12/13/2023 0 Comments Steelhead trout vs salmon![]() The inside of a steelhead’s mouth is white. Perhaps the easiest way to quickly identify a steelhead is to check the color of the inside of its mouth. Coho have a more pronounced fork or V-shape to the back of the tail. Steelhead have a mostly straight or square back edge to the tail. If you still aren’t sure, check the tail. Unlike salmon, steelhead also don’t easily lose their scales when they are flopping on the floor of the boat or being handled. Coho tend to be three pounds or smaller and don’t jump as much. Steelhead caught on the big lake are usually hefty, bigger than three pounds, and almost always jump during the fight. Veteran Lake Superior anglers can identify a steelhead by their general appearance. John Krull, Wisconsin conservation warden based in Superior, agreed. “It’s more that I think we can do a better job of educating anglers,’’ he said. Piszczek said the problem isn’t big enough to have a biological impact on the steelhead population, which seems to be holding its own. Especially for anglers who haven’t caught a lot of them,’’ Goldsworthy said. It really looks like they think they’re keeping coho when in fact they’re keeping steelhead.”Ĭory Goldsworthy, Lake Superior Area Fisheries Supervisor for the Minnesota DNR based in French River, said misidentification of trout and salmon has always been an issue at some level on the big lake and its tributary rivers but may be more of an issue as novice Lake Superior anglers venture out onto the big lake who have less experience catching Great Lakes trout and salmon. “I was nosing around through the most recent creel survey (of what anglers catch) and noticed that there were quite a few steelhead showing up,” Piszczek said. It doesn’t do much good to have protective rules on steelhead if anglers are keeping them thinking they are coho, said Paul Piszczek, senior fisheries biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources stationed in Superior. That means anglers who are misidentifying fish are not only keeping too many steelhead but they are keeping steelhead that are legally too small to keep. And because coho usually don’t get really big, and because they taste great, many are kept smaller than 26 inches. (Only steelhead with a clipped adipose fin on their rear top of their back may be kept.)īut up to five coho salmon can be kept each day in both states. In Minnesota waters of the big lake, anglers must release all wild steelhead caught. In Wisconsin waters of Lake Superior only one steelhead is allowed per day for anglers to keep and it has to be at least 26 inches long to keep. That’s a problem when steelheads are highly prized and protected. They look close enough alike that some anglers are keeping steelhead to kill and eat thinking they are coho. Steelhead rainbow trout and coho salmon are cousins of a sort, both in the Salmonidae family. How to distinguish between Chinook salmon, Coho salmon and Steelhead troutĪs Lake Superior gradually warms up this spring and the fishing heats up, too, fisheries biologists are asking anglers to pay closer attention to their catch.
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