Trout Resource Hub

We love trout! Here are a few of the reasons why: 

• They look fantastically varied and beautiful. No two trout are identical and the colours and spotting patterns vary enormously even within one section of river. From the silver of sea trout to the thousands of tiny black spots on trout from the River Eden to a yellow bellied trout from a peaty loch, every trout is different.
• They are remarkably adaptable. Some go to sea, or live in lakes, or in tiny mountain streams, in rural and urban rivers all over the UK and Ireland. They arrived as sea trout after the last ice age and explored our rivers. Some became river and lake residents, others kept the sea-going habit.

• Trout are a clear indicator of whether or not a river or lake is a healthy environment. If trout can thrive, then the water quality, water quantity and habitat are in good shape. If they are struggling, or absent, then one of those things is going wrong. 
• Understanding trout takes you into a magical world beneath the surface of the river, to understand the (often very beautiful) invertebrates that trout eat and the other creatures like otters that eat trout. 
• Understanding trout leads you to understand how a river, the river-banks and the wider catchment affect trout, in particular the ecology and food webs and the way land is used. 

Click the links below to go to more information on our favourite fish! 

General introduction including how to see trout, trout diversity, and what trout eat. 

100 fascinating ​‘bite sized’ facts about trout.

Trout lifecycle including a poster to download. 

Trout with different life strategies: sea trout, brown trout and ferox trout.

Wild trout fishing, and some very important advice on how to catch and release trout unharmed and lots of information about how and where to fish for trout. 

The effect of stocking farmed fish into a river