The strange lovechild of a rainbow trout & a football

To celebrate the fact that it’s football season, our man on the scene in the Nimbus Basin of the American River, RH, sent in this photo of himself with this trippy-looking rainbow-steelie-football-broostocker-thingie.

The obese creature was taken about 1/2-mile above the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, which raises both steelies and stocker rainbows and, judging by the eroded dorsal, it’s spent its share of time in a concrete raceway. Methinks it’s not a hatchery steelhead because of the fully-intact adipose fin. I’m with RH, this thing is probably an escaped broodstocker rainbow.

Thanks, RH, and keep those fish pix coming!

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• Chasing Reservoir “Steelhead”
• New Year’s Steelhead on the American R.