07-23 REELLIFE digital - Flipbook - Page 9
As fly anglers, we are all
cultured to believe that trout
eat insects and nothing
more. Trout gently sipping
bugs from the surface of
a calmly flowing stream
paints the image of fly
fishing narrative. It’s what
we all learn in the beginning.
Anything else would be
culturally unacceptable in
the fly fishing world. For
years, I believed that no selfrespecting trout would ever
eat anything other than
some form of aquatic insect
or terrestrial bug. Fly fishing
in Appalachia ingrained that
into my head. That was right
up until I read an article in
Fish Alaska magazine about
rainbow trout eating mice.
But never, ever would a
rainbow trout chase down
and annihilate a mouse.
Rainbows weren't that type
of aggressor and besides,
they didn’t get big enough
to eat a mouse. Right?
That’s what I, the 25 year old
knower of all things trout,
thought. No way.
I must have read that story
10 times before I finally
accepted that the writer
must have had a very minute
amount of success using
this “mousing” method for
Alaskan Rainbow Trout.
Back in those pre-internet
days all we had to rely on
was a trusted publication
with mass circulation and a
photo album. Yes kids, before
The level of disbelief wielding internet and social media
in my brain about what I was we all carried photo albums
akin to what my grandfather with us to trade shows,
thought about space travel.
speaking engagements, etc.
It wasn't happening. It didn’t A three ring binder notebook
happen and it wasn’t ever
full of print photographs.
going to happen. Sure, I had
Sometimes carrying just
one album was not enough;
seen a brown trout slashing
at other fish and had buddies depending on the situation
in the upper midwest that
and competition. It was the
talked about mouse fishing
only way to advertise your
for brown trout at night.
trade of skills and to prove
that you weren't just a liar.
In fact, the next trade show
I worked at was where I
found living proof that the
“mousing” I had read about
was in fact real. Not only
real but a viable method for
targeting the largest of the
species. I was befuddled.
At that show, I met a lodge
owner that hosted the writer
for the story I had read in Fish
Alaska. He explained to me
how the whole Alaska trout
universe operated. Upon
understanding, the program
made sense. It was no great
consequence that this guy
gave me my first job in
Bristol Bay some years later. I
adapted his explanation into
my own version. If you have
fished with me as a lodge
guest, client or friend new
to the Alaska trout universe,
you have heard me deliver
this lecture. Some of you
may have heard it more than
once. Its as follows - Alaska
rainbow trout live a different
life and lifestyle than lower
48 rainbow trout.
JULY 2023 | 9