July 2010

Can trout see various colors and is their color vision like the humans color vision? Does trout have the ability to distinguish shades of color? How does trout see fluorescent colors? How does various lighting conditions or depth of water affect their ability to see color? For the answers to these questions and more take the free on line Class 406 Color Vision in Trout Eyes at Trout University.

It takes a special eye trained to observe the trout in the streams. Sometimes the water is stained; sometimes it is the rapids, sometimes down deep but always a challenge. For many anglers seeing trout even in the clearest of water is a hard thing to do. By the time they see the trout; the fish see you and they are headed for “Dixie” as I am prone to say. Your opportunity to cast to an unknowing relaxed trout is gone. So what do we do to educate and calibrate our eyes?

The Watauga Riverkeeper, Donna Lisenby, received a phone call on Saturday July 17, alerting her to a fish kill on the Watauga River in Boone, NC. Donna in cooperation with the Boone fire department was able to track down the source of the pollutant and it was from the B B&T parking lot on highway 105 in Boone, NC. It seems that the Watauga River and a tributary called Hodges Creek have suffered a great deal of damage due to the carelessness of an asphalt contractor who allowed asphalt sealer to flow into the Watauga River via a drain sewer.