Native to Europe and parts of Asia, from Afghanistan and the Aral Sea across Europe to the British Isles and Iceland, and back across Scandinavia to Poluostrov Kanin, in Russia on the Barents Sea. It has been introduced in other areas, notably, Newfoundland, Canada, U.S.A. South America, New Zealand, and Africa. Today it is found throughout the U.S.A. in the Great Lakes area, south in the Appalachians to the northern edge of Georgia, south in some high gradient streams and rivers of the Mississippi River drainage system, throughout much of Nebraska, and in every state west of Texas and Nebraska to the Pacific Coast. The brown trout is one of the world's most widely distributed and highly esteemed freshwater fish. It is a prime target of fly fisherman and one of the most difficult of trouts to catch by any angling method. It will sometimes be spooked by the bait or fly and at other times it will simply ignore it.