Thursday February 5, 2026
The Leader —
Steelhead are hard to explain in a single breath, which may be part of why they are so easy to misunderstand.
They are trout and salmon at once— Oncorhynchus mykiss—capable of living their entire lives in freshwater like rainbow trout, or of slipping downstream, changing their chemistry, and entering the sea like salmon, then returning years later to the same rivers where they were born. Some make that journey once. Some survive to do it again. Some head far offshore. Others linger close to shore. A few turn back early, half-grown, testing saltwater before committing. No other Pacific salmonid displays such a wide range of life histories.