Pics from some local water.
Fished about 2 hours.
Didn't see another fish hooked or talk to any of the other 6 or 8 guys I saw say they hooked anything.
Seems they were sloooowly moving nd stopping the the small pocket I was fishing on their way.
 
Notice the red spot inside this ones mouth.
Size 6 S Sunrise fly.
Nice rainbows but no decendents of Tacoma.

That's my rock!
 
L13

Gorgeous fish!  

Ny size 14s had worn an inch off those rocks before you ever saw a shopping list written on the back of a zig zag top.
 
And yes it was.
Had what must have been a pretty good one on briefly.Got the tug set up on it and nothing.
Kept a bend in the rod for a couple seconds,
NOTHING.
Start dropping the tip to shake the snag free just as it shakes its head bolts and spits.
Ya know the kind that it takes a while for them to realize something really had the balls to mess with them big.

NICE BOWS! so beautiful
what do you mean descendants of Tacoma?

The first steelbows  came from Chambers Creek (Tacoma) eggs (winter run steelhead).
The state actually came and netted a couple dozen from this stream to get eggs for the new at the time Salmon River hatchery
These were closer to what we around here call big head rainbows, a combo of genes from steelhead and lake running rainbows (mostly originated from Mccloud river strain stock)
 
Sorry thought Lucky 13 and I were the only people that read this board and I knew he got what I was saying. 

Bobby, those are beautiful fish. Salmon river used to have a lot more of those types when I started off in the 90's. I landed one in 99 that was estimated in my standards well over 20 pounds but it was an azz shot. A huge male. I landed the fish a few hundred yards below my friend who had the camera and didn't want to stand the chance of the fish dying. Spent quite some time reviving it.

I believe you get a fair amount of those mixxed in with the spawning browns in the particular spots of oswego river. Right now is about the deadline of seeing them anymore over there though. November to late January is typical. Do these times match your streams patterns also for seeing them?

Its been a while since I've held one like that from the salmon river but I guess it figures from a has been like myself :)

They can show up any time but more often in fall winter.
Its the body shape (a bit stubbier with bigger head) more than the coloration that makes me call them bows not steel.
As I have written this water was where the state came to net chambers creek strain steel when they had trouble with getting eggs.
 
Fish that have this same look are some of the largest steel in the world running to distant Skeena and Frazier river tribs.
They show up in the mid late fall but are summer run fish that arrive in June or July in other areas.
It just takes that long to make the journey from salt to head water.
They also stay in the trib before smolting for an extra year,
 
What was the question again?

The question is never ending :) ... and yes you're right with just about everything you said... although I've never seen them in tribs before late September early October.... and yes any I've seen are quite bullish as my group have always referred to them that way. The larger ones I've caught hunkered down while fighting more like that of a brown... skeena... my god my mouth waters to fish there one day... a chance for a 20+ fish on a dry fly is a wet dream come true... there's a lodge called the suskeena lodge in BC that has the rights to the water just below where the susset and skeena merge... check it out... the pictures and descriptions are breath taking. They advise any anglers who come to have a day or two of regular fly fishing to put a few on the bank... then take a full day dedicated to getting one to rise. If I ever hit the lotto I would be there once a year. As time goes on and I get myself back in to trib fishing for trout, I may have to dedicate an early fall for getting a monster to rise. Got a 4 poundish brown to hit a bugger while still floating on the surface in November... but still not the same

I got a brown a bit over 5 fishing the old lower clay on a royal coachman dry one July in the early 80s.
I used to go during the summer and fish bass and fall fish while checking the changes from the winter.
 
Fishing with lucky one day above the old upper clay when the river didn't exist where the hole is now I landed an albino rainbow one day.
Darn close to white with a red stripe.
Really pretty cool looking.
 
Never had the op myself but the Morice and Bulkley fish tend towards the surface.
Of course they are usually only 6-8 pounds with a few in the teens mixed in but they really look to the surface. 
Did get to fish Washington, Oregon and Vancouver Island in my mid twenties when a friend was stationed in Bremerton Washington while the nuke engine was being pulled from his sub and it was decommissioned.
Good times having hair to the middle of your back on a navel base back in the 70s.
Really ended up OK when I showed some of them how to catch the fish in their lake on chironomids.
They would catch fish for a week after they were stocked and then rarely got many more fishing bait and lures.
Had a nco follow me around and every time I tried to fish he'd throw a stick for his dog to fetch ruining the water (dink).
Finally I started setting up not where I saw the rises, he'd swim the dog, I'd move to the rises and hook up before the dog got back.
Eventually word spread and the officers got all over him because they wanted the men to get to enjoy the fishing.
 End of the second year I think they would have let me on base even though my buddy had moved to a base in Hawaii