Back in the early 90s I was employed by Dane County Sheriff’s Office. I ran into many Fisheries Employees during my 14 years with Dane County. I made friends with lots of the WDNR folks. I was invited to come and help with a couple shocking crews. I am a trout nut so I eagerly went along.
The first time I went with the crew is when I heard the “Triple Trojan”. I didn’t know what it meant and blew it off. The WDNR guys were talking at the end of the outing to one and other and they questioned each other if there were going to be any “Triple Trojans” from the day. I dismissed it as some lingo they shared between themselves.
The second time I went with them the shockers were a little more familiar with me and they came right out and said I was not a “Triple Trojan.” I asked them what that meant but they wouldn’t say. The workers were much more relaxed this time out and they took me to a special spot to shock some “salmon”.
This stretch held large browns the size of salmon they told me before we started. The stretch did not disappoint. We shocked maybe a dozen over 23 inches and one 28 inch male trout that was scary to touch. It had such a huge kype it protruded through the upper jaw. IT had teeth like a big pike. My buds from the WDNR snatched him right out of the water by his gill plate and weighed and didn’t wet their hands and measured him and off we went.
A couple years went by and I was invited to the hatchery to see the staff milk the brooders. There was a briefing before the milking by the staff. They assured us that they were not hurting any of the trout by squeezing them to milk them and they said they were all very skilled in handling large trout. The demonstration went off without a hitch. As I was leaving I heard the same code word bantered about by the staff. They wondered if there would be any “Triple Trojans” from this tour.
Both the shocking crews and the hatchery staff used this and it piqued my curiosity. I wanted to know what it meant. I was even in my Deputy Sheriff uniform when I asked the staff what it meant. The guy sidestepped the question and changed the subject.
A couple years passed and I was assigned to the Bailiff’s Office. One day in Initial Appearances Court. I recognized the Court Officer for the WDNR. He was the one shocking crew member I had heard the “Triple Trojans” term first be used by. I asked him what it meant because he was out of that area and I thought might explain to me what that meant. He told me his lips were sealed and he could not say anything about it.
The years passed and he was still the court officer. We made friends and went out socially. He and I went to Essen Haus together after work once and I interrogated him after 3 liters of German beer and he still would not give up the meaning.
Two years ago I met him at the Madison fishing Expo. I asked him how he was doing. He told me he was retired these days. I told him I out of Dane County for almost 10 years. We went to Essen Haus again after the expo. I was going to get that meaning of “Triple Trojan” out of him.
He finally told me what it meant. As a WDNR employee he and all staff was a representative of the state of Wisconsin when they did tours and shocking outings. If anything went wrong on those tours there were typically citizen complaint forms filled out. The state took those complaints seriously and investigated each thoroughly.
He told me that a Triple Trojan was a hyper sensitive angler that typically complained after the tours about shocking employees because the WDNR staff was too rough with the trout. They complained about the staff not wetting their hands before touching the trout. They complained about the staff laying the trout on an artificial surface to weight them. The whiners even looked at their second hands on their watches to time how long the trout were out of the water. He told me they complained about the milking almost every time and the same folks would complain about the staff touching gill plates of the trout and it was “unlimited.”
My friend told me these were the folks that when they had sex they didn’t wear just one condom. They wrapped it with three Trojans. The WDNR employees had made up the “Triple Trojan” code word up to be stealthy.
Trout are not made of glass and I knew this and so did every WDNR employee. I have heard this from numerous seasoned anglers and in my 52 years of trout angling I have discovered this also.
Good story