Steelhead or rainbow on the swing?

So i ended up not working today and grabbed my gear and headed for the Clackamas about 10am. Went to McIver park, and started at the lower boat ramp

Was on the water by 11:15 and landed this guy 20 mins later. 17.5" and a fat 5.5" deep.




Purple leach was the fly. He really gave my 7wt a work out. The sun came out on the river very brightly shortly afterwards and no more fish were active for me. Lots of them moving through the river though. Only a couple other people on the river in that area. Gear tossers mainly.

So, what is the consensus? Small steelhead or big Rainbow?

Rainbow...

Oh and nice fish man soumds like it was a blast.

'bow

ah well. The hunt continues. I didn't think that the Clack had Rainbows, only cuts, thus my wondering.

Thats a rainbow, and the clack has them, but that big? thats really nice.

Guess im just used to the nice bright redsides out of the Deschutes. This guy is pretty bland in comparison. A good fighter though.

Pretty typical valley/coastal rainbow as far as coloration goes

Yeah, i should have been a bit more objective at first. It has been a very long time(15+ years) since i have caught anything but cutthroats as far as trout go on this side of the Cascades. I'm too excited to get the first official swing steelhead under my belt.

Thats a nice fattie rainbow!!! Good job!!!

Nice fish! According to ODFW that's a steelhead if it was a coastal river (over 16"). On non-coastal rivers it's 20" though, so you're close but no cigar!

Nice bow!

Nice one, keep at it, the steel is next.

It seems that Mrs. Van has other ideas about it. See, she is a fisheries biologist by training and before she moved up into corporate financials she was a senior fisheries person doing salmon, steelhead and trout work that included surveys and habitat restoration. According to her the main stem of the Clack does not have a resident Rainbow population. The feeder streams do however. She thinks that it is a Jack. So, tomorrow she is emailing the pic up to a coworker in Seattle who is a trout guy for his input. lol.

It seems my wife is coming to the rescue of my lost first steelhead. lol

Well thats a crazy looking jack. we call small steelhead 1/2 lbers around here and small salmon jacks. I atch pellet heads in lakes were stocking only takes place several miles upstream in the trib. even along the dams which are even many more miles from were the trib dumps into the lake.

I'll have to go with rainbow. That fish has all the markings and characteristic's of a resident rainbow, combine that with it's small size and I would say it's highly unlikely that it's a migratory fish.

Small steelhead are typically know as 1 salt's because they return after 1 year in the ocean instead of the normal 2 year cycle or 2 salt fish. Lot's of people call them half pounders, if you are fishing the Rogue or south into Cali., a lot of rivers have steelhead that are literal half pounders....lots of 10"-12" steelhead! Most 1 salts seem to be between 16"-22" and some south coast rivers see a lot of 1 salt steelhead during the winter. Last year we caught quite a few!

My son with a 1 salt hen....tiny little gal!

I'm voting big resident rainbow. The coloration is what tips it for me. I suppose it *could* be a small summer steelie that's been in-river for a long time. The Clack does have a resident rainbow population though - not all "steelhead" smolt make the trip to the sea. Since rainbows and steelies are the exact same species, and since not every smolt goes to sea - you have resident rainbow trout. And I'm sure there are a good number of fish that pass below the dams, and they stocked the crap out of the reservoirs on the Clack.

Keep at it man! I got my first steelie on a fly not long back, and it wasn't much bigger than your fish (just a bit over 20") - looked a lot like the one in the picture above. Was a super fun fight on my 4 weight switch rod.

very nice fish

Absolutely a rainbow.

Heres a spent little winter, not as pretty as MD's kids.

bow