Nature Pictures from Trout Streams, Page 6

One strange evening on a classic trout stream had brought me nothing but fallfish (albeit nice ones) when I cast outside the main current flow at a fish rising to little flying ants in a back eddy. It took and, much to my surprise, it was a sunfish I'd never seen before! Turns out it's a red-breasted sunfish, a common species in the East.

You've really got to see this one full-size to enjoy it. It's my first attempt at a 360 degree panorama stitched together with the latest and greatest version of Adobe Photoshop.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the Namekagon.

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 stretch of a famous Great Lakes salmon tributary produced a nice king for me in the evening after this picture.

This swift little stream is one of my favorites. It harbors an even mix of brook and brown trout and a mix of insect species very different from other streams I frequent.

This is my biggest and certainly best stream-resident rainbow to date, a wild 19-incher pulled from a Class III-IV rapids. It's also the first fish ever to take me into my backing.

A strong rapids feeds into this famous salmon pool on a tributary of Lake Ontario.