I'd worked my way up maybe 20 yards of creek when I all but trod on a 2 lb brown trout. It slid out from under a weedbed and held for a while, right next to my leg. "See this fish, Lyle?" I felt as if I had somehow become trout habitat. "Sure, that's just a little one: no wonder he was hiding in that weedbed!" Next cast my hopper pattern floated about 4 ft. before a big dark head came up and just sucked it in. I set the hook, and 50 ft. of line went zipping off the reel in seconds, then the fish stopped. After that it was just a small matter of bullying her back out of all the weedbeds before Lyle netted a perfectly marked and proportioned hen brown trout, just over 20 inches long. What a fish!

Then Jay appeared, armed with a coffee jar full of grasshoppers. It was time for feeding time at "The Aquarium"! In the pool below a small bridge, at the bottom of 6 ft. of crystal-clear water, can be seen the dark submarine-like shapes of a dozen or so truly huge trout. I set up my camera and Lyle started to pitch the hoppers on to the pool. It was madness! < previous - next >