fights well when 

 hooked. No one thought of calling it anything 

 but a salmon until the naturalists pointed out the 

 characters that identified it as a trout. To most 

 of the people of the west coast it is still a salmon. 



A time is coming when there will be an army 

 of anglers fishing for the steelhead in all the 

 beautiful streams of the west coast from the 

 Russian River to the Straits of Fuca. 



