small trout (less than 30", just kidding less than 12") are great for frying in butter, your favorite seasoned salt, and a few onion slices. Large trout are perfect for baking. I prefer large red-meated lake caught trout for this. The red meat indicates the fat content and overall health of the fish. I've found that in lakes, redish-pink ventral fins indicate good meat quality, and cutbows are most likely to have red meat than straight rainbows. The very minimum requirement for hopes of keeping a red-meat fish is to make sure all the fins are long and squared off, not short and blunt which indicates a fresh "stockerr". Clean and skin your trout, sprinkle garlic powder, pepper, seasoned salt, throw on some onion slices, bacon, and brown sugar, wrap it up in tin foil and bake it at 400 for 40 minutes - mmmmmmmmmm.