That fish had an amazing life, if the person that caught it isn't aware, you should share this info on how 'the egg' became that fish:
The eggs came from steelhead caught by the STEP group in the Whittaker trap, were fertilized and racked at our Florence hatchery. 'the egg' was part of about 100 that went into an aquarium and for roughly 10 weeks was cared for and monitored by aspiring marine scientist between say 5 and 10 years old. At about 1" long, it was collected up by STEP folks and dumped into a 5 gal. Bucket along with fry from all the other classrooms, into a pick-up and OFF to Mussel Lake, where it was scooped into a clear plastic cup with about 4 other fry. The kids arrive one class at a time, each student gets to select a cup of fry, stir them around with their finger, and pour them into the lake at the boat launch (see image).
We all know what happens to most of them once they hit the lake, so let's jump ahead with the fact that some of them grow in the lake and find Mussel Creek and make it to the Siuslaw, entering the river just behind the Port of Siuslaw RV/Campground. Some of these make it out the river and into the ocean, some of those survive and grow and return to the Siuslaw, then Mussel Creek, past the STEP trap, and into Munsel Lake, and some of these actually get caught by fishermen!
So ~2500 eggs go into the classroom, ~1500 fry into the lake, who knows how many reach the ocean, but we think about 20 to 30 each year (based on 'catch and pass' at the STEP trap) are making it back as cookie cutter 1 salt fish about 24" long...I think that is pretty damn cool....cheers, roger