On my way home from work yesterday I had the chance to stop by a little creek I have only fished once. I wished I had either my still or video camera with me to capture what I had never witnessed before -- the mating process of our Steelhead species.
I showed up at just the right time and I certainly learned a lot just by watching. This creek, no more than 6 feet wide in total and in most places only about 3 feet across has some holes, but they're not very deep that I know of; as I said earlier I've fished down a few bends after work -- once. Much of this creek doesn't come up to my thighs; interesting stuff.
I sat along the creek for an hour or so. No rod, no waders, flies or camera. Just myself and the steelhead "doing what comes naturally."
I watched as a hen slid up out of a small hole onto some gravel with 5 males directly behind her, the largest one in the 20" range, maybe a little larger. It's a little hard to tell just how big they really are when they're in the water. It was very interesting to see how she began by picking the center of the creek were the gravel had built up after a bend in the river. She began by lying sideways and started fanning the gravel bed with her fins, forming her nest. It's really neat to observe the process she goes through to prepare a bed for her eggs.
What was even more exciting was to watch the males get all worked up over her. As you can imagine the largest male bullied his way to the front of the pack to fertilize the eggs. Before any fertilizing could take place the bull had to keep all the other bachelors from sneaking up and staking their claim to his new "bride", per se, from him. And they tried. He stuck to his guns and kept them away. One and all.
I never thought there would be such an extreme battle between the males for the chance to fertilize a female's eggs. The work and anger the larger male showed was amazing; he was vicious to the point of leaving marks on the smaller males. Every time another male would attempt to move in, he would attack with brutal force. Water would explode around them as he showed his force and anger. This continued for a while.
Back to the Hen. While all this took place among the males she continued to fan gravel as if nothing in the world could interrupt her, as she had only one mission to complete. As the gravel around her started to form a shining bottom and indentation in the creek floor, a breeding bed took form and shape. As her work came to an end she positioned herself over the bed, hovering in that one special spot. As she did this the large male swam up next to her -- as close as he could get to her eggs as she released them, a few at a time. After each egg deposit from the female, the male would release his sperm to fertilize the eggs; at the same time he also stood his ground with the other males, chasing them off, then swimming back to his girl to fertilize the next egg deposit she would release.
This was an amazing sight to see and a pleasure to watch; Mother Nature at her best in the reproduction of our steelhead. After watching this process on a TV program or how things are done at a hatchery, is is wonderful to see how nature really works with no human intervention.
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