silver and bighead carp) are an invasive species that is currently damaging rivers large and small. Asian carp are filter feeders, so you won’t likely hook one on a line. But Asian carp have become quite popular as fly rod quarry in the western U.S. No harm in killing them either. You’re doing the indigenous fish a favor.
Asian carp don’t like the vibration caused by boat propellers, so anglers motoring up streams and rivers might be shocked to see large fish (over twenty pounds) leaping into the air around the boat. They outproduce other native fish and eat the plankton that other larval fish need.
Trout
Known widely as the quarry of fly fishermen everywhere, trout are usually found in moving, cool water or colder lakes. Popular as both sportfish and table fare, members of this family are held in high esteem by anglers. Similar to the temperate bass family, the trout family has some odd twists in its family tree, as species can cross-breed and might be anadromous — that is, live part of their lives in both salt- and freshwater. The salmonid family is divided into five groups: trouts, including the Atlantic salmon; Pacific salmon; char; grayling; and whitefish. Fish from the first three groups are represented here, as they’re the most pursued by anglers. Don’t worry — you don’t need to understand that to catch a trout.
Many states, including those far from the original range of certain species of trout, often raise trout in hatcheries and release them in select locations. There may be an additional license or charge to fish for these trout, but they provide anglers a shot at wonderful-tasting fish. Check with your local DNR to see if trout are either native or stocked within your area.
Rainbow trout: High jumpers
The colorful rainbow trout is one of the most sought-after gamefish in the world. Rainbows coexist nicely with brown trout in many streams (see the following section for details on the brown trout). Whereas the brown prefers slower water and calmer pools, you can depend on finding the rainbow in the more oxygen-rich and swift-running riffles. This scenario is what you would expect from a fish that predominates in the mountain streams of the Rocky Mountains.
WHO WAS IZAAK WALTON ANYWAY?
Without question, the most famous book ever written about angling is The Compleat Angler published by Izaak Walton in 1653. Since that time, it has been through more than 300 editions and is probably the most widely read (or at least widely owned) book after the Bible and the Koran. Because The Compleat Angler is an all-around handbook for fishing in England, people who are not familiar with Walton have an idea that it is only for purist fly-fishing snobs. It isn’t.
Izaak Walton was primarily a bait fisherman who came late to the fly. He was a self-made businessman who retired in his 50s and wrote the book that would earn him immortality at age 60. His prose is so simple and clear that most people today could read his book with much less difficulty than they could read the plays of, for example, Shakespeare.
Much of the best advice in the book was actually written by Charles Cotton, a young man of leisure who was an amazing fly rodder. It was Cotton, not Walton, who wrote “to fish fine and far off, is the first and principle rule for Trout angling.” In other words use a light leader, and keep your distance from the fish so you don’t spook it. This advice is as valuable today as it was three-and-a-half centuries ago when Walton and Cotton filled their days fishing and talking. What a life!
As seen in the color section, the rainbow may have spots over the whole body (although in many rivers and lakes, the larger rainbows are more often an overall silver). A much more reliable sign of “rainbowness” is the pink band or line that runs along the flank of the fish from shoulder to tail. But even this indicator is not always 100 percent foolproof because some stream-borne rainbows have a faded, almost invisible band and many spots, as do the brown and brook trout.
Brown trout: The champ of the stream
The brown trout is a fish designed for the angler. It often feeds on the surface. It rises to a properly presented fly. It fights like the dickens. The brown trout is a cold-water fish that lives in lakes and streams and is most active when the water temperature is in the 60s. A temperature much higher than 80 degrees is liable to kill brown trout. As shown in Figure 4-12, the brown trout is covered with spots everywhere but its tail. The majority of the spots are deep brown, like coffee beans, with a light yellow halo. Sprinkled around its skin, you also find a few red and yellow spots. Brown trout are long-lived animals and can reach weights up to 40 pounds, but most stream-bred fish average less than a pound each. They say that a few wise browns in every stream usually reach weights of 10 pounds or more.
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 4-12: The brown trout is a wily and rewarding fish when taken on rod and reel.
Brook trout: Sentimental favorites
The brook trout, or brookie, fills the trout niche in the cooler streams of the northeastern United States, east of the Allegheny Mountains. (They have been introduced elsewhere.) The brook trout is actually a char, which makes it a relative of the lake trout, the Dolly Varden, and the Arctic char.
This fish is a sign of pure water and a healthy ecology. Brook trout like cooler water and cannot stand the higher temperatures that the brown and the rainbow can tolerate. Before Europeans cleared the great hardwood forests of the northeastern United States, most streams had the shade and pure water that brook trout need.
The brook trout has many red spots that are surrounded by a blue halo. The fins have a telltale black and white tip. The belly and fins have an orange cast that can be quite brilliant and almost crimson in spawning season. The tail of the brook trout is more squared off than that of the brown and rainbow (see Figure 4-13), hence the nickname squaretail.
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 4-13: The brook trout is universally admired for its gorgeous coloring.
STEELHEAD: A SALTY RAINBOW
Almost all species of trout, if given the chance, drop downstream to the ocean where they usually grow to much greater size than trout confined to streams and lakes. Sea-run brookies (those that forage in the ocean and return to spawn in freshwater) are still found up in Maine. Sea-run browns grow big in Europe and enormous in Patagonia. Hardcore anglers of sea-run trout seek steelhead even in the nastiest and coldest weather. A steelhead is a rainbow that has gone to sea. Steelheads have usually lost the distinctive coloration of the freshwater rainbow (although they still have the pink lateral line). As their name suggests, steelheads have a bright, metallic coloration. Steelheads have been introduced inland, most notably in the Great Lakes, where they’re managed by several state fish and wildlife agencies. These fish leave the Great Lakes, where they’re a common quarry, and travel up tributary rivers, where more anglers await them. Like landlocked freshwater striped bass, these fish never see saltwater but are extremely popular with anglers fishing far from the sea.
