Betcha Didn’t Know This About Trout
1. Trout fishing dates back to at least 200 A.D., when Roman author Claudius Aelianus wrote about fishermen using flies of red wool and feathers to catch trout on the Astræus River in Macedonia.
2. Trout are carnivores and spend up to 80 percent of the day searching for food. Trout usually feed on smaller fish eggs, crustaceans, insects and insect larvae. However, large trout can eat large prey—there are recorded cases of giant mouse-eating trout in Alaska and New Zealand.
3. Sean Konrad caught the largest rainbow trout on record in Lake Diefenbaker in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, on September 5, 2009. It weighed 48 pounds.
4. As trout grow, new tissue forms around the edges of their scales, and the rings on the scales can be read just like the rings on a tree trunk to determine age. Like chameleons, trout can change their color to blend in with the background, making them harder to spot in darker streams.
5. Trout tickling refers to rubbing the underbelly of a trout. Done right, the trout will go into a trance and can be thrown onto land. The so-called art form is mentioned in Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, where it is a metaphor for bamboozlement.
6. A group of trout is called a hover. The act of bludgeoning someone with a single trout is called a trout slap. It’s seen famously in “The Fish-Slapping Dance” skit by Monty Python.
7. The proverb, “you must lose a fly to catch a trout,” refers to needing to sacrifice something to get what you want. It implies what you sacrifice is minor compared to what you receive in return.
8. Trout Fishing in America was published in 1967 by Richard Brautigan. The abstract novel lacks a central plotline, but achieved a cult following, going on to inspire a band by the same name and two people to try and change their names to Trout Fishing in America. Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt named a crater explored in the Taurus-Littrow valley on the moon Shorty, an homage to a character in the book.
Trout. It’s what is for dinner. Feature Photo: istockphoto.com
