Nature Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 6

I'm in this picture casing into the riffle above one of my favorite pools. The fishing was fine, but the catching wasn't so hot. I got one strike on my carefully tied nymphs and two on my cheap foam strike indicator.

I caught this coho salmon alevin by accident while netting nymphs after an unsuccessful day steelhead fishing further downstream. I let him swim in a container lid for a minute and slid him gently back into the river.

This pretty little mountain valley pond held several browns and brookies, not huge but outsized for their small stream, and the water was so clear I could sight-fish for them across half the pond. There was also a school of bullheads swimming laps.

Now these are fall colors.

I strike at a hit in an inviting piece of dry fly water.

This is my largest brook trout ever (as of June '06). Disclaimer: Before any C&R evangelists go for my throat, I'll point out that this is the only trout I've kept all year, and it inhaled my dry fly directly into its gills and ripped one of them out during the fight. It was mine or the herons'.

This is my largest brook trout ever (as of June '06), 13 3/4". It was sporadically surface feeding at dusk and took a nice spinner pattern on the first pass.

This 11 pound male king salmon was the only one in his pod willing to hit a fly, apparently. Well, I'm not complaining--what a fight! He's not big for a King, but it was a fun catch anyway.

This school of young-of-the-year brook trout was basically trapped in a pool in a remarkable little brook trout stream stricken by drought. The adult trout population seems to have been wiped out by the drought and a previous flood, but the young trout are as thick as minnows.

The picture is taken from above water with a polarizing filter and a telephoto zoom lens. There is one other picture of them.

A beautiful arctic grayling.