DCHP-1 Online

steelhead

• n. a fish, Salmo gairdnerii, of the Pacific coast, which spawns in fresh water after two or three years in the sea. Also steelhead trout.

  See also: iron-nose  Kamloops (trout)  rainbow (trout)  sea trout (def. 2)  steel (def. 3)  

  • The steelhead is sometimes erroneously regarded as a rainbow trout that has spent some time in the sea. Actually the reverse is true, the rainbow trout being a steelhead that spends its entire life in fresh water.

  • 1896  Still this did not prevent my good friend Duncan Campbell from landing a fine steelhead with a march brown just opposite the Quamichan rancherie. . . .
  • 1955  Steelhead trout are British Columbia's number one game fish, but their habits and life history are still pretty much of a mystery.
  • 1966  . . . the sand pool . . . at this time of year is often filled with cutthroat trout and sometimes is holding water for steelhead.