Microplastics in Trout Streams: How Technical Fabrics Are Quietly Polluting the Waters We Love
- The Fly Box LLC
- Nov 20, 2025
- 5 min read
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The Invisible Problem in America’s Trout Water
Most anglers picture microplastic pollution as an ocean problem. Bags breaking down offshore. Bottles washing up on beaches. Sea turtles mistaking fragments for food. But the new research from 2023 and 2024 reveals something far more personal.
Microplastics are showing up in nearly every major trout stream in the United States. Montana State University, the USGS, and state watershed groups have found plastic particles in headwaters across the Rockies, New England, the Appalachians, and the Pacific Northwest.
