This is a lot of fish and almost all of them get under my skin or leave it trembling, as though exposed to a sudden wash of icy water. Anglers began introducing them into Smoky Mountain creeks and streams in the 1920s, maybe even earlier. Rainbow trout are western trout hearty, tenacious, elusive, and adaptable. Like most trout, they are vicious and unrelenting. Although they have been stocked in most of the world's prime trout waters, the rainbow's natural range runs roughly from the high country of northern Mexico northward through California's mountain country, and on into the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and into Russia, where it is known as the Kamchatka trout.
Rainbows are wary, suspicious, and dyspeptic, all common traits among trout.
They range widely, refusing to give in to trend, fashion, or any form of piscatorial conformity. They eschew the predictable. If human they would be carnival hucksters, bootleggers, acrobats, and skilled flimflam artists. Lake rainbow trout rarely sport the dramatic coloring or spotted decoration of stream rainbows. Indeed, lake rainbows often flash dark greens and blues and highly polished silvers.