Nature Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 11

It's a real shame that this beautiful piece of Catskill water is off-limits to the public. It was tempting to cast from the road itself.

This 18 inch brown took a dry fly during early July Isonychia action.

After the Hex hatch has been going for a few days, it doesn't take much to get some big fish working. This 18 inch brown revealed himself with one or two rises to sporadic bugs during a dud of a dun emergence.

I don't know if I skunked this day or not. I didn't catch any trout, but, um... does this count? (He grabbed onto my Pink Squirrel nymph as it drifted along the bottom and held on for dear life with his pincers.)

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.

Jedi Master Mishka, the mighty 6-week-old labrador retriever puppy, investigates my largest brook trout ever (as of June '06). He quickly approved of the fish and then tried to eat my sock.

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 small stream's so clear it looks like a swimming pool in this really deep spot.