The More You Know *star*
I was listening to the radio this morning, to a group of jokers called Bob and Tom (a syndicated morning show based in Indianapolis), and one of the hosts asked why a false lead is often called a "Red Herring."

That's an interesting question, and it has nothing to do with the TV show A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, save that there was a character named Red Herring who would always get accused by Fred of being the culprit of whatever crime they were investigating, though he was never guilty. Poor Fred. So misguided.

By the way: Daphne? Hot.

Back on-topic, I did a little digging on Goooooooogle, which really took me about two seconds, so here's the most-common answer.

After the police forces around the world began using scent dogs in the 1800s to catch suspected criminals, the crooks in question discovered that dragging a cured herring near their path, and then in a divergent one, would distract the dogs. The dogs, it seemed, were easily distracted by the smell of fish.

There is another explanation, and that is that poachers would use a herring to distract dogs on a hunt while the poachers were, well, poaching. Otherwise they'd just be hunters, I guess.

Anyway, the color red? When herring is cured, that's what color it becomes.

Now you know. And if anyone ever asks this question, you can now answer it, impress the opposite sex, get married to a rich model, move to Portugal, and become a god. A god who likes Scooby Snax.