It’s springtime in Idaho and that means adult steelhead are returning to their birthplace to spawn the next generation of fish. Steelhead are an anadromous fish, meaning they are born in freshwater, migrate to the ocean as juveniles where they grow into adults before migrating back to freshwater to spawn. 

This beautiful female steelhead was recently captured at our weir on the East Fork Potlatch River and released upstream to spawn. Fisheries staff previously captured this fish as a juvenile at one of the habitat restoration sites in the East Fork Potlatch River in 2020. At that time, she was about 6 inches in length and now she measures over 30 inches!