What makes a B run fish?

[etacada]

This might be a silly question, but I hooked/landed a 10lb chrome, wild steelhead below shears on the D yesterday and was wondering if it was just a large Deschutes fish or an Idaho B run. Are there any characteristics that separate the B run fish from D fish?

Quick report...Seemed very slow for the masses fishing around Macks, river has been rising the last few days and i think it's put the bite off. I got my 10lber fishing some abstract water I would normally not fish if it had been less crowded. Pays to try something new:wink:!

cb

[TheWaker]

A good question and you will probably get a hundred answers.

My take:
A better than average Deschutes fish I would say. I think the average Idaho B fish are much bigger than most of the bigger Deschutes Natives in general. True Idaho B's would be in 12-15+ lb range I would guess.

But then there are some 12-15lb D nates as well so who knows. From what I have seen of fish actually caught in Idaho,the body size and lines of Idaho B's are just more massive and girthy. The big idaho B's just look different than a D fish. I'm not a biologist so it's hard to articulate.

With the Deschutes being such a melting pot of sorts for so many runs of fish that stray up and go back out,there may not be a real good answer. People that have been catching what they think are big D nates may actually be catching fish bound for Idaho or strays from another Columbia river system.

Again, I think that there are a lot of larger fish(10+lbs) that actually call the D home. Especially below the falls, making a call on where that fish came from or is heading is more difficult to pin down for sure.

I hope someone else chimes. I would be interested in hearing from the D fish experts.

Mark

[TheWaker]

I guess I forgot to mention that a lot of the big stray b-run fish will be of hatchery origin, not all but a lot. I just talked to a guy that hooked 4 fish over 36 inches in the lower river in 3 days and one that went 40 inches. Clipped fins.These were not Deschutes fish, but rather the B-run that you are asking about.

Mark

[Mad Mikey]

Clearwater gets two runs, an "A" run and a "B" run. The "B" run comes a little later than the "A" run. Typical "B" run fish don't jump much, if at all. They dog a lot, stay down and make long runs when hooked. Fight is similar to a chinook.

[Wild Chrome]

The term "B run" refers to the later, larger Idaho fish that spend more time in the ocean and return to the Clearwater and Salmon Rivers. You would have no way of telling with a wild steelhead, short of genetic testing, which the government sometimes does for research purposes, or possibly scale analysis. That said, B runs are usually larger than 10 pounds. Most of the B runs I've seen have been........:passout:........in the Bonneville fish ladder/viewing area and they appear to average in the teens with a few in the 20's:thisbig:. According to Trey Combs' book, a former world record steelhead was caught in the Deschutes in 1946 (28 pounds) and was believed to be an Idaho B run.

I have caught quite a few 30-33 inch, 9-12 pound wild steelhead in the Deschutes in July and August, before the B runs typically arrive, so I believe they are just larger Deschutes fish. Some of them have been among the best fighting steelhead of my life too! Not usually the deep slugfest you get with a beast.

[Steelie Mike]

There is a lot of in between fish that we catch that can go either way. A low teens fish is not uncommon in rivers like the Grande Ronde this time of year and like Wild Chrome said, people catch low teens fish early in the Columbia systems like the D. I have caught several of these this year and none of them I would say are B-runs, rather just large one and two salts.

The few that I have seen are long and thick and beat you up when they are hooked. Some do jump, but for the most park fight you like a salmon like Mad Mikey pointed out.

I had a conversation with a few guys on the Ronde and Snake last year with guys who have been fished the Snake and CW all their lives and they agreed. It is really hard to tell the difference with these fish in the Low 30 inch range. Regardless they are all awesome.

[12244]

Longer sleaker bodies, thinner wrist, and broom sized tails. Lots of them have been belly clipped in the last few years. They are headshakers, slow powerful fighters, and really dont jump much. Pretty easy to land for such a massive Steelhead.

[Wild Chrome]

Longer sleaker bodies, thinner wrist, and broom sized tails. Lots of them have been belly clipped in the last few years. They are headshakers, slow powerful fighters, and really dont jump much. Pretty easy to land for such a massive Steelhead.

Sounds like a girl I used to date! :D

[etacada]

I just bought a tape measure last week so I could start taping fish to get a more acurate weight of caught fish. I forgot It was on me! The steely I caught is believed to be 10lb, but i'd say it could have been 10 to 12lbs.

It broke the surface once and tried to bury its head on the bottom the rest of the time. Get fight that took about 8min, start to finish. I hooked it deep in a tail out and had to finesse the fish up so it would not leave the pool and be gone!

thanks for the replies!

chris

[cooky]

From a NOAA source:

A- and B-run steelhead--Inland steelhead of the Columbia River Basin, especially the Snake River Subbasin, are commonly referred to as either A-run or B-run. These designations are based on the observation of a bimodal migration of adult steelhead at Bonneville Dam (Columbia River river kilometer (RKm) 235) and differences in age (1- versus 2-ocean) and adult size observed among Snake River steelhead. Adult A-run steelhead enter fresh water from June to August; as defined, the A-run passes Bonneville Dam before 25 August (CBFWA 1990, IDFG 1994). Adult B-run steelhead enter fresh water from late August to October, passing Bonneville Dam after 25 August (CBFWA 1990, IDFG 1994). Above Bonneville Dam (e.g., at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, 695 km from the mouth of the Columbia River), run-timing separation is not observed, and the groups are separated based on ocean age and body size (IDFG 1994). A-run steelhead are defined as predominately age-1-ocean, while B-run steelhead are defined as age-2-ocean (IDFG 1994). Adult B-run steelhead are also thought to be on average 75-100 mm larger than A-run steelhead of the same age; this is attributed to their longer average residence in salt water (Bjornn 1978, CBFWA 1990, CRFMP TAC, 1991). It is unclear, however, if the life history and body size differences observed upstream have been correlated back to the groups forming the bimodal migration observed at Bonneville Dam. Furthermore, the relationship between patterns observed at the dams and the distribution of adults in spawning areas throughout the Snake River Basin is not well understood. A-run steelhead are believed to occur throughout the steelhead-bearing streams of the Snake River Basin; additionally, inland Columbia River steelhead outside of the Snake River Basin are also considered A-run (IDFG 1994). B-run steelhead are thought to be produced only in the Clearwater, Middle Fork Salmon, and South Fork Salmon Rivers (IDFG 1994).