28-pound rainbow trout caught in northern Idaho would have been record-breaker

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/15/28-pound-rainbow-trout-caught-in-northern-idaho-would-have-been-record-breaker/?intcmp=latestnews

There are bigger non-genetically engineered rainbows in lake Pend Oreille Idaho. 37lbs caught in 1945
Who wants to plan a trip to catch some of these hogs.  My friend owns a charter service there.  I can hook up a good deal.
1st place below caught on his boat.  300 yard plus runs on 12lb test and an hour and half to land it.
these were caught last November.  There are also big bull trout, lake trout, brown trout and kokanee.

Holy shit.

Awesome native fish and only seven years old!

However where did they get " A steelhead trout is a rainbow trout longer than 20 inches." Evidently We've been catching Steelhead at Quarry Lakes and Shadow Cliffs.  From my days as a fisheries student at Oregon State, we were taught that a Steelhead is an Anadromous Rainbow, spending part of its life cycle in the ocean. Websters Definition of ANADROMOUS: ascending rivers from the sea for breeding

That sure doesn't look like a "native" rainbow trout to me, and it sure ain't a steelhead, either.

Ugly looking thing, but a great catch nonetheless.

And I bet you would still struggle catching anyone of those species!

And I bet you would still struggle catching anyone of those species!

Did my reply piss you off for some reason? Not sure what you're getting at...

And I bet you would still struggle catching anyone of those species!

Did my reply piss you off for some reason? Not sure what you're getting at...

No alex, that message was  for our brotha who's allergic to freshwater fish. No doubt u can catch any species. 

In CA, they consider any rainbow over 16" [in a watershed with direct access to the ocean] to be a steelhead. So a 17" rainbow in the Consumnes River is technically a steelhead. Or the Moke or American Rivers, etc. But a 17" rainbow in Shadow Cliffs is just a trout.
This doesn't necessarily mean the fish has gone to sea & returned...they just needed to draw the line somewhere for law-enforcement purposes, and it has been determined that a 16" rainbow trout is mature enough to spawn successfully. But it's interesting to hear Idaho put the line at 20".

Speaking of GMO trout, ever see the mutants these twins catch in Canada, eh? http://www.fishinggeeks.net/records
 

And I bet you would still struggle catching anyone of those species!

Did my reply piss you off for some reason? Not sure what you're getting at...

No alex, that message was  for our brotha who's allergic to freshwater fish. No doubt u can catch any species.

I gotcha. So Ya... Ignore my last post...

I'd love to jig one of those up  .

In CA, they consider any rainbow over 16" [in a watershed with direct access to the ocean] to be a steelhead. So a 17" rainbow in the Consumnes River is technically a steelhead. Or the Moke or American Rivers, etc. But a 17" rainbow in Shadow Cliffs is just a trout.
This doesn't necessarily mean the fish has gone to sea & returned...they just needed to draw the line somewhere for law-enforcement purposes, and it has been determined that a 16" rainbow trout is mature enough to spawn successfully. But it's interesting to hear Idaho put the line at 20".

Speaking of GMO trout, ever see the mutants these twins catch in Canada, eh? http://www.fishinggeeks.net/records

I never heard of this before. Good to know.

From page 25 of the Freshwater Sport Fishing Regulations:

For purposes of these regulations, a steelhead trout is defined as any rainbow trout greater than 16 inches in length found in anadromous waters.

Is there a list of anadromous waters in California? Just wondering where you would need a steelhead report card.

Good point about needing a steelhead report card on rivers that flow into the ocean. Note this only applies below dams too. For example, if you're fishing the American River above Folsom dam then you don't need a steelhead report card and any rainbow over 16" is still just a trout. But I don't think there's a list of waters where a steelhead report card is required...or where the 16" rule is in play. You just gotta look at a map Tim haha

To add more wrinkles to the resident rainbow/steelhead conundrum:

I read a paper a while back where researchers tagged adult steelhead returning to the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River.  The researchers wanted to identify where the steelhead would go after they were spawned in the hatchery.  They only tagged a handful of fish, but the results were very interesting: some fish immediately booked it downstream back to the ocean, some hung out in the river for a while before heading back to the ocean, and a few decided to stay in the mainstem Sac for the rest of their lives.  The ones that stayed in the river essentially reverted back to "resident rainbow trout".

Granted, these were all hatchery fish and hatchery fish do weird things.

As far as I know, in California, excepting  a variety of Shasta rainbow ( which is now above the Dam anyway) if a natural rainbow can make it to the sea, it will go there.
Sounds like that Idaho Rainbow was caught way up near the Canadian border, so maybe those don't go to the sea. Also that Rainbow looks more like a hatchery bred strain. Maybe an offspring of a hatchery fish. Maybe someone else knows if these hatchery strains have had their migratory instincts screwed up. Although I've never caught a Steelhead above 17#'s IMHO true steelhead would have a more elongated body