Don't Bet Against Redband Rainbow Trout

I love fish — the way they look, the way they fry up, the secret lives they live under the water. And of all the fish in the sea, river or lake, I most prize those that descended from the great oceangoing salmonids, trout and char.

For me, the king of them all is the Great Basin redband rainbow. It’s not because they always grow to enormous size (some do) or that they’re feistier than some of their cousins (many are). It is because they are the ultimate survivors.

They’re underdogs, plucky heroes surviving on sheer force of will. Due to their high-desert environment, redband...