ABOUT TROUT

BY ROBER T JOE STOUT

When I was a boy, I spent long summer weekends with my father’s friend “Pop” Pore at his cabin on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, northwest of Denver, Colorado. Pop knew more about fish than anyone I’ve ever met. Here are a few of the things he taught me:

Use the thinnest possible leaders and line. Trout can see anything that isn’t fine or transparent.

Try tying your own flies. In a little box

filled with cotton, Pop kept samples of insects he’d seen trout snap at so that he could model his flies after them.

Night crawlers and other worms are the

best bait. Cultivate a garden for them by keeping the soil moist and turning it often. Mix in fine compost and coffee grounds, if available.

Clean a trout as soon as you catch it. Cut

the belly open with a sharp, thin blade, pull out the intestinal matter, and put it in a bag (so that you don’t draw flies) for disposal later. Dip a toothbrush in vinegar and scrub the fish inside and out. Moisten ferns or creekside grass in cold water and pack the fish in them. Remoisten the ferns periodically to keep the fish cool. If snow is available, pack the fish in it.

Never fish with the Sun behind you. Trout have excellent eyesight. Letting your shadow cross the water is “like throwing a big stone in and scaring them away.”

Be quiet when approaching a spot along the stream that you’re going to fish. Trout have excellent hearing. Movement through brush won’t alert them, but unnatural noises like clanging or banging will.

Before casting for rainbow trout, toss a chip of bark upstream and watch to see if it swirls into an eddy or is diverted toward a little pool. That’s where the fish are. Cast lightly and let your lure follow the chip’s path, which is often right into a trout’s mouth.

Wear dark clothes—no bright reds or yellows. Even though you can’t see trout in the water, from their pools they can detect discrepancies in color above them.

Robert Joe Stout has passed his fishing rod and skills to his daughter Ingrid, who fly-fishes in northeast Texas.