Swimming With Wild Steelhead 

It's the least I can do, this river gives so much back to me. Thanks for watching.

thanks for the comment.

I fished that spot a few times this year as well. My theory is that by the time they get that far up, they've had a thorough education on what fishing gear is all about..

Thanks for the kind comment. For me that is actually the best thing about RU-vid: having a bit of chance to talk to people about the things that I find important.

Thanks, I have been enjoying your videos as well.

Yeah, I don't really expect much headway in that department, but they sure make a mess.

(I'm considering making my own with flour and water,after seeing this,very appreciative you pointed this out!!!!)

Maybe something along those things they put in bubble tea. I be with the right scents it would work.

Thanks for watching, it's been over 6 months since the conditions have been good enough to swim there.

Thanks for watching!

Glad you enjoyed it

Cool, might be the only steelhead footage this year though, the freshet will blow the river out soon.

Thanks Duke, will do.

Yes, very quickly too. In that snow melt water you lose the ability to move your muscles in about 5 minutes.

@@petrhermanadventures9509 keep up your difficult work; the Salmonides are worth the effort.

Yeah, me too. When I started watching RU-vid that was always the footage that I likes. Crashed my drone yesterday, I can see that being an expensive hobby.

Glad you think so!

I opened up two resident trout, one had a big bead and the other a whole 6" plastic worm. I think both of those fish would have eventually died from blockage. I'm kind of thinking about switching to steel pellets in some kind of bio degradable baggie for weights, though for me it's kind of a zero sum game, as I remove way more lead from the river than I leave in there.

Thanks for cleaning up, all that stuff ends up in the ocean and that's where it does real harm.

Sorry it took me so long to mail it out. I have a bit of a procrastination problem :)

Thank you for the comment, I appreciate it.

Welcome aboard!

I appreciate the comment, it let's me know what people like and helps promote the video!

@@petrhermanadventures9509 I think is important that you talked about safety in the water, specially if people are thinking of doing what you do

Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it!

Yes, they are pretty cool.

Big resident rainbows are extremely rare on this river, there is just too much fishing pressure. Rainbows and steelhead are the exact same genetics, the only thing different is lifestyle. The steelies go out to the ocean. The difference in appearance is in beefiness and color. Steelhead are brighter and deeper in body. In this video I a actually encountered a summer run steelhead, but did not get a clear shot. thanks for watching.

@@petrhermanadventures9509 OK thanks, body size and colour…. Yes I know steelies are sea run, and bows not, you just seemed to be able to tell them apart well. A river like that could have the odd 3-10 lbs river bows in it…. Good to know the difference in identification, cheers.

I'm getting a new suit soon that will get me back in the water. Too cold with the gear I have right now.

thx @@petrhermanadventures9509

This swim was in March, the water was about 5 degrees celsius. A bit on the chilly side, but my wetsuit is built for it. Yes, I mostly dive alone. Unlike freediving to depth, there is no risk of blacking out. There is a serious risk of entrapment, but in that scenario a buddy is not likely to save you.

Yeah, some days I have a lot to say :)

The river is open till the end of the month below Tamihi Bridge. After that it's open to fly fishing only and below Vedder crossing only. So basically another week of decent fishing left and tough sledding after that. The freshet will hit us in about one to two weeks as well, which will mess up fishing.

I have not witnessed it, but the biologists believe it's common. I have noticed that some of the resident rainbows get into their spawning colors at the same time as the steelhead, so I think it does happen. They are genetically identical.

@@petrhermanadventures9509 Thanks for your reply. you are right. I don't know how to share a PDF here but see the extract of this neat paper (Breeding Structure of Steelhead Inferred from Patterns of Genetic Relatedness among Nests, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 134:1202-1212, 2005) "We suggest that interbreeding between female steelhead and resident male rainbow trout (nonanadromous) or precocial steelhead parr (not yet seagoing) may explain the biased sex ratio and high male reproductive variance we detected. Many coastal streams in Western North America contain both steelhead and rainbow trout (reviewed by Busby et al. 1996). Population genetic and otolith microchemistry data generally suggest steelhead and rainbow trout interbreed where they commingle (Busby et al. 1996; Zimmerman and Reeves 2000; Zimmerman and Reeves 2002; but see Narum et al. 2004). Some steelhead males may also become sexually mature as parr and have the potential to mate before migrating to the ocean. Our study focused specifically on eggs collected from steelhead redds. Therefore, we were unlikely to sample any matings involving rainbow trout females, but this would not preclude our sampling of matings between female steelhead and male trout or steelhead parr. Rainbow trout are smaller than steelhead, and therefore are expected to have less access to females and to fertilize fewer eggs per spawning event. We inferred a pattern of 6 males fertilizing 83% of the eggs and 10 additional males fertilizing only a few (7 or fewer) eggs each (Figure 3). We suggest that this pattern is consistent with matings by 6 male steelhead and 10 male rainbow trout or steelhead parr."

There is always a bit less current near the bottom, due to turbulent drag from the rocks, but yeah the river pushes me around quite a bit.