The settings of most of the chapters occur in three locales: Brautigan's childhood in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.; his day-to-day adult life in San Francisco; and a camping trip in Idaho with his wife and infant daughter during the summer of 1961.

Brautigan uses the theme of trout fishing as a point of departure for thinly veiled and often comical critiques of mainstream American society and culture.

Several symbolic objects, such as a mayonnaise jar, a Ben Franklin statue in San Francisco's Washington Square and trout, reappear throughout the book.

Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt named a crater explored on the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley as "Shorty", after the character in the book.

[5] The song, "Tee Pees 1-12", from the album Fear Fun by Father John Misty, references the novella with the following lyrics: "Trout Fishing in America made me go and buy a pole.