Can I Use Dead Trout and Kokanee for Bait?

October 28, 2010

Question:Is it legal to use dead trout and/or Kokanee for bait in ocean waters? (Howard A.)

Answer: If it is store-bought, you can use it as bait in the ocean. If it is sport-caught, it needs to be legal for you to possess and it must meet any size requirements that may apply to that species.

Tricky wording in the reply.

There's a minimum size limit on Chinook in the ocean, but not in the rivers.  Same thing goes for a trout, where some places have minimum or maximum size limits and other places do not have any size limits.  Technically, one could keep a couple salmon smolts from a river and use them for bait in the ocean.  How would a warden determine whether you caught those smolts from a river or the ocean?

Similar issues with rainbows...if you're using them for bait or in a crab trap...how would the warden know you didn't catch them in the ocean? (can't keep steelhead in the ocean)

Use brown, brook or cutthroat. Problem solved.

Has anybody caught a steelhead in the ocean? I know it is possible, I just havent known one who has.

Has anybody caught a steelhead in the ocean? I know it is possible, I just havent known one who has.

I don't know anyone personally, but every once in a blue moon someone catches one.  JD Richey did a neat little article on them a while back:

http://www.fishwithjd.com/2007/07/15/steelhead-in-the-saltwater-the-purple-unicorn/

It's really interesting how they're practically never caught by salmon anglers.  The articles I've read on steelhead in the ocean give them a huge range across the Pacific, and tagging studies show them to hang much closer to the surface than salmon.  Even still, you'd think at least a FEW would be caught on a somewhat regular basis by salmon anglers.  Their mysterious nature in the salt gives them all the more mystique and awesomeness  .

I totally agree

Has anybody caught a steelhead in the ocean? I know it is possible, I just havent known one who has.

I don't know anyone personally, but every once in a blue moon someone catches one.  JD Richey did a neat little article on them a while back:

http://www.fishwithjd.com/2007/07/15/steelhead-in-the-saltwater-the-purple-unicorn/

It's really interesting how they're practically never caught by salmon anglers.  The articles I've read on steelhead in the ocean give them a huge range across the Pacific, and tagging studies show them to hang much closer to the surface than salmon.  Even still, you'd think at least a FEW would be caught on a somewhat regular basis by salmon anglers.  Their mysterious nature in the salt gives them all the more mystique and awesomeness  .

I think power boater got one at the Shelter Cove this year also one of our own got one perch fishing down near the Bay area.  I don't remember who.