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Feature Story Gary Warren holds a rainbow trout, with both a smaller trout and an artificial fly in its mouth, caught on California's Hat Creek. Rainbow's hankering proved his just desserts By MARK FREEMAN Gary Warren knew he couldn't tell anyone about his latest fish story until he had photographic proof. Otherwise, no one would swallow his tale about the most revered fish of the fly-casters' world. No one would believe that the venerable rainbow trout could be so lowly as to commit the crimes of cannibalism and gluttony, simultaneously. How could a fish that some people treat better than their children actually be so animalistic as to eat another rainbow, whole, and still find room to suck down Warren's fly? "A cannibalistic rainbow trout that still wanted to bite a fly," Warren says. "It's true, but I wasn't going to tell it before I got the picture." The snapshot arrived in Saturday's mail, and now the story can be told. The photo shows Warren holding a live 15-inch rainbow caught last month on Northern California's famed Hat Creek. In the big fish's gullet is a dead and partially digested 6-inch rainbow trout. The small trout's tail is sticking out of the big trout's mouth. And stuck to the roof of the gagging big fish's mouth is a fly-fishing leader attached to a No. 16 pheasant-tail nymph. Not even the New York spin doctors who got Marv Albert his old job back with the Knicks could repair such damage to the stately image of a rainbow trout. Here we have a fish whose finicky appetite makes grown men cry and whose subtle daintiness can cause riverside poets to wax on like drunken English Lit professors. How could it be so ... raw? So Bohemian. So Hannibal Lector as to half-eat a fellow trout and go back to the buffet table without clearing its palate? "This was far beyond my ability to conjure this up," Warren says. "To have that fish sticking out of his mouth, but still be hungry enough to suck down that fly, it's just unbelievable." What's unbelievable about Warren's story is not that a rainbow trout will eat other trout. There's actually a name for such trout. It's "piscivorous." Piscivorous rainbow are equipped with extra teeth in their gills and other accessories to help them bite and swallow other fish, not just the insects that make up most of a trout's diet. Some sub-species actually need to eat other fish for food. And, on occasion, that other food is a fellow rainbow. "If a rainbow comes across another rainbow, it won't say, `I'm not going to eat my cousin, or my cousin's kid,"' says Bob Hooton, a state fish biologist and trout expert. "It just sees something it can eat. "And if it can eat it," Hooton says, "it will." But rarely will rainbows eat other rainbows, Hooton says. It's not that they're altruistic. Usually, the reason is that it's easier to catch smaller fish like sculpins or shiners, Hooton says. Most rainbows that eat rainbows won't bite flies with fish still stuck in their pie-hole. And if they do, Hooton says, chances are they'll regurgitate the dead trout before an angler can get it to shore. So it's quite rare when someone like Warren catches a cannibal rainbow in the act. And that, Hooton says, makes Warren's story a hoot. Warren, who guides high-end fly fishing trips out of a Northern California lodge, had a client fly-fishing Hat Creek one afternoon in early October. Fly-fishing with a pheasant-tail nymph and light leader, Warren cast into the swift waters for the prized wild rainbows of Hat Creek's popular Powerhouse riffle. When the line went taught, the impressive pull made Warren think he had hooked the mother of all Hat Creek rainbow. At first, it seemed like it was a huge trout, maybe 20 inches or so. That's big for Hat Creek, where 15 inches is about tops. He handed the rod to his client, Mary Benson of Los Gatos, Calif., who fought the fish. When it came close to Warren's landing net, things began to look weird. "I saw something white sticking out of that fish's mouth, and I thought, gee, something's wrong here," Warren says. He netted the fish and discovered that the 15-inch rainbow had the trout tail and nymph and leader sticking out of its mouth. Amazed, Warren waded over to fellow guide Andrew Harris of Gridley, who had a camera hanging from his neck. "We laughed, and I took a picture of it," Harris says. "That was pretty impressive," Harris says. "That's one aggressive rainbow trout." Warren then pulled the small trout from the big trout's mouth. Apparently, the big fish had tried to eat the little one. By the small fish's condition, Warren estimates it had been dead about two days. The big trout was apparently feeding on insects as well. If not, it would have never inhaled Warren's small fly. "It was hungry," Warren says. "It was on a liquid diet for two days." After removing the dead fish, Warren revived and released the 15-incher. Knowing he had a real tough story for people to believe without proof, Warren sat on the tale until he received a copy of Harris' photo. "Here's the proof of the pudding," Warren says. "Of all the times I've fished, I've never seen this," Warren says. "I've seen leeches climb out of a trout's mouth, I've had salmon flies crawl out of their mouths, but never, never, something this strange." Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � interRogue & The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA