Good days, bad days

M
metalmania
So i had a few hours off work yesterday and decided i'd run out and do some fishin. I thought about the clack but changed my mind and ended up at eagle creek for like the millionth time this yesr. Got to the water at about noon, and both the air and water temp were nice and warm and the sun was out so the fish were particularly fired up today. Wen't 4/6 in about 3 hours. Managed a clipped hen and 2 little nate jacks that are in the picks. As well as an extremely pissed 18 in nate. It looks like i'm holding the little guy tight but it was just sittin in my hand. Couldn't get the pick of the hen on here, i think the file is too big. My drag was rippen so much i thought my reel would melt:lol:. Also had quite a few more hits but nothin else stuck. Saw a pod of what looked like clippers but most of the fish in there seem to be nates. Also had a nice 7 to 8 lb nate suck down and chomp my gear about 4 feet from me in a foot and a half deep water:shock:. It was one off the coolest things i've seen this year. This was my good day.
So I decided last night that I would take a sick day and head back out today. Well I woke up and I was actually sick. I felt like i'd been punched in the head and kicked in the gut but i decided to go anyway. It was overcast with some slight drizzle and the temp had dropped back down. The fish were a little lethargic when I got there but after about a half hour I hooked a decent sized fish and lost it to the rapids. Then I banked another decent nate and then lost another small guy. i was only there for 2 hours but spent half that time sittin on a rock tryin not to puke. It was a pretty nasty day but atleast I got a fish fight out of it.
Good luck to you all.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
Hey, you finally got into some fish that were finned! Haha, but I can guarantee the first fish is no steel, it is a trout. I don't have my second eyes in, but it just looks too much like the trout that run up the North Fork. I would bet that the jack you hooked was a trout too. Some of them get very bright, but they all have the weird spotting, not like a Steelhead. Next one you hook, with afin check to see if it is a Cutthroat. I hooked a bunch this year too. They eat everything. Fishing that Creek will make you a better fisherman, I promise. You saw what the fish did to take your gear, now just wash, rinse, repeat... Good wok dude.
 
M
metalmania
Ya bow was what I was thinkin but i've always just called the bows in there steels. I didn't know that they were not the same run as the steelies that are in there. I just figured they were little nate jacks. I'm glad you told me that though thanks.
 
M
Mike123
Looks like both pics are trout.
Uhm where were you fishing?
You may have caught a bunch of trout. :cool:
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
He was fishin Clackamas County's Eagle Creek. There is a run of Cutthroat trout in there and they are all over some years, and they eat anything, so they are kind of like bonus fish. But he managed one with the amputation the first day, so for sure that was a Steelhead. But I do see trout in the first pic for sure, and possibly the second as well.
 
M
metalmania
So what do you consider the difference between the two. I've always heard of the 20 inch rule as being the difference, but i've caught a lot of 17 to 20 inch fish in there and i'm sure they weren't clackamas rainbows. There were also a ton of smolt in there that I think were coho but I switched to size 1 hooks to keep from hookin them so i'm not totally sure.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
A steelhead needs to have traveled to the Ocean, and spent at least a little time there, enough to chrome up, and look like a Steelhead, regardless of size. Although some places require you to tag any rainbow over 18, or 20 inches. Stupid, but you can keep a 10 inch Steelhead in the Creek no problem, just as long as it is clipped, and looks like it had to adapt to the ocean. Thats why they color up the way they do. Dark on top, with bright flanks...

I hooked up an absolute ton of 2 pound Steel this year. Guts, eggos and all, 2 pounds, and lots with little fins. 19-22" long, and bright as ever! Deep Creek fish. But I know for a fact that Eagle Creek has no resident run of Rainbow trout. The Cutthroat run up the North Fork, or the split at the bridge before the Fern. Your fish look like the Cutties I have been by-catching since the middle of fall, not really rainbows, even though they look a lot alike. The smolt were most likely Coho, could have been "Spring" Chinook. But they return just before the Coho, kind of like an early fall fish run, but the smolt were one of the two. Glad you saw some big trout, and hooked a couple on top of the Sewer trout too! Good to hear you saw a buncha smolts too. Hope their little pod does well. Ocean conditions should be favorable this year.
 
M
Mike123
There are Anadromous and non-anadromous rainbow trout.
An Anadromous Rainbow trout is a Steelhead. The other is just a trout. I believe they are slightly different in species... Same goes for cutthroat. There are resident cutts and anadromous cutts aka Sea-Run Cutthroat.

Many rivers dont have resident Rainbows but just cutthroat.. And the rainbows that are there are just smolt, some may be adipose clipped(Hatchery steelhead, some not.(Wild steelhead.)

Dont they stock the Clackamas with Rainbow trout? If so this would mean there is or could be non-clipped rainbow trout in there. That could be what you caught. It would just take the planted trout to spawn.
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
We hook about a million little outbound yearling trout in the creek, spawned from an adipose clipped Steelhead and they already have the classic Steelhead color seperation. Very, very dark tops but no chrome yet, and far fewer spot than those pictured. They are almost predetermined to be that color or something. They do have resident Rainbows in the Clack, I have caught more than a few that weigh in the pounds, plural, like 2-3, pretty big, and getting ready to spawn this last year. a lot of rainbow action in the Clackamas, especially down low is a bunch of dumb guys that have been poaching this other guys private trout pond. It gets stocked for cub scouts, with 10 million, 10" fish, and I believe people have put buckets of them into the Clack. I have seen people dumping fish from said buckets into Riverside park, and I would estimate they put in over 60 in that one haul. If you ever get one with an adipose spike, insted of a fin, it was one of the cub scout fish. They hang out just below Riverside Park, sometime in large schools. Like a bait ball for a big Chinook.

I've always wondered, in a river with both a Steelhead run, and resident Rainbow trout...How many ressies, every year, get that wild idea to travel to the sea. Imagine a 5 pound resident already 3 years old going to the ocean, and coming back, say three times. It would be a 70 pound, stinky Sewer Trout!:shock::lol: Hahahaha!:lol:
 
M
metalmania
Wow if those were cutties i'm amazed as they looked a lot like rainbows. I caught a few cuts earlier this year but they didn't really look like the ones I got the last 2 trips. So basically what your sayin is that there just cuts and not natives?
 
A
ArcticAmoeba
I am not aware of any native run of 'Bows in the Creek. There wasn't a resident run historically, just the cutties, and Steelhead that spawned below the falls.
 

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