Native Trout

A collection of the native and naturalized trout that draw fly anglers to mountain streams across the continent. Trout are obligate cold-water fish — their presence in a stream is itself a piece of information, a sign that the water still runs cold and clean enough to hold dissolved oxygen through summer. The native species, especially the cutthroat and bull trout, are increasingly indicators of the rare unbroken watersheds that remain. Catch-and-release ethics, dam removal, riparian buffer restoration, and federal listings have all been driven in part by anglers who care about these fish enough to give them up. Each species is illustrated in the same hand, with full field-guide notes on habitat, behavior, and the waters where you'll find them.