The Way of the Trout July 25, 2022 – Posted in: Ambassadors, Films, Instruction – Tags: , , , ,

The Way of the Trout from early in the Scientific Anglers time period was a collaboration with Trout Unlimited.  It opens with an angler on a woodland stream who has just landed a large rainbow trout.  It turns out the angler has previously hooked and lost this fish.  Now that he has landed it, he takes the time to admire the fish as it recovers and reflects on the fish’s life and hazards it survived.

This shows us the life cycle of trout through spawning, egg development and hatching, and then as fry.  We see the various predators encountered as the trout grows, including insects, other fish, birds including kingfishers, herons, and mergansers, and finally an encounter with an otter.  Considering the time period of filming, the in-stream sequences are quite amazing.  It would be interesting to know how much time it took to assemble this footage.

The video concludes with the trout facing the ultimate predator- man.  In the pool where he lost this fish the year before, the angler finds the fish feeding in the same location during a mayfly hatch.  Tying a fly onstream to match the hatching mayflies, the angler hooks, fights, and lands the trout.  After reflecting on all the fish had to survive to this point in its life, the angler ultimately releases the trout so it has a chance to spawn again.

At the time this video was released, Trout Unlimited was still a young organization and the concept of “catch and release” was still foreign to most fly anglers.  The video helps to promote the value of releasing a fish and gives a good overview of the dangers encountered as a trout grows in a stream.

Scientific Anglers has partnered with the American Museum of Fly Fishing in the effort to digitize these classic film masters for future generations.