Originally Posted By balzaccom
As stated earlier, trout don't have a lot of calories, so we never count of them for major portion of a meal---just some nice special treats when they happen.


Incorrect. 3 oz of cooked trout has 162 calories and 23g of pure protein according to nutritiondata.com. That's almost 900 calories and 120g of protein per pound!! Compared to cooked fatty ground beef, that's 70% the calories yet has the same amount of protein. It's basically the same as beef but not all of the unhealthy fat. And what does your body crave the most when you're muscles are being taxed? Protein!! And it even has some decent levels of (healthy) fat, which is important to backpackers.

This adds up to some of the best nutrition a backpacker could ever dream of. In places like the Winds, the Beartooths, the Flat Tops, etc any decent angler could rely on trout as a major food source for sure. It only takes 3-4 pan-sized trout for a one pound meal. The smaller fish are easier to eat and are less fatty. And high country lakes are usually over crowded with the smaller trout, so consuming many numbers of smaller fish eases food competition for the survivors. And it only takes 1-2 16" trout to feed you very well. I'm not advocating leaving all of your food at home, but knowing I'm going into an area loaded with trout lets me lighten my packed food weight a little.

Freeze dried meals are convenient and can be tasty, but they are loaded with sodium and really don't have tons of calories. I just pulled two meals from my stock to check, and a kung pao chicken only had 560 cals per package and a beef stroganoff had 580 calories and both were just loaded with sodium.

My main reason for backpacking is to fly fish high mountain lakes that rarely if ever see humans so I eat a lot of trout. Bottom line is that they are much healthier fare and nutritious than freeze dried packaged meals. On most trips I leave the cooking gear behind and just pack in packaged food and many squares of tin foil for baking trout in campfires. I don't drink coffee or hot tea on the trail so I don't need the stove unless I want freeze dried food. Healthy trout will leave you feeling stronger over the coarse of a long hike.