BATTLE OF PEPPERONI ROLL HILL

Somewhere Near Gettysburg: Tracer Trout along the Mason-Dixon

Words:Ben MarcusPalomino trout are a rainbow/golden trout hybrid that shine like koi in the rivers, runs and creeks along the Mason-Dixon Line. There is nothing stealth about palomino trout and they are now in my personal Top Three Worst Camouflaged Wild Animals: 1. Black bear in fall color. 2. Garibaldi in the kelp beds of California. 3. Palomino trout—which Cory Bluemling dubbed “tracer trout” on a fine spring day, standing on a bridge over White Clay Creek—about a mile down Creek Road from the University of Delaware (U of D) and a few miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Cory was overlooking the creek as it filled with fresh stocked trout courtesy of the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife. Initially stunned by their new environment, after a few minutes they got their troutwits about them and began exhibiting classic behaviors. The palomino trout did indeed look like tracers—one golden bullet clearly visible for every three or four stealth rainbows.

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