Upside Down Steelhead

Went to Put-in-Bay on Friday and docked at the Keys. When leaving I noticed a Steelhead swimming in the marina upside down. He wasn’t dead, but swimming upside down and looked to be eating bugs off the surface. He was all the way up to the front of the marina by the Keys store. I was of course intrigued as I had never seen a steelhead and thought maybe that is how they ate. Upon closer inspection, I noticed he was missing a pectoral fin. I considered using my net to grab him but decided to leave him be as I really don’t know much about steelhead and was with a group of people and not in a position to take a fish with me. Not even sure if it would be legal to take a fish that way.

He was most likely fine if it was feeding, but normally that is a sign of something bad. Sometimes when they come into a fast temperature change they will bloat up and it causes them to swim upside down for a while. It goes away and they're fine. The missing pectoral is one way Fisheries marks steelhead for identification of year, rearing facility and stocking location. They do just fine with a pectoral fin clipped off. As to dipping him up, yeah that's illegal taking.