The sea-run populations, called steelheads, are most common in the Pacific Northwest. The spawning behavior of the rainbow and the Atlantic salmon are similar, except that the rainbow spawns in the spring. Rainbows first spawn in about their fourth year. They may spawn several times during their lives. Young trout feed on insects and crustaceans.
Larger rainbows feed on fish.
Distribution of rainbow trout in NY state. Dark dots represent where actual samples of rainbow trout were taken. White dots represent historic distributions. A 448 KB image of the is rainbow trout also available for download .