By James Marsh
The beginning of this series will have a lot of basic information for those just getting started into the sport of fly fishing for trout that many experienced fly anglers will already know; however, it never hurts to refresh one’s memory of the information.
There are four different species of trout in the U.S. and Canada and they are the rainbow, brown, brook, and cutthroat trout. There are differences between these species and although fishing for them is almost the same in many cases, there are major differences in the species one should be aware of that does affect the best ways to fish for them.
The different species are the Rainbow trout which are native to the western U.S. in waters that eventually drain into the Pacific Ocean. These streams are basically west of the Continental Divide of the Rock Mountains and flow that eventually flow into the Pacific Ocean. They have been stocked in other area of the U.S. Brown trout are not native to the United States. They are descendants of European species that were at one time stocked from European species. Brook trout are native to the U.S. and Canada but have been stocked in some streams that they didn’t originally exist in, or in some cases, to help increase the population of them. Cutthroat trout are also native to the U.S. and Canada but also have been stocked in some streams they didn’t originally exit in, or to help increase the population of streams were they exist in low numbers.
Now, the following can create some controversy. All things equal, brook and cutthroat trout are easier to fool with the fly and catch they browns or rainbows and in my opinion, here again with all things equal, rainbow trout are easier to catch that brown trout. The big problem with the above statements is defining what is all things equal. Different time of the year, weather, stream conditions, different amounts and types of food in the streams and many other factors can vary the
Now that I have covered the four different species of trout in the U.S. and Canada, let me highlight some basic major differences in fishing for the different species. This can quickly get controversial because of many different factors in types of streams, environmental conditions, and other things. I do think it is important to point some basic things out. First of all, there are basic differences in fishing for stocked trout versus stream born or native trout.
Basically, stocked trout are usually easier to fool, hook and catch than either native or steam-born trout. This is more so true of recently stocked trout versus trout that have been stocked for a long period of time. Stocked trout were likely fed pellets of food at the hatchery where they are born. They have to resort to eating food that exist in the water in which they are stocked. The time this takes varies with several factors such as the amount of available food and the types of available food in the stream they are stocked in.
After stocked trout have been in the water of the stream they were stocked in for a few months, they can become close to being as selective or maybe just as selective as to what they eat as native or stream-bred trout that have been eating food the stream they are in their entire life span. Holdover trout, meaning trout that have lived in the stream they were stocked in for over a year, are usually just as selective as to what they eat as native, or wild stream bred trout.
There are many other less important variables when it comes to comparing stocked trout to native or stream-bred trout that I won’t go into here. To make the point clear, anglers that fish for stocked trout within a short time after which they have been stocked and catch the limit, doesn’t necessarily mean they are very good at the fly fishing sport. That is often accomplished by anglers just getting started fly fishing. In other simple words, that is often very easy to do.