What is a Skamania Steelhead?

What is a Skamania?

Loren Williams

Typically you start to hear a smattering of talk about "Skamanias" in the very early summer. Many folks are still perplexed by that term. This short article will aim to explain not only what a Skamania Steelhead is, but also how it is different from a Chamber's Creek (Winter-run) steelhead and a domestic rainbow trout. Further questions should be directed at active fisheries biologists.

First, lets delve a bit into the terminology used to identify groups and species of wildlife. Scientists employ what are called "taxonomic categories" when they discuss wildlife amongst themselves. Using taxonomy, animals (and plants and bugs and germs...) are divided into several types of groups representing their evolution. These groups are indicated by latin terminology. In print, the SuperKingdom through Genus will appear Capitalized and Italicized while the species (sp. or spp.) will appear lower case and italicized. This is done in order to create a universal "name" for each species of animal, plant, bug, etc...It eliminates the confusion created by locally used common names (for example: ling/bowfin, or Chinook/King Salmon). Any genetic difference between species will be reflected in the taxonomic classification.

For this discussion, I will limit the taxonomic heirarchy to Genus, where we are dealing with Oncorhynchus mykiss , formerly Salmo gairdneri, or the rainbow trout. This scientific names applies to the rainbow trout and all strains of steelhead. Thus, from the taxonomic classification alone we can see that there are no physiological differences between rainbow trout and any strain of steelhead. In addition, the new taxonomy associated with the rainbow trout is due to that fact that fossil evidence shows that the rainbow trout is more closely related to Pacific Salmon (Genus Oncorhynchus) than Atlantic Salmon (Genus Salmo). The change in the species name is relative to evidence that shows that the former S. gairdneri is the same as the former S. mykiss from Russia. Since mykiss was described first in scientific literature, it's name gets hierarchy in all this confusion. To simplify: Scientists originally thought that "our" rainbow trout were related to Atlantic salmon and different from a similar species found in Russia. However, the newest fossil evidence shows more clearly that our fish and the fish in Russia are the same AND that they are more closely related to Pacific Salmon. Phew!

Now that we have that stuff out of the way we can discuss the differences between the fish that make any unique terminology worthwhile. The differences between the varieties of rainbow trout are phenotypic. A phenotype is a visual or behavioral observation that results from the interaction of the species' genetic make-up and environment. These may also be called traits and they can be used as somewhat reliable indicators for identification. I feel that behavioral traits are better indicators than visual traits, and the more traits observed at one time the more confident an identification can be.

All strains of steelhead are "anadromous rainbow trout." This means that young steelhead are nurtured in freshwater streams and rivers until they undergo "smoltification" and migrate to the open water of lakes and oceans to mature. Once mature, they will return to their natal tributaries to spawn. The associated link clearly explains this phenomenon and provides pictures and detailed explanations of smoltification. This migratory trait is a central difference between steelhead and rainbow trout, which do not smolt.

We have two strains of steelhead along with domestic rainbow trout in our Lake Ontario tribtaries. Chambers Creek steelhead are a winter-run variety, and the most plentiful. They originate from Chambers Creek broodstock in the Pacific Northwest and are stocked from the Salmon River hatchery in Altmar. Winter-run steelhead begin to enter our tributaries in the early fall and remain, to varying degrees, until they spawn in the spring.

Skamania steelhead are a summer-run variety. I believe they orginated from the Washougal River, also in the Pacific NW, and are named for the hatchery that maintain the broodstock. These fish are also stocked, in minimal numbers, by New York out of the Salmon River hatchery. The Skamania has developed the unique trait of entering it's natal watershed as early as May, remaining throughout the summer, until it spawns in late winter or early spring. Some feel these fish are sleeker and more acrobatic. The Skamania steelhead that are stocked in the Salmon River (about 48,000) have a left-pectoral and adipose fin clip (LP/A). This mark, coupled with observing them in a summer tributary environment makes for a fairly confident identification. Skamanias stocked in other tributaries (approx. 2500) are unmarked, making identification more difficult. Summer water temperatures limit their range, so they are only found in a handful of tributaries. There has been an attempt to pen-rear 5,000 "skamies" in the Little Salmon River in 2002. Those fish were also LP/A marked.

The rainbow trout introduced into our Lake Ontario tributaries have been "domesticated" as the name often implies. Native and wild rainbow trout are spring spawners. But hatcheries are able to artificially alter the photo period (length of daylight/darkness) in order to "trick" the fish into spawning in the fall. This allows for uniform egg collecting among different trout species at a hatchery, and it allows for additional months of growth prior to spring stocking efforts. Basically, hatcheries can raised legal-sized fish in less time. Apparently these fish retain this domestic trait and continue to spawn in the fall. Since steelhead are not domesticated in this manner, observing fall-spawning rainbow trout can be a reliable indicator that they are domesticated rainbows and not steelhead. Of course, naturalization occurs to some degree, and some individuals revert back to their genotypic spring spawning patterns.

In the open water, steelhead demonstrate a uniform blue-black dorsal coloration with silvery sides and very little spotting below the lateral line. They typically do not have a visible lateral stripe. Conversely, since rainbows do not undergo smoltification, they retain the green-olive dorsal coloration, heavy spotting and visible red or pink lateral stripe throughout the year. Steelhead will demontrate a very similar coloration once they return to the tributaries to spawn. This makes positive identification very difficult where the two or three varieties overlap sans fin clips or fall spawning behavior.

To conclude, the term "Skamania" often gets tossed around a good bit during the summer months. This activity almost connotates a different species of fish. In reality, the Skamania steelhead, Chambers Creek steelhead and domestic rainbow trout are all the same fish. At best they are different varieties of rainbow trout with the same genetic make-up but exhibiting different traits. If enough of these traits are present, a confident identification can be made, but often it is impossible to tell them apart by appearance alone.