Mackenzie red side trout

[rippin fish lips]

Post pictures of Mackenzie red side trout. The Red side that i caught in 2011 was nearly 25 inches long. It had all the features of a "native" steelie. I know that there is "no" native steelie in the mac. idk tho..... every time it pops up in me head my mind gets going!

I beg youu to post post pose MAc RED sides!!! At your convenience plz.

 

[bran_man]

Yeah I remember you posting about that a while ago. That does sound a little big for a MAC red side, but it doesn't sound impossible. And you could have technically kept/ tagged it as a native steelie. The only ones I've seen/ caaught have been around 18- 20" ish range. One other time last year I was out and saw a guy catch one about that big. Also, on a different slow day after trying all my usual tactics with no results I decided to tie on an all brass size 4 blue fox and first cast caught a monster 26 bull trout around 4-5 lb range. That fish fought so hard I was pretty sure it was a salmon! Just goes to show that they can get big out there if they are in there long enough.

 

[jamisonace]

It could have been a redside but it would have been the biggest I've ever heard of. The pond at the hatchery is full of redsides that big and bigger. It also could have been a hatchery steelhead that got through without being clipped.

Sorry I don't have pics of redsides but my biggest was 18" and fought like a steelhead.

 

[Kevinb5688]

My dad works for odfw and i asked him about this, he said every so often they will release 10 or so of the big red sides in the hatchery holding pen below the dam, and 10 or so above it. You must have caught one of those? Dad and i fished that rever for years every weekend and the biggest trout he caught was 20 inches. a lot of 17-18 inch fish.

 

[jamisonace]

Are the fish they release from the pond fin clipped? I was up there yesterday with some friends but I didn't notice if those big redsides get clipped or not.

My dad works for odfw and i asked him about this, he said every so often they will release 10 or so of the big red sides in the hatchery holding pen below the dam, and 10 or so above it. You must have caught one of those? Dad and i fished that rever for years every weekend and the biggest trout he caught was 20 inches. a lot of 17-18 inch fish.

 

[Kevinb5688]

No i dont think they fin clip those before releasing them. My dad did say they tag some without clips to track them and clip some but he dosent work for the hatchery he is the facilites manager so what does he know. Lol

 

[dtikey]

in march through early april we hook into a lot of redsides from 14-22 inches and have seen probally 2 over the 24 inch mark below leaburg dam so to answer your first question yes very possable on it being redside..to the question on native steelies in mac no none but there is plenty of adipose fish that move through the system...i can useally count on getting around 5-10 of these landed below leaburg and even more if you are fishing up above the dam on the upper regions of mckenzie
\

 

[dtikey]

the only pic i have of redside up mac

 

[eggs]

From last spring on BigSteel Birthday float..

On a 3wt

 

[brandon4455]

here are a few articles from the caddis fly shop's Oregon fly fishing blog




This one, a post about a very large redside caught on the McKenzie
http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/201...-biggest-trout-ive-ever-seen-on-the-mckenzie/


This one about about a McKenzie wild steelhead

http://oregonflyfishingblog.com/2011/10/12/‘matt-need-a-spare-oar’/ The steelhead is considered wild,not native. there is a bit of a difference, This happens on The willamette too. two hatchery fish spawn and out comes the smolts that are not fin clipped resulting in "wild" summer steelhead.

 

[rippin fish lips]

the only pic i have of redside up mac

That explains it right there!! Thanks for taking the time find that picture and post it. That is the 2nd one i have ever seen on the mac, i know that spot. The one i caught was that size right there. It kills me so much that i did not have any camera around, One of the guys Plumb2fish knows, i forgot his name, was fishing below me he saw me fightin it.


@ brandon! Those articles to, thanks for that! They sum it up, and the native steelhead one as well! When i was little, i had always ddreamed of catching a native steel outa the mac. And the 2 hatch steeleis spawnig, that is how a lot of the "native" bows appeared i would assume. I will fish the mac until i catch a native steelie out of it.

 

[nwkiller]

Some past nice mac-reds

Some past nice mac-reds

18.5"
19"
21.5
19"
18"

 

[rippin fish lips]

Thanks for sharing NWkiller! Now my question is, for anyone out there that has heard or might know... I have a feeling that some of the redsides go up the latter at leaberg and into the upper mac, In my mind i see a good possiblity of that, i have a feeling the bull trout do to.

Is that true?? Also on the "native steelie" in the mac, My suspicions are that it is best to go after one below Hayden bridge as it is all "native" water. I will see a native out of the mac someday, i am determined enough to find one lurking about!

 

[dtikey]

there is many redsides above the ladder and bull trout also..we fly fish up the south fork and main way up by mckenzie bridge and do really good and actually the biggest redsides I have seen in the mac are on the south fork below cougar plus we see lots of nooks and adipose steelies up there.Blue river has a fair share of adipose steelies as well if thats what you want to target and wouldnt fish below goodpasture if I was to target adipose steelies on the mac.Since above leaburg dam is where they used to do all there planting many years agothats where the off spring of the hatchery fish that were able to spawn still return to.You can go up to below carmen and hike in and watch them spawn up there in the no fishing zone.

 

[BlackBass]

What some do not realize is that a Steelhead and "rainbow trout" are the same identical species. Steelhead runs are directly related to how healthy resident trout populations are in that particular watershed .
Some Rainbow trout spawn with adult wild Steelhead and are successful in doing so . I would assume that 25" red sides can and do exist . What science is trying to figure out is why some Rainbow trout have that urge to swim west in search of saltwater, while others stay in the river the entire time. In my opinion a lot of trout pictured here are just hatchery rainbows that have spawned in the wild successfully , while we will prob never know the percentage of hatchery or wild trout spawning with wild or hatchery steelhead , science has told us they do in fact spawn together frequently

 

[bigsteel]

What some do not realize is that a Steelhead and "rainbow trout" are the same identical species. Steelhead runs are directly related to how healthy resident trout populations are in that particular watershed .
Some Rainbow trout spawn with adult wild Steelhead and are successful in doing so . I would assume that 25" red sides can and do exist . What science is trying to figure out is why some Rainbow trout have that urge to swim west in search of saltwater, while others stay in the river the entire time. In my opinion a lot of trout pictured here are just hatchery rainbows that have spawned in the wild successfully , while we will prob never know the percentage of hatchery or wild trout spawning with wild or hatchery steelhead , science has told us they do in fact spawn together frequently

what makes you think these fish pictured are from hatchery origin?

 

[BlackBass]

The fact that we have over stocked our rivers for years introducing non native species to cloud the gene pool. I appreciate any Trout or Steelhead I catch and if it has a fin I don't question its release. That being said I really wish fishery management 50 years ago would of been more about science and less about introducing fish where they never belonged in the first place. Its a know win situation because we all enjoy catching the Willametter/trib springers , and we all love to see trout in our rivers, but by introducing non native species without much thought or concern towards protecting resident fish we have created our own list of problems..... Anytime you have a hatchery on a river you have reasonable doubt as to how "Native" or "Wild" the fish at hand really is, that is how I view this matter which is clearly complex. For the record I'm not trying to take anything away form the fish above they are as nice as they come.

 

[the_intimidator03]

BlackBass... Technically the whole hatchery screwing up thing started back in 1877. They farmed eggs and dispersed them throughout many rivers, which ineffect started to unify the genetics of the fish. Mind you this information is more specific to salmon, I believe steelhead were not much further behind. I would think with the effects done by those hatchery practices that in most places there are no more truly native runs.

Those are beautiful pictures of redsides.

 

[BlackBass]

Thanks for the history lesson . We are discussing Leaburg fish hatchery and the Mckenzie River , which was built in 1953 if I'm not mistaken I could be wrong didn't bother to look it up. Either way that is not what this thread is about. Great looking fish