Nature Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 4

This beautiful 20 inch brown put up one heck of a drag-screaming fight. This was one of almost a dozen big trout that hit my flies this evening... and the only one I successfully hooked and landed. That was partly my fault, though. I cannot complain about the action!

Here's a pretty sunset over a warmwater lake in the northwoods. It may not be trout water, but I couldn't leave it off the site.

Here's another beautiful trout, a 17.5 inch stream resident rainbow. He took a grouse & brown soft hackle during a Hendrickson spinner fall over a riffle--probably as a drowned spinner, but maybe as one of the caddis pupae that I suspect were hatching earlier in the day. This fish was in amazing condition, and it leapt clear of the water at least three times.

This looks like a normal lake at first, but it's actually a natural, shallow widening in the channel of a famous trout stream. On clear days canoeists drift through and watch small trout and suckers swim beneath them. Large brown trout lay hidden in the weeds, hard to catch during the day but a fun challenge for any angler willing to brave the mosquitoes.

Here my dad's fighting a very nice arctic grayling, and this photo caught it mid-jump at the end of his line. This one eventually shook the hook, but we both caught many more in the same size range.

My girlfriend took this picture with my camera, and I'm not sure how she did it. Instead of being crisp and sharp it has a surreal look like an oil painting, perfect for the scene. (Edit in 2011: Now that I see this picture so high up on the popular list, perhaps I should point out that she's now my wife, so there's no confusion.)

The sun slooowly sets over a crystal-clear grayling stream.