Underwater Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 6

Hundreds of tiny toad tadpoles.

A 4 inch brookie hides from the camera behind a rock under a cut bank.

I lifted a rock in pursuit of a stonefly nymph that had scurried beneath it, and instead I found this Ephemera simulans burrowing mayfly nymph waiting to be photographed.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Ephemera simulans (Brown Drake).

There are several mayfly and stonefly nymphs clinging to this log.

In this picture: Mayfly Family Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olives) and Stonefly Family Taeniopterygidae (Willowflies).

This simple rubber-legged foam beetle is one of my favorite flies for Arctic grayling. It's quick to tie so I don't mind losing one or two on snags. It's durable, so one fly can last a hundred fish or more. It never needs floatant to ride the surface well. Most importantly, it catches fish, although grayling often hit almost anything. The bold profile and attention-grabbing plop of the beetle, I think, draw fish from farther away than a more subtle fly might, and it often draws unusually savage strikes.

Here's the body of a sea lamprey which migrated up the Delaware River to spawn.

I spotted this very large leech freely tumbling, and occasionally stopping, along the bottom of a clear, cool trout stream. I paid careful attention later and spotted two more like it, but this one was the largest -- probably over 7 inches stretched out.

There is one other picture of it.

In this picture: Animal Class Clitellata-Hirudinae (Leeches).