JOSEPH TOMELLERI GRAPHIC
TEXT BY DENNIS BITTON
Rainbow trout exemplify everything anglers love about trout. They are beautiful in the hand, spectacular fighters, and they live in most of the world's most famous rivers. When most people think trout, they think rainbow. A mature rainbow trout has a greenish or sometimes bluish back, and (this is key) black spots down the back, over the dorsal fin and down through the tail. The species is widely known for its rosy-colored gill plates, and broad red flanks, but these attributes are not always present. In fact, one of the most interesting attrubutes of the species is its varied appearance from one population to another. On some rivers in Alasaka, rainbows are so heavily spotted and colorful they've earned the nickname "leopard 'bows." Other places, like on Alberta's Bow River, rainbows are an ethereal chrome, with dark green backs and barely any spots at all, and no red stripe. Native to the pacific slope of North America from Alaska to Mexico, rainbow trout have been widely introduced to trout-friendly waters around the globe. Some of the best-known places to catch these trout are in the American West, New Zealand, and South America.
Rainbows are a hardy trout, and can adapt and thrive in many different environs, whether it be a crystal clear mountain stream on New Zealand's South Island, or a slightly tepid neighborhood pond. Given their widespread distribution, rainbows can be found feeding on an incredibly diverse number of food items, presenting a different challenge to fly anglers wherever they are found.
On many of the most famous rainbow rivers, these trout are esteemed for their willingness to rise to dry flies. Idaho's Henry's Fork may be the most famous of these, but there are many other places you can find large rainbows working the surface. Big fish often suck floating insects with just a small dimple showing, much like what some minnows make when feeding. It's a surprised fly fisher when a suspected six-incher turns into a 3-pound, 19-incher. And the fish certainly has the advantage for the first few seconds. Rainbow trout can also be taken with a variety of wet flies that imitate everything from bullhead minnows and leeches, to stonefly nymphs, tiny midge pupa, snails, and crayfish. There is no generlized statement you can make about the feeding habits of rainbow trout--only that fly fishers need to be intimately informed about the water they are fishing, and the predominate food sources available to the trout before they can begin to consider a fly pattern or appropriate techniques.
From the Virtual Fly Shop.
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