Until it goes to the ocean it is just a rainbow trout. You can call it a steelhead if you want but that fish is only about 15" long and most likely never went to the ocean.
So by the regs. it can't be a Steelhead,
even if it wanted to be.

I always thought it was a scam of enormous proportions, that the state can leave a hatchery fish unclipped.
Then tell us, we can't catch it because "all unclipped fish are considered wild".
Now they want to stop the hatcheries all together because they somehow taint the wild steelhead, when they have been releasing unclipped hatchery fish for decades.