Steelhead Trout 



Steel head Trout 



Salmo gairdneri Richardson 



This species is variously known as the sleelhead, steelhead trout, 

 salmon trout, and hardhead. It is found in all coastwise streams 

 from the Santa Ynez Mountains, Santa Barbara County, California, 

 north to British Columbia and probably to Sitka. It is especially 

 abundant in the lower Columbia, ascending the Snake River as far as 

 Augur Falls, and the Pend d' Oreille probably to Metaline Falls. 



It is more or less common in all the shorter coastal streams and is 

 said to be abundant in the Russian and Klamath rivers. 



The steelhead is more or less anadromous in its habits, being 

 migratory like the salmon, and ascending rivers fully as far. 



The spawning season of the steelhead seems to be a prolonged 

 one and varying greatly with the locality. In the headwaters of 

 Salmon River, Idaho, where there are important spawning beds, 

 spawning takes place in May and early June. In Payette River they 

 spawn a fortnight earlier, and in the shorter tributaries of Snake River 

 from April 15 to May 10. Still lower down the Columbia basin they 

 probably spawn increasingly earlier. Of 4, 179 steelheads examined 

 during the last week in September, and the first half of October, 

 at The Dalles, Oregon, 1,531 were males and 2,648 females; 476 males 

 and 900 females were well developed, and probably would have 

 spawned in 4 to 6 weeks. The remaining 2803 apparently would not 

 have spawned until the next spring. 



The run of steelheads in the lower Columbia is heaviest from 

 August to November. They reach the Sawtooth Mountains early in 

 May and the headwaters of Payette River early in April; while they 

 reach that portion of Snake River between Weiser and Lower Salmon 

 Falls early in September and remain until spring before they spawn. 



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