For as long as I can remember one family alone, trout, Salmonidae, has held my complete attention, haunted me and delighted me, been the stuff of nightmare and dream, even hauled me on occasion to the rim of the universe. Trout are moody, complex, irascible creatures, a large family of five groups spread over three subfamilies, none of which get along with or particularly like each other, except as a potential meal. Discussion of Salmonidae usually include char, Atlantic and Pacific salmon, graylings, and whitefish. 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.