TROUT: A Fictitious History

By Dan Brown

A chance conversation with an enthusiastic fly fisherman, Dan's ignorance of Redband Trout, and his vivid imagination has resulted in this creative book of truly fictitious trout. The fisherman showed him photographs on his phone of the beautiful Redbands he caught and released. Dan thought Redbands should have a band encircling the body and not

• Language: English
• Publisher: Granite Creek Press
• Release date: Jun 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987508145

Dan Brown

Dan Brown is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Origin, The Da Vinci Code, Digital Fortress, Deception Point, The Lost Symbol, Angels & Demons, and Inferno. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts to writing full-time. He lives in New England with his wife. Visit his website at DanBrown.com.

Book preview

TROUT

TROUT

TROUT

A Fictitious History

Dan Brown

publisher logo

Granite Creek Press

Copyright © 2022 by Dan Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Printing, 2022

Contents

Introduction

Emily Carr Sculpin

Notes

1 CHAR

Arctic Char

Greenland Char

Blueback Trout

Baffin Char

Sunapee Trout

Quebec Red Trout

Lake Hazen Char

Long-Finned Char

Brook Trout

Labrador Trout

Silver Trout

Aurora Trout

Lake Trout

Siscowet Lake Trout

Humper Lake Trout

Bull Trout

Some of the variations of Bull Trout

Southern Dolly Varden

Northern Dolly Varden

2 APACHE, GILA, AND MEXICAN TROUT

Apache Trout

Gila Trout

Rio Yaqui Trout

Rio San Lorenzo Trout

Rio Del Presidio Trout

Mexican Golden Trout

3 RAINBOW, REDBAND, AND GOLDEN TROUT

Alaskan Rainbow Trout

Upper Klamath Lake Trout

Great Basin Redband Trout

Oregon Redband Trout

Sheepheaven Creek Redband Trout

Columbia River Redband Trout

Steelhead Trout

McCloud River Rainbow Trout

Kamloops Trout

Mountain Kamloops Trout

Eagle Lake Rainbow Trout

Nelson Trout

Little Kern River Golden Trout

Volcano Creek Golden Trout

South Fork Kern River Golden Trout

Gilbert Golden Trout

4 CUTTHROAT TROUT

Colorado River Cutthroat Trout

Greenback Cutthroat Trout

Yellowfin Cutthroat Trout

Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout

Pecos Strain of the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout

Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

Paiute Cutthroat Trout

Alvord Cutthroat Trout

Willow-Whitehorse Creek Cutthroat Trout

Humboldt Cutthroat Trout

Bear Lake Strain of the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout

Provo River Strain of the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout

Snake Valley Strain of the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout

Snake River Fine-Spotted Cutthroat Trout

Some Variations of the Snake River Fine-Spotted Cutthroat Trout

Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

Sedge Creek or Waha Lake Cutthroat Trout

Westslope Cutthroat Trout

Mountain Cutthroat Trout

Coastal Cutthroat Trout

5 BROWN TROUT AND ATLANTIC SALMON

Brown Trout

Atlantic Salmon

Sebago Salmon

Ouananiche Salmon

6 HYBRIDS AND TRULY FICTIONAL TROUT

Tiger Trout

Triploid Trout

Timber Trout

Acknowledgements

Recommended Reading and Listening

Originals and Prints

Introduction

As far back as I can remember I have been interested in fish. This is not exactly true as my first recollections of animals are of snakes and box elder bugs…well I think they were box elder bugs, but I was only 4 or 5 years old and they may have been a similar looking hemipteran. How does this happen? Why do some people like ducks, or deer, or fast cars, or even adding up numbers in tidy columns? I have my theory.

My love of fish was predetermined by the stars. I was born a Pisces to a fisherman and his wife. The fisherman was not a fisherman by trade, but loved to fish for fun and food. At a young age I started fishing. My first fish of note was a carp from the Sacramento River that was half as long as I was tall. From there I moved to Brown Bullheads in the Pit River of northern California. In northern Idaho, I was introduced to trout fishing. There was a beautiful creek a stone’s throw from our side door where I spent most summer mornings catching grasshoppers and the afternoons floating them through pools full of hungry rainbows. A little later, my father and I would fish an impoundment of Lower Crab Creek in Washington State. Here we pulled Muddler Minnows behind plastic bubbles where they were attacked by 18 Rainbows and Browns. In college, which was located in a county with one fishable lake (what was I thinking?), I was introduced to fly fishing with a fly rod by my roommate, Glenn. I bought a fiberglass Fenwick at the Husky gas station in Moscow, Idaho. Glenn taught me how to cast among jeers of Catching any?" on the intramural sports fields of WSU.

What I like best about fishing can be distilled down to three reasons. Fishing is an acceptable excuse to stop working and be outside. The feel of a fish at the end of my line makes me feel particularly alive, it pulses like a beating heart, causing mine to accelerate. The underwater world is mysterious, we never really know what is down there. Of course, in this modern age, that is not as true, but when I was a kid, it was.  You never really know what marvelous fish will surface.

Emily Carr Sculpin

Emily Carr Sculpin

Materials: Camel hair watercolor brush bristles, Sooty Grouse Feathers, Black-tailed Deer hair, and artificial sculpin eyes

Notes

The inspiration for this book came from a chance encounter with Erik Rockliffe at Boo Radley’s Gift Shop in Spokane, Washington. My North 40 fly fishing hat prompted a fishing conversation which included Redbands he caught in the Spokane