Great Lake Steelhead-oxymoron

[steeliefreak1]

I would like to see this guy try and get into some pressured fish in 32 degree water.

[Mississippi Punk]

Following that logic, I guess I'm in rainbow heaven. I live the state the trout gods forgot, only to have caught more "rainbows" over 30 inches than everybody I know; including guys who take trips to South America every year . Can we now argue that the browns we have are not true browns as they are not sea run as well? Then I can brag next year to my Colorado dwelling brother-in-law about my buddies and I catching 20 lb stream browns, heh, heh.

[maysloan]

In an attempt to answer a friend's question about whether a great lake steelhead is in fact, a steelhead, I stumbled onto this blog. I then looked for the answer to this great debate in my Ichthyology book by renown fisheries scientist Peter Moyle (and Joeseph Cech). According to this book, anadromous fishes are those that spend the adult phase of their life cycle in salt water (or large bodies of fresh water) but move up streams and rivers to spawn. Anadromy is accompanied by a "profound change in morphology, physiology, and behavior." According to this book an ocean-run and lake-run rainbow are both steelhead. I hope this helps.