Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[aquapaloosa]

A buddy and I were fishing the other night and the question arose: Why or how did steel head get there name?
We could think of many reasons why but we were wondering if we were missing something.
Appreciate any input.

[milo]

From the WWW:
 
"It seems that sometime between the 1930’s and 1940’s a single person or group of people that were fishing for this migrating Rainbow trout noticed that the fish being caught had quite a resemblance in the color of the Rainbow trout’s head with the color of blueish steel metal. The lower half of the fish was chrome bright. The correlation of the two reasons came together and this began the appointed Steelhead name which, by the way, spread rapidly between fishermen and beyond to all countries that have migratory Steelhead trout."

If it is on the Internet, it must be true. 

[clarki]

Actaully, the nomenclature has its roots in the regularity of the fish's migrations. The name originates from the mid Oregon coast earlier in the 1900's. Residents of logging and fishing towns along the coast noted that this sea going rainbow trout returned to their natals stream with extreme regularity; there was the winter run and the summer run. The returns were so precise that they would use the return of the fish to mark the seasons.

A "stele" is an upright inscribed slab used as a gravestone or monument. Much as they would use a stele to mark a person's final resting place, they would also use this migratory trout to mark the beginning of the seasons. The name "stele-head" began to be used and over the years morphed into what we now is now steelhead.

[clarki]

What!? No one called BS on my completely fabricated story? What's the fun in that!?