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Steel Head or rainbow?

Started by machar, July 12, 2010, 01:44:25 PM

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machar

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


River Chatter

Hmmm, difficult one this.  Could it be a blue?

RichardL

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

Hans

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

Fishtales

It looks as if it may well be a female sea run rainbow.

Don't worry, be happy.
Sandy
Carried it in full, then carry it out empty.
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garryh

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
Education is important.
But fishing is importanter

Burnfoot Loch

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



Nearly 100% sure its an escaped blue .

Wildfisher

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.

Robbie

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

diverdave

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

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