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[troutbreath]

Headed out to the Vedder to catch some small steelhead and pikeminnow. Beautiful day and almost no one around by the train bridge area where I was fishing. Saw one dead half chewed up Chinook on the rocks. Found some garbage along with someones lunch and three "Dude" beers which was a bonus and pretty well made my day. Left the garbage and empties in a conveniently hung garbage bag at the entrance to the area. No hot pocket and no big fish.

[Sinaran]

thanks for the report.

no fish no problem. at least u've done something productive.   

[Every Day]

Were you fly-fishing    I hooked a few decent sized small steelhead today, biggest was probably just over 12 inches. Dry fly action with a grasshopper was a lot of fun, saw some other people out with fly rods too, not sure if they were out for coho or just smolts.

[troutbreath]

I tried the dry fly with minimal results over maximum time. Today went back in the pontoon and was on every cast, lost count. None over 12 -13 inches except the pikies which got to 2 lbs. Dry fly was slower than small lures and actually I had some specially cured roe for chin-ook which failed to materialize in my latest attempt . Great day, slight tan, don't give up on that chrome Chinook. Coho just about ready to show up anyway. Saw one other person fishing the 4 hours I was there.

[adriaticum]

How can you tell a small steelhead fom a rainbow trout?

[troutbreath]

 Intuition I have to guess a bit as well. Some have there adipose fin which I guess are are trout and the others might be old enough to be hatchery steelhead getting ready for the ride out to the ocean. They don't have the "rainbow" stripe down the side which might suggest that these fish are not resident Rainbow. Perhaps someone more astute on juvinile trout can shed light on the matter.

[J.G.]

Fishing for steelhead smolts?........That is sooo wrong and should be ilegal.

[buck]

 About a $1.00 a smolt to rear at the hatchery. Leave them alone so they can return hopefully as 10-12 lb adults.

[Nicole]

Peter, these fish are residualized, No? They are staying back and competing with the wild juvenilles for food...

They are supposed to leave after release, in May.

If this is not the case, could you tell us why there is an opening at all for clipped 'rainbows' after July 1?

Thanks,
Nicole

[bentrod]

national marine fisheries service, (NMFS) will define any rainbow as a steelhead if it can smolt, head out to saltwater and return to spawn unimpeded by a natural or man made barrier. 

[troutbreath]

About a $1.00 a smolt to rear at the hatchery. Leave them alone so they can return hopefully as 10-12 lb adults.

I would suggest a closure then from June till September on the whole river. Pretty hard not to have these fish bite otherwise. I'm not using bait so no gut swallowing.

[Every Day]

Pretty much every trout you catch in the vedder is either a wild or hatchery steelhead or juvenile salmon. There are the odd rainbows that are resident (got one last year about 18 inches long) but other than that the only real trout you can catch are dollies (and there arn't too many of them either). I never fish for these little guy until August when Im sure most of them have left and then ones behind have for the most part been left behind. I really dont go for them that much at all even in August as moslty I am too busy working and tubing, just need to get my fix I guess 

[Coho Cody]

the only real trout you can catch are dollies

dollies arent trout. their char

[kingpin]

there are also cutthroat trout.

never fish for them until august huh? i guess thats why a few different people saw you fishing for them in early july.

[Every Day]

O yea that too    That was when the river was blown forgot about that  Here is a ok sized one from tonight (Aug 18th) 



Why does it have white tips on the fins though... I don't recall any of the other ones having this