Let me begin by saying that I have never fished for steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. For the pedantic angler, that would mean that I have never fished for steelhead. For what is a steelhead? It is “just” oncorhynchus mykiss, with a little taxonomic tail of irideus to designate that they live the anadromous life. They spend the bulk of their days getting strong and getting fed in the oceans, and then they move inland to spawn.

I have fished for adfluvial rainbow trout. These big, strong ‘bows summer in depths of the Great Lakes before running into tributaries to spawn and/or go through the spawning motions. But truth is truth, and adfluvial is not anadromous.

Still, I call them steelhead. And no one in their right mind is confused when I say I fish for them in Pennsylvania.