Rainbow trout are native to the rivers that drain Mt. Hood and are the most widely stocked trout in Oregon, so they turn up in mountain lakes as well as rushing streams. Most have a rosy stripe along each side and black spots scattered over the body, the back fin and the tail.
The same species can lead two very different lives. Some rainbows spend their whole lives in fresh water. Others, called steelhead, swim out to the ocean, grow large and silvery there, and return to the streams where they were born to spawn, sometimes more than once. The two forms are not fixed: offspring of steelhead may stay in fresh water, and offspring of resident rainbows may head to sea. Naturally spawning steelhead in the lower Columbia River region, from the Hood River west to the Willamette, are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Rainbows need clear, cold, clean water. Good streams have riffles and pools, sunken logs, boulders and undercut banks, and clean gravel where the fish can spawn. They eat insects, crayfish, small fish and other small aquatic animals. ODFW stocks millions of hatchery rainbows in Oregon ponds, lakes and streams every year.
Look for them holding in clear pools and riffles of mountain streams, or rising to insects on calm lakes.
How to identify it
A streamlined trout with a rosy to pinkish stripe along each side and small black spots on the body, back fin and tail. No red or orange slash under the jaw. Sea-run steelhead are more silvery and much larger, usually 18 to 24 inches.
Look-alikes
Cutthroat trout look similar but have red-orange slashes on the underside of the lower jaw. Steelhead are rainbow trout that have spent time in the ocean, so they are the same species.
Habitat
Clear, cold, clean streams, rivers and lakes with riffles, pools, wood and boulders, and clean gravel for spawning. Native west of the Rocky Mountains; hatchery fish are stocked widely in Oregon lakes and ponds.
Sightings in the forest
63 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 12, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →