Salmon and Trout Fishing

When I was very young the fishing world consisted of two types of fishing: trout fishing ---and all the others. Our fishing traditions were formulated in England, and much of what we did followed the British lead, even if our conditions didn’t really apply.

So, trout---and Atlantic salmon, for those who could afford it---was the species of choice. Angling literature lauded the trouts, and either sneered at or ignored other species.

Hard to believe such snobbery really existed, let alone was widespread. But it was. Those who trout fished in America looked down on those who didn’t. Indeed, those who flyfished for trout believed themselves to be somehow purer, more chosen by God, then those who used other tackle, even if they were trout anglers. And heaven protect anyone who actually used live bait for them.

Many of us still do, albeit without the snootiness. Not counting the Great Lakes, nearly eight million anglers engage in trout fishing in America each year. Add in the additional million who fish for trout and salmon in the Great Lakes, and who knows how many coastal salmon fisherman, and that’s quite a number.

But it’s the days spent salmon and trout fishing that really tell the tale. Not counting coastal fishing, for which there are no numbers available, anglers spend a whopping 132 million days in pursuit of their favorite fish. On a per capita basis this means trout and salmon anglers are more avid about their sport than, say, bass fisherman. There are, to be sure, many more fisherman who prefer bass. But anglers spend more time salmon and trout fishing then their brethren pursuing other quarry.

If you look at trout fishing in America by region there are some radical, but understandable, differences. It’s been said that when God finished creating the world he choose the most beautiful places and, as a finishing touch, put a trout or salmon stream through the middle of them. “Beautiful” usually translates as forested mountains. So it’s logical that trout fishing is concentrated where the trout are. Far and away, trout fishing is most popular in the mountainous West, where about 2.75 million fisherman rank them number one, while in the Southeast, trout fishing is pursued by barely half a million anglers. Although few in number, those Southern trouters are serious about their sport. Each of them averages nearly ten days of fishing, edging out the Westerners by a slight margin.

Something else that changes, east to west, is the fish itself. There is a diversity of species we lump together as “trout,” some of which are and some of which are not.

The only native in the east is the brook, or speckled, trout, which is really a char. Much more sensitive to impure water and thermal pollution than others, the brook trout’s natural range has steadily shrunk the past century. So you only find him up high, where the rivers run cold and pure. He has, however, been transplanted, and is thriving in the west.

Which is just returning the favor, because the most popular of our trout is the rainbow; a native to the western hills that was transplanted and took hold, often displacing the native “specks.”

The brown trout isn’t even a native, but was transplanted here from Germany and Scotland. In some places he’s still called a German Brown for that reason.

In the Rockies and Sierra are other native trouts. Cutthrouts, for instance, named such because of the red slash found just behind their gill plates; and the natural golden trout---not to be confused with the rainbow sport of the Middle Atlantic also known as a golden.

And then there is the steelhead. Technically a sea-run rainbow of the pacific coast, steelies, too, have been transplanted, and are now found in the Great Lakes and certain other impoundments. Steelhead run streams in spring, summer, and fall, depending on strain, often following salmon and brown trout on their runs to eat the eggs. Plus there are some interesting inland strains, such as the famed palomino trout of the Niagara Gorge.

Salmon, nowadays, are just as widespread. There is limited Atlantic salmon fishing, as such, in Maine. Generally speaking you need to visit Atlantic Canada for traditional Atlantic salmon fishing. But the king of sport fishes has been transplanted, and can be found in places like Lake Champlain and some of the Great Lakes. And let’s not forget the kokonee, the land-locked salmon of the Northeast.

Meanwhile, all five Pacific salmon have been widely transplanted. After their successful stocking in Lake Michigan, in the 1960s, and the accidental sport fishery established then, there was a stocking frenzy. Pacific salmon now can be found in all the Great Lakes, and in such unexpected locales as the chain of lakes formed by the Missouri River dams in South Dakota.