Pictures of Trout, Salmon, and Grayling, Page 40

The fish I encountered in this creek were smaller than those in some other Montana waters.

This little brown saved me from officially skunking on my first trip to the Madison, which saw several larger fish swipe at streamers or big dry flies but no hookups in the midday sun.

A 15 3/4" Brook Trout, my personal best. I saw this fish chase a smaller one out of the depths of a deep pool, but without a great view I thought it was just a good-sized rainbow. I worked the pool for 15-20 minutes trying to catch that "rainbow" and was thrilled when, after a few minutes of strong fighting, it came close enough for me to see the giant brook trout on the end of my line.

A short (about 12") but football-fat, hard-fighting Henry's Fork rainbow. This was probably the best fish I caught in a morning of Trico fishing, although I hooked a nicer one--maybe 17"--and couldn't keep it out of the ubiquitous mats of vegetation on a 7X Trico tippet.