Common Rainbow Trout (Salmo gairdneri gairdneri)
All rainbow trout have rows of black spots radiating on their tails, black spots on their sides and back, and have no teeth or tongue. Common rainbows have horizontal pinkish bands and a pinkish gill cover.

Feeding Habits
Insects, plankton, fish eggs, small fish and crustaceans. Rainbows often feed on the surface.

Brown Trout (Salmo trutta)
Brown trout are square tailed with few or no spots on the tail and have adipose fins with some spots. Sides are brownish yellow with both black spots and some red or orange spots. Spots are often found to have blueish white halos.

Feeding Habits
Insects large browns feed primarily on fish and crayfish. Browns feed on the surface mostly around dawn and dusk.

Brook Trout (speckled trout) (Salvelinus fontinalis)
Brook trout are colored from brown to green. The back is laced with light worm-like marks. Sides are spotted light red with blue halos. The lower fins have white leading edges.

Feeding Habits
Insects, small fish, diet varies extremely, non-selective feeding; surface feeding at times.

FISHING LOCATIONS
Trout can be found (primarily rainbows) anywhere along the Cumberland River, from the head of the tailwater below Wolf Creek Dam down the river all the way into Tennessee. While it is fairly common for anglers to land a fat brown trout, it is rare to catch a brook trout. Specific holding spots in the river vary with the generating schedule at the dam, and can be found by anglers who know what to look for. The challenge of catching a trophy trout is met by local anglers who all have their favorite holes (good luck talking them out of one!), but a fine mess of trout can be caught by even the inexperienced angler with a little bit of good information.

FISHING TECHNIQUES
Bait fishing for trout is the easiest way to bag your limit, using corn, garlic cheese, and salmon eggs, trout can be caught in large quantities by the anglers with the right touch to hook into a tentatively feeding trout. Their sensitive mouths can result in many lost fish due to their tendency to mouth their food before truly taking the bait. While these baits can be highly productive at times, the good old nightcrawler can hardly be beat for landing the larger fish.

Fly fishing has grown considerably over the past few years and is considered to be one of the hardest and most sporting fishing techniques for the river. It takes an accomplished angler to search out, tantalize, and land trout on a fly rod. The variations in the river's hatches will often result in sporadic feeding habits which require the angler to adapt to 'match the hatch'. While no one fly will produce consistently on the river, a small selection will leave an angler provided for most eventualities. Dry Flies - Blue winged olive, cahills, caddis, and Japanese beetles. Nymphs - hare's ear, stoneflys, and other nymphs. Streamers - Mylars, woolyworms and buggers, deceiver, and gray ghosts.

Lure fishing is especially popular with anglers who drift down the river. Rooster tails and Rapalas, which emulate small bait fish, are successful during feeding times, particularly when cast near the bank and retrieved at the proper speed to emulate the trouts natural bait, both in speed and depth. Specific bait colors vary drastically as to the time of year.