Fishnatzee

Yes, less than favorable migratory and spawning conditions this year are the likely suspects to a poor spawning year for steelhead and it sounds like some people are seeing the results first hand with fish having lots of eggs in them still. The good thing is steelhead can spawn many times in their life, so one bad year doesn't mean they can't be more successful next year, but does mean less smolts going out into the lake. Fish that don't deposit their eggs this year will reabsorb the nutrients left and can still spawn successfully the following year. 

I agree with that assumption, sounds like some fish this year decided to not drop their eggs for some reason?

Hopefully enough big fat females were on the spawning grounds and had a good year, otherwise there might be a poor run of steelies in a few years...I have been catching more steelhead than browns over the last few years, so something is going right for them.

That is interesting, but some steelhead spawn in the late spring...she is not going to have good spawning success if these don't get fertilized and buried in the gravel. She needs to get into the river fast...

You can use those for making your own cured salmon eggs for tying up your own egg sacks to fish in the river.

I have attached a few pictures from eggs removed from salmon last fall...these are viable eggs that will be fertilized with a male and placed into incubators to hatch...take note of the color. Sometimes lake trout eggs are more yellow, but the same opaque coloration. the egg color varies sometimes between fish depending on the diet and condition of the fish, similar to what you see when you filet the fish, the flesh color may vary.

normal looking as in light pink or slightly orange and opaque? or were they clear like the ones in the photo? Loose in fish belly? Brown or steelhead? Like I said...it isn't too out of the ordinary to find some eggs left, but lots of eggs means the fish didn't spawn successfully. If you look closely at any mature female fish caught this time of year, there should be a small egg sac developing, it is just below the kidney which is the dark bloody section running along the ventral surface of the backbone. I caught a 8 lb steelhead last weekend and saw about a 3-4 inch long egg skein developing for this year, the eggs in the skein were about the size of a pin head.  

The Eggs in the photo of the steelhead would have been from this spring and the reason they are still in the fish was likely due to the fish not spawning for some reason or failing to release all of her eggs if she did spawn. Typically you may see a few left, but normally there isn't that many. These eggs would not be viable and could not be fertilized to produce offspring. If it was a Skamania, the eggs would have been in the egg skien still and would not be loose. the other thing to look for is the color of the eggs, those in the picture were clear, a normal viable egg would be opaque in color. after the egg is past the time it can be fertilized it starts to break down and it will eventually be reabsorbed by the fish and it would leave just the egg shell behind which doesn't break down. I have worked in the fisheries filed for over 30 years with Atlantic salmon and have worked in fish hatcheries for much of that time and have seen this before.

I fished over by Oswego on Sat/Sun and caught 1 brown,1 steelhead and 1 laker for two days, didn't get skunked though! The discharge out in front of the river was around 60-62 and there were lots of small fish on the screen, not sure what they were. Didn't see much for bait, with a few bigger marks. Most of the fish were between the surface and 30 ft. fished with planers, dipsys and downriggers. Fish came on spin doctor/fly and evil eye spoons. Good break of temperature on surface, but didn't see many boats netting fish. Really foggy on saturday, so didn't see many boats out. 

Wow...lots of nice salmon! I've been fishing on the big lake for over 30 years and have never caught an Atlantic!

great to see and hear from others who have had some luck catching these beautiful fish! I have caught many Atlantics in Maine on my fly rod, but haven't been so lucky on Lake Ontario. I'm headed to Mexico this weekend and hope to wet a line soon!