# Rainbow or steel head?



## Squirrely (Sep 17, 2009)

Its 27in 10lbs now is it condidered a steel head or a rainbow when that big?


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## jw_sartini (Jul 27, 2008)

was the body of water you caught it out of somehow connected to one of the big lakes? even through a small tributary of some sort? if it wasn't then it's not a steelhead. but if it was, it's most likely a steelhead. and by the looks of it, it looks like a steelhead. whether it's a steelhead or not isn't determined by the size, but rather by where it matures. bow grows up in one of the great lakes=steelhead. bow grows up in stream/river/pond/inland lake/etc.=rainbow.


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## quest32a (Sep 25, 2001)

Squirrely said:


> Its 27in 10lbs now is it condidered a steel head or a rainbow when that big?


Looks like a steelhead, if the body of water you caught it from connects to a Great Lake in any way it is 99.99999% a steelhead. If not that is one hell of a resident rainbow, or some escaped pond mutt.

Actually with the fins worn down like they are it may just be a pond or hatchery mutt.


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## Robert Holmes (Oct 13, 2008)

All steelhead are at sometime or another a rainbow trout. Most rainbow trout caught in Burt, Black, or Mullett lakes are called steelhead also although very few migrate through the Cheboygan locks. It would be safe to call it either or.


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## big_phish (Jan 1, 2009)

I vote steelhead.


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## diztortion (Sep 6, 2009)

Steelhead. Fins could be worn from beating the gravel.


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## earl (Sep 7, 2007)

Now if we could just get someone from the PNW to weigh in.


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## Radar (Sep 20, 2002)

We've caught several rainbows out of burt and always called them rainbows. But they do migrate up rivers that connect to burt and spawn...which could make them "inland steelhead" or "rainbows". Either way...very nice fish...and even nicer if it was caught out of burt or mullet or crooked or black. My biggest out of burt is 24 inches.


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## Reel_Screamer86 (Mar 22, 2007)

I vote steelhead too....


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

I've never heard of a river Rainbow in MI reaching that size, but I don't hear about everything. Like others have stated, if it came from a river or stream that somehow connects to the Great Lakes, then almost surely a Steelhead. All Steelhead are Rainbows. Not all Rainbows are Steelhead. They both spawn in the spring.


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## DE82 (Nov 28, 2007)

Fishndude said:


> All Steelhead are Rainbows. Not all Rainbows are Steelhead.


This is true. I would add though, just because a trout is big, doesn't make it a steelhead


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