Steelhead Fishing in Southern Ontario Rivers

Steelhead is one of the most sought after fish in North America.

Steelhead is the name of the migratory population of the rainbow trout. It is not native to the Great Lakes, but rather to the Pacific North West. It was stocked in some of the Great Lakes rivers, and stocking programs continue each year.

The life cycle of the steelhead is that they spend part of their life in streams and rivers, where they mate and lay their eggs. Then the adults return to the lake, as well as the fingerlings when they grow up a bit. In the lake, they feed on baitfish schools, and hence can attain large sizes, as opposed to the river-only rainbow trout.

Here are some photos of my first steelhead. I am intentionally leaving the location unnamed for the sake of decreasing pressures on fisheries.

	This is when I hooked the fish, on a weekend in May of 2003. Steelheads are famous for their fights and leaps off the water. You just hear the reel screaming, as the line goes off by the powerful fish. Sadly, the batteries ran out, and the spares were not charged so I did not have any pictures of landing it.
	I had to wait till I got home, and charged the batteries. You can see my first ever steelhead, it was 58 cm and 2 kg (5 lb).
	Another view of the beautiful steelhead fish.