The Trout

The trout is naturally present from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, to Scandinavia and all the way to Russia around the Ural Mountains.

The trout is naturally present from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, to Scandinavia and all the way to Russia around the Ural Mountains. Man has introduced trout to many other parts of the world and that is why they can be found in New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and USA.

All trout species in Europe spawn in autumn, no matter if it is brown trout, seatrout or lake trout and all are doing it in small rivers and creeks. When they spawn, the trout dig a hole by trashing their tail into the rubble. When the hole is deep enough, the female gets into the pit, followed by the male and they do their business. The female lays all her eggs at once and the male fertilizes them immediately after. The eggs will then be covered by the rubble, so they are protected against predators looking for an easy meal.

In the springtime, depending on the temperature, the eggs will hatch and after 3 weeks, the yolk sac will be gone and they must move out of the comfort of the rubble, to go and hunt themselves. The survival rate depends on many factors, but commonly, after 2 years, there will only be about 1% left of the original population. 

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After 1-5 years, some trout decide to go into saltwater. The process is called smoltification and prepares the trout to live in saltwater conditions.

Smoltification

After 1-5 years in freshwater, some trout go through a transformation in order to gain more weight than they can in the river. This process is called smoltification. Smoltification means that the trout are adapting to saltwater conditions. Around 25% of the trout that go to saltwater are males and the rest is females. They will now change colors, in order to adapt better to the ocean conditions. The ones going into the ocean will become silver and the ones staying in the river will keep their brown trout colors.

After 1,5-4 years, the seatrout will return to its original river, it once upon a time hatched in. How exactly they have this ability to find its way back to the same river is now completely known. Scientists believes that it is a very complex combination of its sight, smell capabilities and the magnet fields surrounding the earth. Even though, they have this ability, there are still a few fish that get it wrong and find their way into an unknown river.

After spawning, some of the trout dies from exhaustion, but many of them will regain their power and they will once again be able to spawn. Most of them, will find the exact same spot to spawn, as they spawned in before.

What does the seatrout feed on?

The seatrout’s menu card is big and there are many different options to choose from. Some of the most desired prey is shrimp, sticklebacks, gammarus, fleas and gobies. The list is still long and when it grows bigger, it will head for deeper water, where it will feed on herring and sprat.