Trooty Evolution
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 01 July 2007 06:25
- Written by Bob Graham
Some time ago I was in Tesco with the managing director and the wee grandson. He was sleeping in his buggy so I looked after him while the MD wandered around with the barrow. To pass the time I picked up a magazine from the rack and started to browse. There was an article on some university expedition to some jungle where they claimed to have observed evolution in action.
Apparently, a wee lizard was seen to develop longer legs in response to a new predator. Don’t ask me any more - an assistant came across and asked if I planned to buy the magazine so I had to stop.
Last week I had a wee trip down to the Tweed at St Boswells (actually Mertoun Bridge). I fished hard for an hour or two with only a couple of salmon parr showing any interest and then decided to sit down for a coffee and a cheese ‘n ingin piece. I watched another fisher coming through the same stream I had fished just minutes ago catching and releasing four fish; this man knew what he was doing. We both noticed what looked to be a good fish rising and he covered it. And he covered it, and he covered it, and he changed the flies, and he changed the flies but the fish ignored him. He walked up to where I was sitting and said, “some of these troots are educated”. Bingo, I thought of the longer legged leaping lizards.
Now it has to be admitted that troots are not the brightest creatures in creation. Just think how easy they are to fool (by some men). They’ll take things that don’t seem to resemble anything in nature and, as we all know, give them an hour or two and they’ll take it again. A reason for this may be that they have never needed to evolve a brain big enough to recognise that what might look to be food is, in fact, a hook disguised with fur and feathers. Never needed, that is, until the past couple of centuries since the introduction of fly fishing. And don’t give me a history lesson - there has been no serious pressure from fly fishing until the late 19th century and, if you think about, the late 20th century when mass transport became available.
So what if troot have started to evolve to escape angling pressure? What if some troot somewhere start to recognise that fur and feather spells frying pan? It doesn’t take much. A couple of escapes from a size 16 midge imitation and something clicks in the brain. Then that change becomes hard wired and can be passed on to the next generation; that’s how evolution works. The next generation becomes that wee bit smarter, not much but enough to bugger up a man at Mertoun Bridge and make me try to stifle feelings of schadenfreude.
Gentlemen, we may be in trouble and I think the answer is in catch and release. If a troot splashes time after time at your fly before hooking itself it’s a dummy - put it back. If you have to go through your fly box to find something that fools it, it’s a trooty Einstein - knock it on the head - it’s not fit for our purpose as Darwin would have said.
Now, let’s consider the possibility of evolution in troot catchers……....
Bob Graham is an occasionally lucky gentleman who claims he does not do very much these days other than try to catch trout five or six days a week. Bob is a regular at Hillend Reservoir and lives in Whitburn West Lothian.