There’s a giant fish tale about a giant fish that turned out to be an April Fool’s prank… and is the topic of this week’s Cochrane history feature.
On Saturday, April 1st, 1995, the front page of the Cochrane Times carried a story and photo of a giant breed of fish at Farquhar’s Trout Farm. It was called a shrout – a cross between an Arctic shark and a rainbow trout.
He was called Elmo, and Ena Farquhar said she fed him everything from trout ration and meat scraps from a butcher to Swedish meatballs.
It turns out the fish in the photo was a prop from a Ford commercial, in which a truck pulled a huge fish from a mountain lake. It was brought to Cochrane by Ralph Girard and Rick Sicard.
Thanks to the Cochrane Public Library for this fish story from its archives – no fooling.
