The Fish in the photo was recently caught on the lower Don, weighs about 4lbs +. Is it a steelhead or rainbow? Further details can be read on the revamped fishDon web site herehttp://www.fishpal.com/Scotland/Don/Reports.asp?dom=Don (http://www.fishpal.com/Scotland/Don/Reports.asp?dom=Don)
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/collieston/steelheadw700.jpg)
Hmmm, difficult one this. Could it be a blue?
Quite a small head and mouth for a sea run fish so wouldnt think it was a steehead. Looks like a Blue to me.
Wait til Fred finds out there are rainbows in the Don!! :makefun
In my humble opinion a steelhead is a sea-running rainbow,
just like brown trout and seatrout are genetically the same.
The fish in the picture could very well be a seatrout though,
since rainbows do not spawn on this side of the Atlantic pond.
But I will gladly give up my opinion for a better one...
Cheers, Hans
It looks as if it may well be a female sea run rainbow.
(http://lifestyle.resourcesforattorneys.com/fishing/images/steelhead-allforms.jpg)
i ve caught quite a few blues in a past life,i think it looks very like one.im not 100% sure but i think the gaddie burn which runs by loch insch into the urie and into the don.lots of blues in insch and lots in the holding ponds right next to the burn.
Garry
Quote from: machar on July 12, 2010, 01:44:25 PM
The Fish in the photo was recently caught on the lower Don, weighs about 4lbs +. Is it a steelhead or rainbow? Further details can be read on the revamped fishDon web site herehttp://www.fishpal.com/Scotland/Don/Reports.asp?dom=Don (http://www.fishpal.com/Scotland/Don/Reports.asp?dom=Don)
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/collieston/steelheadw700.jpg)
Nearly 100% sure its an escaped blue .
Must agree with Fachan, there is no place for these fish in our wild Scottish waters. Vermin, plain and simple. Fish farms and "stocked fisheries" (just different names for the same thing) should be relentlessly pursued and prosecuted for all escapes at every opportunity. Fines must be draconian in order to be effective.
I agree, and I assume everyone on these forums would, that these fish have no place in our wild waters. However I would imagine it would be impossible to identify the source of the escaped fish. Would having more stringent regulations of the security of these fish farms / fisheries not be more effective?
Robbie
The origin of this fish, and if it was on its way down or up the system we will never know, we do not believe any scales were harvested. What we do know is that is should not be there. Worryingly, another fish, this time 100% rainbow was caught upstream about 8 miles a couple of days earlier, also killed, and about a 1lb lighter, this one was in slightly poorer condition. I spoke to the angler who caught it, and he simply caught it and recorded it as a rainbow in our catch return system. i believed it was a mistake but he mentioned it to me after the "steelhead" was caught and that he just thought it a rare escapee and killed it.
But just to throw a spanner into the works, i hear a rumour that a similar rainbow, or blue / steelhead was recently caught in the Dee. Now i know that there are stocked ponds on both systems, and the coincidence could simply be that in high water an escape happend in both systems at the same time, resulting in these invasives being caught and killed.
But a balanced argument must also look at the fact that both these rivers have their mouths a couple of miles apart, and that pacific salmon, 100% pacific salmon have been caught and studied in the Don, and quite possibly in the Dee. At least one of these fish is believed to be from Russian stock, though i have not seen any evidence of this and do not know how this detail is known. I have some time ago however seen a picture of a pacific from the Don so i am convinced it is true.
We know that the sea temperatures are changing and that fish have to feed in different areas of the sea, but they appear to now be doing this quite successfully. During these potential changes of feeding areas it is likely that fish will meet up with fish destined for different areas, and a dafty or two will join the wrong shoal.
There are some species i would like to see in the Don, more Shad and a few grayling would be nice, (but lets not introduce them!) but invasive predator's, even though spawning is very unlikely will only do damage to native stocks.
D
Interesting thought Diverdave
Quote from: diverdave on July 23, 2010, 09:17:42 AM
But a balanced argument must also look at the fact that both these rivers have their mouths a couple of miles apart, and that pacific salmon, 100% pacific salmon have been caught and studied in the Don, and quite possibly in the Dee. At least one of these fish is believed to be from Russian stock, though i have not seen any evidence of this and do not know how this detail is known. I have some time ago however seen a picture of a pacific from the Don so i am convinced it is true.
We know that the sea temperatures are changing and that fish have to feed in different areas of the sea, but they appear to now be doing this quite successfully. During these potential changes of feeding areas it is likely that fish will meet up with fish destined for different areas, and a dafty or two will join the wrong shoal.
I've wondered the same myself: have we indeed got a small breeding population of steelhead in Scottish waters and are they actually part of a natural expansion or escapes or the progeny of escapes? I've caught a couple of astonishly beautiful rainbows from the Loch Lomond system over the years. These fish looked more like grilse than rainbows. We do know they can breed in Britain - the Derbyshire Wye has resident rainbows. As you say the odd pacific salmon has appeared. There also seems to be a general change in wildlife movement patterns general with quite a few species being recorded more frequently recently.
I've also wondered about rainbows breeding in Scottish waters. I'm fairly sure that they do on occasion (I once caught some little rainbow parr from inflow burn at Loganlea) but I doubt it is ever in enough numbers to make a viable population. I've caught several steelhead like rainbows and several pristine "normal" rainbows from the river Earn but never a parr. If any river was going to actually sustain a population of rainbows I think the Earn would be a likely candidate - there have been loads of mass escapes from various sources over the years and there is a always a trickle of fish escaping so in effect there are always rainbows in the water. Some seem to settle in the river and naturalise some seem to run to sea and return as "steelhead". Most just seem to "disappear" after a while. I suspect that they do end up in the sea but what happens to them then, I don't know.
Norm
I'm fairly sure if you ask anyone who has to put up with multitude of escaped rainbows on, for example, the Earn system they will tell you they are indeed vermin. Masses of them competing with the native trout and salmon in the river and loch. I just hope that never happens to any of our fine rivers here in the north east. Famed rainbows should be kept in the dug out stanks where there is no possibility of them escaping into the wild. Fish farms and their retail outlets - the "fisheries" need to be heavily regulated. It won't happen though, not until there is some kind of catastrophe and then it'll be a fire fighting exercise. GS was introduced to Norway via commercial rainbow trout which have a resistance to the parasite and make excellent carriers. We should heed the warning, but of course we won't. Incidentally, these travesties we call rainbow trout bear little resemblance to wild bred fish, native or not. Wild rainbows are wonderful fish.
It looks like a steelhead fresh from the ocean, within a few days anyway. Steelhead will stray between river systems, so having a wanderer from somewhere else, while not too common, is not at all unusual.