Is it a Steelhead or a Rainbow? With Katie Kobayashi

When is a trout a steelhead and when is it a rainbow? Are steelhead just rainbow trout that migrate to the ocean? Is it something in their genes or just random chance? And in a given population of rainbow trout, will only some of them migrate to the ocean? And according to a biologist, are the Great Lakes "steelhead" truly steelhead? My guest fisheries biologist Katie Kobayashi [32:13] has studied these fish down to the genetic level and has some exciting information on their life histories. In the Fly Box this week, we have some great questions that I think will be helpful to many of you, including: If I hook a trout in the back behind the dorsal fin, will it survive OK? And can I count this fish as "caught"? What is the most useful saltwater fly line for inshore species? For my smaller creeks in Pennsylvania, would an 8 ½ foot 4-weight or 7 1/2-foot 3-weight be better? Have you used articulated flies? Have you had success with them? Are there articulated subsurface flies other than streamers? I have an 8-weight rod for flats fishing in salt water and want a second rod for bigger stuff. Should I get a 9-weight or a 10-weight? For fishing in a Colorado tailwater, when should I use an indicator setup and when should I Euro-nymph? And when Euro nymphing, how can I get a tiny size 22 nymph down into the right zone?

You can listen to Is it a Steelhead or a Rainbow? With Katie Kobayashi online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Is it a Steelhead or a Rainbow? With Katie Kobayashi is an episode from The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast by James Hathaway.

This episode is 01:10:33 long.

This episode was published on Feb 11, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.