2/11 Gary lighthouse

[Freebie]

Took advantage of a warmer Saturday. 
13 total. 
caught most of them by the discharge but did well trolling in 40 FOW as well 
Coho and steelhead. 

[Pikesmith]

Beautiful Steelie!

[southshore]

Actually looks like a brown to me Great pic, great fish regardless! Would love to see a few more of them in the stocking program, they fill a few gaps in the near shore fishing calendar and give you a shot a fish measured in pounds instead of inches.

[BNature]

 First, let me say I'm in a hotel room waiting for my wife to wake up so basically, I'm bored. Otherwise,,,,,????Secondly, great catch and nice photo. So much better than a fish soaking in a bloody cooler with a bunch of waterlogged cohos!  When you said it was a steelhead, I believed it just based on the shiny flanks glinting in the sun. When SS IDed it as a brown, I thought I'd take a closer look so I downloaded the photo so I could enlarge it enough to see some of the key features.  Clue number one - the spots on the flanks of a lake-run brown trout are somewhat X shaped.  I enlarged the flanks on the fish and though it's a bit grainy, it does appear the spots are X shaped - and certainly not round.  Clue number two -  Tail spots. A steelhead always has lots of spots on their tail and the spots are aligned in distinct rows along the rays of the tail fin. Brown trout have no tail spots.  This fish has no tail spots. So good call SouthShore!  You've got a good eye.  I'm certainly not dissing you, Freebie. It's confusing to many trying to positively ID all the salmon and trout species in the Great Lakes. I just thought I'd take this opportunity as a teaching moment to all of the people reading these posts. I'm jealous of you, anyway. You were out fishing. I was driving most of the day and then checking into a hotel for the evening.   

[southshore]

Well explained Mike, I noticed the spots when I zoomed in to see if I recognized anyone in the boats in the background. I thought the tail looked “brownie” for some reason, but wouldn’t have been able to explain why. Thanks for the follow up!  Just for kicks, here’s a not as nice picture of a steelie and a coho from earlier this week.

 


Steelie was odd to me in that there was NO eggs or milt sacs inside. Looked like a female and I was expecting small tight skeins, but there weren’t even tiny undeveloped eggs in it. Should have taken a picture of the gut pile. 

[Pannie nut]

Definitely a brown, it has spots on its cheeks/ gill plate. Steelhead normally only on top of their head 

[Trent]

Congratulations! Thanks for the report!

[Dirty]

Great fish.  Looking at the fish on the boat I would certainly be confused lol.  Thanks for the report.

[Insanecoho]

Thx for the report, great  to see the season  start.ice gear & decoys  put up for the season. 

[Freebie]

BNature

No dissing felt! I’m certainly not great at identifying these fish. Good info and thanks. 
The guys on the boat said Steelhead and I accepted it and went with that!