BE TROUT: 12.2007

12/29/07

Yuhina Trout

There are three different characters in there, Brown trout/ Rainbow trout/ Cutthroat trout

12/22/07

The adipose fin is a very interesting fin in Salmonids, means all the salmon and trout, grayling, white fish get this little boneless fin. It's located on the lower back in front of tail, like a little finger shape. (Noted, lot's of different group of fish bare this fin too). It is cute and some are very colorful actually. The brown trout have a exaggerater adipose fin refer to size and coloration in male mature brown trout. What is the function of those small/helpless wing/fin? good question. There is one paper published in Europe showed that the female brown trout actually assess the "size" of those adipose fin to make a mate choice decision. I will come back to this mate choice topic again and again... maybe I should look up that paper again before I write any further...

12/21/07

UV coloration

If you look closely to the brown trout, you will noticed they have a small blue patch just behind their eyes, on the gill plate. Those blue coloration could be very shinny at times. They should have some UV reflection, as the blue coloration always get into the UV section. The UV-blue color are fascinating, more and more literature "discover" this new color are very important for animal communication! The main reason it become a hot topic now is because 1) we "human beings" do not see UV...2) (stay tuned)

Male-male Competition

Trout are very agressive and territorial species. They occupied certain spot for feeding, just like fisherman occupy certain spot/honey hole for fishing! Same thing! Because it is easier to obtain food/fish and save energy to maintain their position. Eddies, obstacles that break the currents, all good spots for holding trout.
Bigger trout have first choice to occupied the better spots. Like your elder lab mates always got the window seat first.
Trout compete for food, also compete for mates in the breeding season. The testosterone fire them up. They can fight all day without eating anything... see salmon spawning. These two guys are guarding the same female in the spawning bed. Of course there is not room for the 3 fish...ever once of a while these two guys will dare into the pool just in front of the spawning bed and start the fight...very interesting to see them display/fight...

JUMPING FOR FOOD

some fish always look down, some fish always look up, and some fish do both. One of the character that make trout fishing so fantastic is they do both and they switch back and forth in a single morning... lot's of poeple love trout fishing because you can expect a 20 inchers to come up and "sip" your #20 (3mm hook) midge pattern. Amazing!

12/18/07

Small Creek Trout

Catch big trout from big water give you a thrill fight, however, catch a small trout from a small creek could give you a lot of sweet memory as well. This little trout was caught in the 4 feet wide mountian creek... no cast, you are absolutely "high sticking" in a pocket water. Sometimes might over sicking and have to hold the middle part of the rod to control the tip motion. Absolutely fun!
These rainbow are amazing creature! Put them into bigger lake, they will explode to 20 lb monster. But in this tiny creek, it would be just fine/or even better to be small. Environment shape trout's life history, Dr. Behnke say...