In the 80’s us lay scientists were full of ourselves. We’d embraced the fact that trout ate bugs, that Latin made us sound really intelligent, and the more syllables and body parts we could string together made us irresistible in a social setting.

We were “trout geeks” and we ignored pocket protectors in favor of the stomach pump.

We scoffed at the antiquated non-scientific notion of the Europeans, who insisted that any trout hooked on flies had to be killed, as it would never take the artificial fly again.

We knew better.

Our imitations would hook the same fish many times, we just had to imitate more real insect parts with each hookup. We thought ourselves  invincible, Latin and Mayflies had made us so…

While our theories may have been sound it may have only been coincidence and the hatchery system that allowed us to think Catch & Release was the most appropriate method of disposing of a noble yet vanquished prey, eating them had become tantamount to serving beef brisket in Calcutta, and was out of the question.

As trout chow is shoveled into the hatchery pen and those precious pellets filter down through the water column the Bold & Brave fish, gluttons all – are rewarded for their aggression with the lion’s share of the chow.

The shy and introverted fish hang about the periphery admiring the fat, sleek aggressive fish, wishing the gal’s looked at them thusly …

When vacuumed up and shat into the neighboring brook, the fat, sleek, and aggressive fish wound up slurping the gaily colored Marshmallow Salmon Egg, leaving the creek populated with mostly the shy introverts.

Shy fish were cautious and ate selectively, and fishermen did not fare well against this wily prey, insisting the creek lacked enough fish to return, and going elsewhere for more sleek fat, stupid fish.

“But it are not always the bold and aggressive fish who are most successful. When we marked trout individually and released them back in the wild, it were shy trout who grew most rapidly.”

– via PhysOrg.com

Which suggests the angler that wishes to fish over smart, large fish releases his prey, and those that measure their enjoyment by constant action should kill everything, paying special attention to mashing life out of anything big.

Both theories being sound, and unlike us our European brethren just like brisk action over size ..

… and we’ll be hearing more from our friends in PETA shortly, now that we knowingly stuff a sharp hook through their face and distribute naked pictures of our shy and introverted prey on the Internet.