Nature Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 7

Do you ever have so much fun trying to fool a fish that you're almost disappointed when you actually do? I got that feeling after who knows how many casts over this hungry little brown with a Trico imitation.

This porcupine seemed to be feeding on the filamentous green algae that had accumulated around the tip of a fallen cedar sweeper on a classic piece of northwoods trout water.

Some mergansers stretch and prepare to evacuate their rock as our canoe nears.

The pool between these two waterfalls is one of the prettiest places I've ever had my fly refused by a small trout.

This 15" brown trout took a small emergent sparkle pupa on a large Catskill river.

Oops.

I let my little light cahill spinner dangle in the air a bit too long while looking for rises. There were at least 30 bats flying around the pool, and this one hooked itself on my fly. I just let it fly around my rod tip and, while trying to figure out what to do, I took some pictures. (When in doubt...) Eventually it managed to unhook itself and fly away.

This 26.5" hen steelhead was my biggest trout ever at the time.

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.