Why are SRC called Harvest Trout?

chrome/22

chrome/22

Low Profile Operator
Forum Supporter
Was re-reading Snow Falling on Cedars and there was a passage about 2 of the characters talking about fishing for harvest trout in the saltwater with a bamboo fly rod.

Thought it was interesting that the local author put that conversation in, kind of an old school reference. Think the book was set somewhere in the 1950's


c/22
 
Shad said:
I think it's because they make their spawning runs in the fall ("harvest season"). Think I read that somewhere....
Click to expand...
I believe I've read the same thing.
The name I don't understand at all is "blue back". I've yet to catch a SRC with a blue back ... what is up with that?
😳
 
Last edited:
Shad said:
I think it's because they make their spawning runs in the fall ("harvest season"). Think I read that somewhere....
Click to expand...

I was talking to a couple of old timers on the Cowlitz about that a few years ago. One offered up the "harvest season" theory. The other said that due to the hatchery program on the Cowlitz, they were there for "the harvesting". The latter doesn't make much sense though if they are referred to as "harvest trout" in waters other than the Cowlitz. To my knowledge, the only river with an SRC hatchery program in the PNW is the Cowlitz.
 
I too had always heard that the term harvest had to do with the timing of when the fish returned to the rivers to spawn.

I have always wondered about the term "blueback" and always kept an eye out for them. I had read bluebacks are the freshest in from the ocean fish and lose the blue within a day or two of entering tidewater. Jay Nicholas makes reference to bluebacks in his book Sea Run Cutthroat Flies and Fishing. You WA/PS guys have caught a gozillion more SRC than I have so I am wondering if anyone has encountered a "blueback"?

Here's one I got several years ago in the Chetco River tidewater - it had a pretty blue iridescent sheen to it. The picture doesn't do it justice and I really haven't seen another quite like it.

blueback1.jpg
 
The River Why calls ‘em harvest trout and bluebacks and I recall it is due to time of year.
I have also heard kokanee called bluebacks and down here specific to the American River the spring run of halfies I have heard called bluebacks
 
I’ve caught a few searun that had blue backs. They were caught in the salt and were basically chrome with no spots showing, especially below the lateral line.
Most of these were caught in June.
SF
 
GAT said:
I believe I've read the same thing.
The name I don't understand at all is "blue back". I've yet to catch a SRC with a blue back ... what is up with that?
😳
Click to expand...
Could it be a Spring run of SRC?
I did a google search and it says there’s a late winter-early spring run.
I have caught rainbows and cutthroat in the local Cascade hills that exhibit bluish color tones in May; and bronze-ish color tones August. The Sept/Oct SRCs have golden tones.

Just a thought.
 
Breck said:
I was talking to a couple of old timers on the Cowlitz about that a few years ago. One offered up the "harvest season" theory. The other said that due to the hatchery program on the Cowlitz, they were there for "the harvesting". The latter doesn't make much sense though if they are referred to as "harvest trout" in waters other than the Cowlitz. To my knowledge, the only river with an SRC hatchery program in the PNW is the Cowlitz.
Click to expand...
I believe that the Alsea River Hatchery at onetime had an SRC hatchery program in the past.
 
The Native Americans at Cascade Locks call the sockeyes "bluebacks". I believe they were the Yakama Tribe.
 
Allow me to step in and explain. Allow me to step in!!!!! These questions going by look i know!!! Allow me to explain. Here's the deal. They harvest various Fisheries. Then its called harvest fish!! That's why. I know from the days working the line.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zak
I remember, as a kid, in the late 70s the old-timers on the Little Washougal calling them harvest trout. Definitely a reference to their return during harvest time.
I had permission to fish on Stauffer's Dairy since we were fellow dairy people (Chick's Dairy just up the hill). Old Don would always laugh when he saw me. "You gonna catch something bigger this time?" Back in those days they put catchable planters in there. So I usually fished it in...most likely May. It was usually just the planters and steelhead smolts. Every once in a while we would lose our whole rig to something big. I grew to learn those were 100% early "springer" steelhead. Only saw a big tail once. All the other times they just zipped downstream and broke off and never to be seen again.
Well, one day Don told me I should come back in September for "harvest trout". "They're bigger than those silly little ones you boys catch, but not so big they wreck your stuff."
So my cousin and I popped in there one rainy September day and gave it a shot. My cousin lost a nice SRC on the first cast. And then another. I think he was throwing a Panther Martin spinner, probably black & yellow. He loved that thing.
So I put on a Royal Coachman streamer and caught a couple. I landed mine. 😁

That was the only time I fished the Little Washougal for harvest trout. When I was in high school you could find me up behind the Washougal Mercantile casting dries for all the SRCs stacked in that hole above the bridge. They love termites! Ok, enough hot-spotting.
 
I too heard SRC referred to as harvest trout because of their main return timing in August, September, and October, corresponding to the harvest of many fruit and vegetable crops. The blueback name I heard specifically in regard to cutthroat returning to the Chehalis River basin supposedly due to a bluish sheen on the back of the fish in tidewater. I never fished there and so I have no direct knowledge of it. Kind of confusing in the Grays Harbor area because Quinault sockeye salmon were also referred to as "blueback" salmon. That was definitely because they are chrome sided with blue backs when they first enter the river system and are caught and marketed as such. But blue back applies to so many anadromous fish in their ocean color, so I don't think I'd give it much weight as a species identifier.
 
There is even more confusion with the “harvest trout” moniker when considering creek spawning cutts in the south sound and canal. They spend the majority of their time in the salt until they spawn in the spring. So while cutts on bigger systems enter in late summer or fall and overwinter, not the entire population does that. So some harvest trout will be MIA in the fall in freshwater. I’m sure some creek spawners use freshwater as a refugee since some saltwater areas get to be bath water warm in late summer.
I love a good fish mystery……
SF
 
Salmo_g said:
I too heard SRC referred to as harvest trout because of their main return timing in August, September, and October, corresponding to the harvest of many fruit and vegetable crops.
Click to expand...

I like that description, when it's early Fall and getting time to harvest the crops, here come those really nice trout up the river. The book reference I started this thread with definitely talks about catching saltwater harvest trout on a fly rod, but the locals (in the book) could have recognized them as the same species just pre freshwater form.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top