Mystery Manor Adventure Forum

How did we come to call misdirection "drawing a red herring across the trail"?

This term for an attempt to distract attention from the main issue comes from fox hunting. A red herring has a very strong odor-because of the way it's cured. And so, hounds set on the scent of a fox may be distracted by the smell of a red herring dragged across the trail. Then the hounds will follow the trail of the red herring instead of the fox.