Brown trouts taste like mud. Especially the big ones. Where I go fishing catching 24 inchers is common.
I don’t care for any of the trout, unless they are hurt the go back in the water. Otherwise my wife likes them. Closed barbs and gently handling them usually means I come home skunked.
Mud? That seems really odd. I’ve eaten a lotta trout and never had one taste of mud.
It’s gotta be due to their living environment. All the ones I had were taken out of snow melt lakes and streams on the East flank of the Sierra Nevada, so sub-40F waters above 7,000ft elevation, and they were ALL excellent eating; not the vaguest hint of anything bitter or foul.
A light coat of corn meal inside and out with a hint of salt and then into the frying pan... I’m makin myself hungry, here... LOL!