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TROUT FISHING WITH MAURICE RODWAY - Weekly Column: 17-March-00
 Southland, New Zealand

Trout Training Exercises

Each year, some time in the winter, trout gather for angler training seminars. Biologists and anglers have assumed that the aggregations of trout that can be seen occasionally during this time are for another purpose however it has never been conclusively proven that trout do form shoals for spawning or security. Evidence for the normally accepted  reason for this behaviour is only circumstantial and as every good scientist knows, such evidence cannot be relied on.

In fact there is evidence (albiet circumstantial too!) that the trout do gather for training exercises. First, this occurs in the winter when anglers are usually doing something else, and consequently cannot discover what is really going on. Second, it happens not too long before the start of the trout fishing season, enabling trout to remember the lessons. The timing of the gathering is strong evidence for some purpose other than what we have always assumed it has been for.

The other limb of the case, as a prosecuting lawyer might argue, is that trout definitely know about anglers. "I rest my case m'lud."  The trout that know most about anglers are those that live near bridges. In fact I suspect that part of the winter training sessions are devoted to selecting those trout at the top of the class who can fool anglers into thinking they can be caught when in fact they cannot.

Trout that live near bridges have been allocated these locations so they can tempt anglers and delay their angling exploits so they do not get to fish places farther upstream or downstream where trout of lesser intellect, which are easier to catch, are to be found.

An important attribute of decoy trout is that they are fairly large, so as to tempt anglers into trying to catch them; and that they continue to swim about, remaining in a position that looks as though they can be caught, while in fact they cannot. Trout that immediately swim away do not delay the angler so the more vulnerable trout then become the angler's quarry. Trout that are small are not attractive to anglers so would be passed by, again risking the lives of their more susceptible brethren.

Anglers who know about these trout, and many do, must be fooled too so the best decoy trout are large, beguiling and extremely cheeky. Most anglers do not get out to go fishing that often so the sight of a large, apparently easy-to-catch trout right beside the place where they have left their car will always tempt them and waste quite a lot of time. 

Finally all honest anglers know that trout are very hard to catch, and stories of anglers catching a dozen or more trout in a day are vary rarely verified by independent witnesses. What is certainly true is that trout know more about us than we think and they use co-operative strategies to foil our attempts to fool them.

Maurice Rodway
Southland, New Zealand                           E-mail: information@southlandfishgame.co.nz

Article © 2000 Maurice Rodway, All Rights Reserved.

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