Troutnut.com User Backwodzboy

A small brown trout jumps at the end of my line. Photo by Sandy Neuswanger.

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 fat-bodied 22" male was my largest brown trout ever at the time. It took a deep nymph and took me 150 yards downstream in a 20-minute fight in strong current.

My frequent fishing partner Brad Bohen spotted and photographed this beer poster in Brule, WI. He's got a good eye for trout, and this one looked familiar. Sure enough, it's a 15 incher I caught in the Catskills in August 2004 on an emergent sparkle pupa. I posted it here.

This nice brown trout was so well-camouflaged at the bottom of the stream that he required a zoom lens, polarizing filter, and digital contrast enhancement to photograph. My friend Ian and I watched from the bridge as this big trout fed on nymphs for several minutes, and then we took turns trying to catch it. The selective brown practically laughed us off the river.

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

This 15 inch brown trout is the fattest I've ever seen in my life. It's not full of eggs or anything; it's just in astonishingly good condition. It took a Hexagenia limbata nymph imitation in the evening before the hatch.

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 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!

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