Picture from Rocky Mountain Outlook Community News
Have you ever had a dream where you are either walking along a river or canoeing along a river, when all of a sudden, a large speckled fish jumps out at you? More often than not, the fish will be a trout! We currently associate the trout with fly fishing, and all the mysticism that follows fly fishing. Think – “A River Runs Through It” – the movie about learning of life through fly fishing trout. Trout are found the Americas (Argentina has great trout fishing), China, New Zealand, Ireland, Russia – you are getting the picture. Trout are found in all areas of the world.
The trout, then, is an icon or symbol of life at its primitive form. The trout like colder water over warm water; are fussy about what they eat, and as a group, seem to have definite food preferences, and are described as predators. Some species will eat their own eggs or hatched young. The majority of the species spawn in the fall or early winter – the rainbow trout spawn in the spring. With all this information, what then, is the message that the Trout brings?
Trout is about living in the present. The trout lives in a water environment and water is about emotion. The trout’s message is not to get lost in the emotion. Instead, use the emotion to carry you to that place where you grow and thrive. The trout hunts; it is a predator. However, it does not hunt its prey to extinction. Fly fishermen marvel how the species hunts one type of larvae for several hours and then, as a community, switches to a different prey. Man could indeed take a lesson about how to hunt without hunting to extinction.
The trout is also about swimming upstream and not taking the easy road. It may be telling you to “rise above the water” (emotions) for the rainbow trout is noted for “walking on the water” when on the hook and seemingly in danger. Many trout escape their captors using this technique. The trout jumps out of the water to catch food. It is also about being still. Many trout quietly spend the day in the shade of a log or a river bank, slowly swimming, taking life as it comes. The trout literally waits in the calm side of islands or in the calm pool created by rapids, taking the food that is carried down stream to them. Trout then, is also about patience. When Trout appears to you, take note of the surroundings that you are in. This will help you decipher Trout’s message.
Walk in peace!
Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of an article written by Judith Hirst in May 2007, in the Angels and Ancestors May Newsletter. Reprinted with permission.