Skamania Steelhead
http://fishthesalmonriver.com
We get a lot of people asking us, "what is a Skamania Steelhead"? Well, to be honest folks, it's a hatchery raised steelhead. Still a steelhead, but a different strain. They are a warmer water steelhead that come into the Salmon River NY around the month of May as water temperatures start to warm up. They stay in the river until the fall and before it
starts to get too cold. Most anglers don't know how to tell a Skamania Steelhead from a regular Steelhead. Well, it's simple folks. Just look between the fish's dorsal fin (the one on top of the fish's back) and it's tail. You'll notice there's no adipose fin there. That's the fin that looks like your thumb when you're hitchhiking. The Salmon River NY hatchery clips the adipose fin. That's the simplest way to tell. The other ways are by taking a closer look to see if the fish has it's pectorial fins (the ones in front by it's head). Sometimes you'll see one clipped half off or both pectorial fins clipped completely. Why is this you ask? This is the way the hatchery tells what year the fish is. Meaning, they can tell if it's a 2002, 2003, 2004 Skamania. The hatchery also clips one of their back fins...the one close to their tail. A fresh Skamania Steelhead that hasn't been in the river long will be bright and silver (chrome as we say) and have a dark black top from head to tail. They will darken up a bit once they've been hanging around in the river for a while. Some fishing guides and anglers say that Skamania Steelhead are more "acrobatic" than the regular Steelhead. I guess you'll have to find out for yourself and fish for them. They take flies, egg sacs, and worms. It's not rare to catch a 16 pounder either. For those fishermen who are willing to put a little time in on the Salmon River NY and fish different spots, they shouldn't have a problem hooking into a Skamania Steelhead. Be sure to release it safely as we want to keep these fish around and have them keep coming back.
We hope this information helps and if you want more information about fly fishing on the Salmon River NY, feel free to call Fran Verdoliva at the Salmon River Hatchery at (315) 298-7605. He's an avid fly fisherman and catches Skamania Steelhead all the time.
Our river is fishable the entire year and while it's not busy during our summer months, it's perfect for those of you who don't like crowds and want to fish the Salmon River NY when it's quiet and catch some beautiful Skamania Steelhead!
Manistee Steelhead
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_52259_19092-51534--,00.html
The Little Manistee weir is an egg-take and salmon harvest facility which is operated by the Fisheries Division-Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The weir is used to block fish on the Little Manistee River in the spring and fall of the year. Steelhead eggs are taken in the spring and chinook salmon eggs are taken in the fall at the Little Manistee weir. The eggs taken at the weir are sent to State Fish Hatcheries where they are raised and stocked all over Michigan. Eggs are also supplied to several other states.
Spring
The weir is normally put in place sometime during the first two weeks of March, depending on weather. The weir remains in place until the quota of steelhead eggs is reached. This usually occurs by the middle of April, but may run later depending on weather. While the weir is in place, all fish passage is blocked. During egg-take operations, unripe "green" steelhead are usually counted and passed upstream, to sustain the "wild" Little Manistee steelhead run. Once the quota of eggs is reached, the weir grates are removed, allowing steelhead to jump the dam and proceed upstream. The dam boards are left in place as a sea lamprey barrier until mid-July.
Castalia Hatchery
http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/10/28/The-making-of-a-steelhead.html
Ohio's powerful trophy steelhead start their lives in the Buckeye State in rather humble fashion.
They ride in coolers from their birthplace in Michigan, packed in plastic bags by the tens of thousands. At a state-of-the-art hatchery here, they are transferred to plain, white buckets and disinfected before they are allowed in the building.
After a year of meticulous nurturing, the steelhead are released into five northeast Ohio streams when they are about 6-8 inches in length. Following another year or two of feeding and growing, the fish migrate into Lake Erie in late spring, seeking cooler water, and there they grow to reach 25 inches long and push six pounds.
When the steelhead have made this round trip a few times — spending fall, winter, and spring in the rivers and the warmer months in the lake — they assume blockbuster size, with these colorful combatants clearing 30 inches and 10 pounds.
The Castalia State Fish Hatchery that shepherds the first phase of this process is a virtual steelhead factory. The facility, which completed a $7 million renovation earlier this year, produces 400,000 steelhead annually, thanks to its healthy supply of 52-degree water furnished by the many blue hole aquifers in the area.
That wealth of cold water provides the ideal nursery habitat for the rainbow trout and steelhead raised here. While the rainbow are used primarily to stock ponds and small lakes for youth fishing events, the steelhead are planted in the Rocky, Chagrin, Grand, and Vermilion rivers and Conneaut Creek, where they maintain one of the finest steelhead fisheries in the country.
"The value of that hatchery and its ability to produce steelhead and provide this kind of opportunity here in Ohio — it's priceless," said Owen Murphy, who operates Ohio Steelhead Drifters guide service in the Cleveland area.
"The economic impact is huge. You have fishermen from all over coming to Ohio in the dead of winter because of the quality steelhead fishing we have. And it's not all off in the wilderness somewhere — it's as close as15 minutes from downtown Cleveland."
Castalia is the only hatchery in the state to produce steelhead — a rainbow trout that migrates into the lake, then returns to the river to spawn. Steelhead are usually a bright silver with a pronounced pink band, with the males developing a threatening looking hooked jaw during the spawning period.
The steelhead raised at Castalia are the Little Manistee River wild strain, and Ohio trades catfish with Michigan to acquire more than a half million steelhead eggs each spring.
Once the steelhead arrive at the hatchery early in the year, they are under the care of Andy Jarrett, the superintendent of the operation. Mr. Jarrett pampers the steelhead, from the fertilized egg stage until the day they are loaded into trucks and transported to the release sites.
"Steelhead are very density dependent, so we keep moving them around inside the facility until we run out of room," he said. "At one point in the spring, every tank here is filled with steelhead."
Around the end of the summer, the fish reach two or three inches in length and are moved into the long, covered runways where they can spread out and continue to grow.
Before the renovation and the addition of new buildings at the hatchery, Ohio had to purchase fingerlings from Michigan in order to reach the production quota.
"Now, we have about four times the space that we did before," Mr. Jarrett said. "We haven't changed the production numbers, but just made the quality much better. In the past, sometimes we struggled to reach that seven-to-nine inch size."
A healthy fish for stocking will maintain the prime steelhead fishery in Ohio's streams, Mr. Murphy said.
"We have good numbers of fish in these rivers, and as word spreads, I'm seeing younger fishermen highly interested in fishing for steelhead," he said. "Because of our very effective stocking program, Ohio has outstanding steelhead fishing, and there are still a lot of people just hearing about it."
Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.
