My First Steelhead

[Bardic]

Well, caught my first steelhead Thursday. It hardly seems to count because it was out of one of the small local ponds where F&G stocked them, but it was fun anyways. It was great watching it chase my Jake and strike at it, I was a little worried my 4lb test might have been a bad idea so I coaxed him in gently. Then spent the next hour watching them chase all kinds of baits but not hitting a single one.

Brined it and cooked it in the grill. It was a huge success at our Halloween party. I may take my nephews over there today, probably just to catch and release if we get any, but they would probably have a blast just watching them too. And tonight the head and fins are crawdad bait.

I know they are stocking the Boise soon (or may have already) so we'll see if I can repeat this on a "real" river.
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[Bardic]

I finally have the pictures uploaded so I can post them.






The Crawdadding was only so-so. The water was really low but I saw quite a few with my headlamp near shore. Couldn't find any good brush or cover to put the traps near, but I put them in anyway and went to visit a cousin for an hour or two while we waited. Still managed about 38 crawdad's with some good size on them.




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[STEELHEADKID]

What is your definition of a steelhead?
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[dtayboyz]

It's been to the ocean. It got molested at hells canyon and trucked to Boise by Idaho power. The eggs got to niagra springs for hatching, then they truck them back next spring. Nice catch, was it good table fare? Wish they still made it to rock creek in twin falls.
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[Bardic]

Heh, molested... Now that I look at it I guess it does have an adipose fin still attached so brood stock maybe from a hatchery? It was leaking sperm everywhere which was a bit of a mess and I had the Boise stocking on the brain since I missed it last year because of work.

It was good eating either way and so were the crawdads.
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[nijimasu]

that from a Boise are pond? pm me if it's top secret.

I got some bad news that I hope someone can debunk- though I did get it in a email from IF&G- due to low numbers of steel, no stocking the Boise river this year. please, someone tell me it ain't so. That's like taking my Christmas away.
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[CoyoteSpinner]

Nice going I'd say. Very dark colors, or maybe the lighting. Always nice to add to the bucket list. Nice bundle of 'dads there too.

What kind of trap, bait do u use , if ya don't mind my asking...

[Bardic]

I have really liked fresh fish for the crawdad bait. If I could find grocery stores that consistently carried salmon heads I would probably do that most often, but carp/suckers or tiny perch from Roberts have worked very well.

I threw a dead fish into a batch of crawdads once with a few slices in the skin and it was interesting that they ate all the meat first and left the skin intact until all the good stuff was gone. So they have preferences even though they will eat anything eventually.
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[hooknhunter]

Bardic,

That fish looks like a classic "brooder" to me (also known as brood stock). They release those from the hatcheries when they get too old to use any more.

Nice fish though.....
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[Bardic]

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion after Steelheadkid commented. I would change the title and first post but then other posts wouldn't make any sense.

I drove through Riggins yesterday and it was darn tempting to stop and try to catch something. Maybe I can on the way back through and really will have a nice pic to post.
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[nijimasu]

We're there many fishermen? How did the fence situation look?
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[Bardic]

We didn't see many fisherman at all. A couple were on the other side doing some fly fishing and a few were in the river in boats. I saw the fence but I don't know the area so I don't have a reference of what it restricts.
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