Everyone catches small fish. For some, they are the pesky by-catch that must be dealt with and endured. For others, they are a safe, dependable source of fishing, fun, and food. Most anglers start by catching small fish, and all big fish start off being small fish.

Under normal circumstances, an eight-inch fish isn’t anything worth writing home about. Sure, it is a fish. A small fish is better than no fish. A small fish is still technically a success. Moreover, maturity and perspective view such a fish as worthy of appreciation. But on a big, powerful river an eight-inch fish doesn’t represent the real target of an angler.

On a small mountain stream? That eight-inch fish could very well be a trophy. If most trout are six inches, the fish measuring in at eight inches is an unexpected surprise. It is the outlier; the literal big fish in the small pond.  It got that way because of wit, tenacity, and (most importantly) luck. On a small, gentle creek an eight-inch fish represents the real target of an angler.

By objective standards, the value of a fish is subject to inflation. There are giant salmon and sturgeon and grouper and sharks that dwarf the largest specimens chased by  most anglers. But ten-pound largemouth bass aren’t seen as inferior because striped bass get much bigger. Similarly, location plays in integral role in deeming which fish is big and which is small. Canal tarpon in Florida are measured with a different tape measure than their cousins that swim off the Keys.

Everyone is willing to apply that subjective measuring tape in the big picture of fishing. There isn’t any reason to eschew that same mindset within a single watershed.

Most important, though, is one’s own angling standards. Are you content with small fish? Are you content with experiencing excitement because a trout is an inch larger and a little bit more robust than all the others? Have you become so familiar with a stream, with a stretch of water, with the fish that live there that you know which fish are special? Admittedly there are plenty of standards that have similar criteria: a fish from a particular pool, a fish of a particular species, a fish eating a particular fly. But a simple benchmark for those who enjoy small trout is pursuing the larger trout, even if it is unequivocally still a small trout by all objective standards.

There are plenty of reasons to seek out small trout: the places they inhabit, the methods used to catch them, and their singular beauty. Sometimes, seeking out small trout means seeking out the big small trout. This isn’t an abandonment of the truly small fish. It is a celebration of what they are, where they live, and what very few of them actually become.